16 SALMON AND TROUT. 



were possible, some few ideas of mechanical principles into their 

 heads. Even when one has at last succeeded in producing a 

 comprehension of what is required the difficulty is only half 

 vanquished ; the other half, which remains unfortunately as an 

 ever open source of annoyance, is that when they have got at 

 the patterns you want they will not keep to them. About ten 

 years ago I brought out a pattern of hook which still passes 

 under my name, and which was constructed, at any rate so far 

 as the earlier specimens were concerned, upon mechanical prin- 

 ciples ; and especially for the smaller sized hooks, I believe it 

 was not easily to be beaten. 



But in vain I hoped that my troubles were then ended. 

 Ever since, hookmakers, who have professed to manufacture 

 my patterns, have vied with each other in diverging in every 

 direction from the original model, and in each case I believe 

 I may truly say the divergency has been to spoil some good 

 feature in the hooks, or to import some mechanical defect. 

 I really think, however, that I have at last found in Messrs. 

 Harrison & Co., the well-known hookmakers, of Redditch, a 

 firm both sufficiently enterprising and painstaking to be willing 

 to carry out my ideas strictly, and, as I would fain hope, though 

 almost against hope, to adhere to the new patterns they are 

 now making under my name. 



It may appear that I am attaching, perhaps, undue import- 

 ance to such minute details as to the bends, &c., of hooks, but 

 yet I think this view will not be entertained when it is borne in 

 mind that 'the whole art and paraphernalia of angling have for 

 their objects, first, to hook fish, and, secondly, to keep them 

 hooked.' The difference in the penetrating powers alone of 

 different bends of hooks is something enormous ; between the 

 extremes of goodness and badness it amounts to certainly not 

 less than a hundred per cent. 



As I have practically demonstrated by experiments ex- 

 plained in former essays, the best of the ordinary standard 

 patterns for small hooks was undoubtedly the 'sneck' or I 

 should rather say, some of the shapes in which it was manufac- 



