The Compleat ^Angler 



clear, and free from galls or scabs or 

 frets ; for a well-chosen, even, clear, 

 round hair, of a kind of glass-colour, 

 will prove as strong as three uneven 

 scabby hairs, that are ill-chosen, and 

 full of galls or unevenness. You shall 

 seldom find a black hair but it is round, 

 but many white are flat and uneven ; 

 therefore, if you get a lock of right, 

 round, clear, glass-colour hair, make 

 much of it. 



And for making your line, observe 

 this rule : first let your hair be clean 

 washed ere you go about to twist 

 it ; and then choose not only the 

 clearest hair for it, but hairs that 

 be of an equal bigness, for such do 

 usually stretch altogether, and break 

 altogether, which hairs of an unequal 

 bigness never do, but break singly, and 

 so deceive the angler that trusts to 

 them. 



When you have twisted your links, 

 lay them in water for a quarter of an 

 hour, at least, and then twist them 

 over again before you tie them into a 

 line : for those that do not so, shall 

 usually find their line to have a hair or 

 two shrink, and be shorter than the 

 rest at the first fishing with it, which 

 is so much of the strength of the line 

 lost for want of first watering it, and 

 then retwisting it ; and this is most 

 visible in a seven-hair line, one of 

 those which hath always a black hair 

 in the middle. 



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