Fish-hooks. 25 



this fatal error of construction. Such hooks reverse the 

 proprieties, for they are a delusion and a snare, not to 

 the fish, but to the fisherman; and this assertion is made 

 with the more emphasis since, at the first glance, they so 

 seem to present the efficiency of a large hook with the 

 unobtrusiveness of a smaller one, that they are calcu- 

 lated to deceive even the elect. 



Prior to the issue of the first edition of this book the 

 writer had usually employed the Sproat-bend hook in 

 his own fishing, and then believed this form of hook, 

 when made with sufficient barb, to be, not only the best 

 obtainable, but as nearly a perfect compromise between 

 the various conflicting desiderata in a fish-hook as was 

 practically possible. 



Further thought and experience has as yet suggested 

 no modification of this view. If that form of hook could 

 but be had with its leader end terminating in a turned- 

 down loop-eye which seems at present not to be the 

 case, at least in this country the writer would use no 

 other; and it is believed that those who think the appli- 

 ances of their fathers are still good enough for them, 

 and who prefer flies of which a gut strand or loop is an 

 integral part of their structure, cannot do better than to 

 have them tied on a good Sproat hook. Some of these 

 hooks are made with a very small barb, on the theory 

 that the wound made by the hook is smaller, and that 

 therefore the probability of disengagement is lessened, 

 while ease of penetration is increased. The latter is un- 

 doubtedly true, but the former would seem to be an 

 error sufficiently grave to more than over-balance the 

 conceded advantage. For the integument into which 

 the hook is intended to be driven is not brittle like glass, 

 but elastic like rubber ; and the barb of the hook does 



