36 SALMON AND TROUT. 



the rent of a salmon river, to say nothing of incidental expenses, 

 may probably be reckoned at seldom less than three figures, it 

 is really the soundest economy to begrudge no expense con- 

 nected with the tackle, rod, &c., upon which the sport obtained 

 for all this outlay depends. Moreover, as regards gut I believe 

 that the best, and, consequently, the most expensive, is, in the 

 long run, actually the most economical if proper care be taken 

 of it. A thoroughly well-made casting line of carefully picked 

 salmon gut will outlast three or four made of inferior strands, 

 and during all its ' lifetime ' will be a source of satisfaction. 

 The breaking dead weight strain of a strand of the stoutest 

 salmon gut, round, smooth, and perfect in every respect, ought 

 not to be less than from somewhere between fifteen and 

 eighteen pounds. 



Why, in the case of salmon gut, as in that of all other com- 

 modities, the demand does not produce the supply, it is diffi- 

 cult to see. Caterpillars ought to be easily cultivated one 

 would say. Think of the number of strands which might be 

 produced by the inhabitants of a single mulberry tree ! 



Millions of spinning worms 

 That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk. 



I cannot but believe also, that by the application to gut- 

 making of the same energy and intelligence which is being 

 applied all over the world to other manufactures, a much 

 longer and generally more perfect 'staple ' might be produced. 

 From a quarter to a half of the actual gut of the silkworm 

 appears to be lost by the present process, as will be seen on 

 examining the waste ends of a hank of any sort of gut that has 

 not been picked and ' lengthed.' 



For gut of extraordinary quality and strength, as much as 

 from 5/. to y/. per hundred strands wholesale price is now 

 stated to be frequently paid in Marseilles this gut being, it 

 appears, principally exported to Constantinople. Some sam 

 pies of the 1884 crop, tested by my friend Mr. R. B. Marston, 

 broke at a dead strain of seventeen pounds. A writer under 



