24 SPRING ANGLING 



through also as tightly as possible without break- 

 ing the thread. This knot needs practising. 



Three strands of horse-hair, preferably from a 

 gray stallion's tail, will form a good substitute for 

 the silkworm gut aforesaid ; but it soon wears out, 

 and is not very strong. 



A substitute for a hook can be found in a pin 

 or needle the latter is best. I remember once, 

 some years back, being near a brook in Vermont 

 where there were a great number of suckers in 

 the mill-pool below the dam. Neither myself nor 

 friend had any tackle, but we wanted broiled fish 

 with the other food we had brought. We turned 

 out our pockets ; and mine produced a little leather 

 case of needles and thread (for sewing on buttons, 

 etc.), and my friend found nothing save the useful 



Fig. 14. Sewing-needle Substitute for Hook. 



jackknife. With this I sent my friend off to cut 

 a pole ; and selecting a good stout needle, I attached 

 it in the middle to a double thread of the sewing- 

 yarn I had with me (Fig. 14). As will be seen, 

 the line was attached nearly in the middle of the 

 needle, and the blunt end was from, not to, the line. 



