34 SALMON AND TROUT. 



a very natural one. The substance out of which the gut is 

 formed is quite separate and distinct from any of the organs of 

 digestion, and consists of two thin capsules, or lobes, of a liquid 

 substance, about one inch long by a thirty-second of an inch 

 in diameter each, and lying longitudinally in the silkworm's 

 body. The liquid substance contained in these capsules is, in 

 fact, the silk before it has been spun by the silkworm. This 

 ' silk substance ' is taken from the worm at the period when it 

 is preparing to begin spinning, which, as is well known, it does 

 by coiling the silk round and round itself in what is known as 

 a ' cocoon,' or a sort of hollow sarcophagus, in which it passes 

 the chrysalis stage of its existence. Certain marks, known to 

 silkworm cultivators, appear on the caterpillar when it is ready 

 to begin spinning, so that such worms are readily distinguished 

 from the rest. The selected worms are then thrown into tubs 

 of vinegar and water, and left there for some hours by this 

 process both killing the caterpillars and congealing or partially 

 solidifying the 'silk liquid.' The next process is to extract the 

 lobes of silk from the worm by ' breaking it up,' as it is termed, 

 and this having been effected the lobes are one by one caught 

 lightly by the ends and pulled out as far as they will go. The 

 third process is to throw the lobes thus extended the gut, in 

 fact into heaps, where they are left to dry. When dried there 

 is a yellow skin or fleshy substance over each strand, and this 

 is cleaned or 'dissolved off with some sort of alkali. The 

 strands are now picked out according to their thickness and 

 tied up into bundles of hundreds, and afterwards of thousands, 

 when they arc ready for the market. This is the whole pro- 

 cess of gut manufacture, if it can be so called. The two little 

 curls frequently noticed on a strand of gut come of their own 

 accord, making their appearance naturally at the moment the 

 strain is taken off after the stretching. Gut, it will thus be 

 seen, is solidified silk. 



The cleaning or ' dissolving off of the outer yellow skin of 

 gut, above described, is effected apparently by the use of some 

 sort of alkali, which has a whitening or bleaching result that, 



