ANGLER'S EQUIPMENT 41 



which it is most difficult to procure good, and which 

 it is most necessary should be so. For angling in 

 clear water, inhabited by cunning, cautious trout, 

 fine thin gut is absolutely necessary for success, and 

 we think that anglers in Scotland are in general not 

 sufficiently aware of the importance of fine gut. An 

 immense quantity is imported annually, put up in 

 hanks of about a hundred threads each. So far as 

 we can judge, a good deal appears to be spoilt in the 

 manufacture. As it is made at present, nine hanks 

 out of ten are totally unfit for fine trouting purposes, 

 and even the very finest hanks seldom contain more 

 than twenty threads fit for dressing flies or bait-hooks 

 upon. The first angler who travels in Spain should 

 try to prevail upon the Spaniards to pay a little 

 more attention to the manufacture of this article ; 

 it would amply repay them for their trouble, as they 

 would get three times the price for it. Meantime 

 all anglers should use none but the very finest threads, 

 and if they continue doing so, coarse gut will become 

 valueless, and the demand will soon influence the 

 manufacture. We are informed by an importer that 

 gut used to be made much better, but that the price 

 has fallen so low, that it will not remunerate for the 

 trouble required to make it fine ; so that anglers 

 have themselves to blame. 



The qualities good gut should possess are round- 

 ness, transparency, arid thinness. Unless gut is 

 round it glitters in the sun, which renders it use- 

 less to the angler ; it must also be perfectly free 

 from that white glossy appearance which round gut 



