TACKLE AND FISHING GEAR. 35 



according to Mr. R. B. Marston, makes the gut semi- opaque. 

 He observes : 



Unstained gut is a most conspicuous object in the water, as its 

 glossy-surface reflects light so freely. If we could get unbleached 

 gut i.e. perfectly transparent it would, perhaps, still be liable to 

 this defect to some extent ; but ordinary unstained bleached gut 

 is semi-opaque, as may be easily proved by placing it over black 

 writing on white paper. Mr. S. Allcock informed me some time 

 ago that there was no difficulty in getting gut like glass, but that 

 the dealers would not buy it unless it was bleached a process 

 which impairs its strength and he sent me some strands from 

 which the thin yellow skin had merely been pealed off, instead of 

 being removed by chemicals. This gut was as transparent as the 

 purest glass. I should like to ask him if he cannot put some of 

 this really transparent unbleached gut on the market, and also 

 what prevents undrawn gut being manufactured as tine as drawn 

 gut ? 



But to return to my text the selection of gut for fishing 

 purpose : 



The best gut is the longest and roundest, and the most 

 transparent ; an observation which applies equally to salmon 

 and trout gut natural and drawn. For practical purposes 

 these desiderata must be considered in conjunction with, if not, 

 indeed, made subordinate to, the question of the fineness or 

 strength of the gut in proportion to the fishing for which it is 

 to be used. To get salmon gut which fulfils all the conditions 

 pointed out is becoming yearly a matter of greater difficult;* 

 and, I might almost say, of favour. A perfect hank of salmon 

 gut can only be obtained, as a rule, by picking the strands out 

 of a number of other hanks which, of course, makes these con- 

 siderably less valuable. Sixpence a strand I have known a 

 shilling a strand paid for picked salmon gut is not at all an 

 unusual or, indeed, unreasonable price, having regard to the 

 difficulty of obtaining gut of really superior quality, and the all- 

 important part it plays in a sport which, if not quite so expen- 

 sive as deer stalking or grouse driving, is certainly becoming 

 rapidly a luxury that only rich men can hope to enjoy. As 



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