GUT. 45 



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. Mean- 

 time 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 re- 

 munerate 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, and thinness. Unless gut is 

 round it glitters in the sun, which renders it useless 

 to the angler ; it must also be perfectly free from that 

 white glossy appearance which round gut frequently 

 has, and which renders it more easily seen than clear 

 gut of twice the thickness. Thinness, however, is 

 the great desideratum, as the thinner it is there is 

 the less chance of the trout detecting it. Some 

 anglers, particularly those in the North, seem to 

 think that gut cannot be had too thick, whereas the 

 reverse is the case it cannot be had too fine. 



Of late years, fishing-tackle manufacturers have 

 been in the habit of reducing the size of gut, which 



