96 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



Mr. C. F. Orvis states in the interesting article in which 

 he describes his own efforts to make gut, published in 

 volume xxvii. of the Forest and Stream, December 16, 

 1886, page 407 : 



" I have in my possession a round, perfect strand of 

 gut which is now six feet long, and a piece has been 

 broken from it ; it is large and strong. It was given to 

 a friend of mine by an old fisherman of New York City, 

 Peter McMartin, who told us at the time that 'it was 

 drawn from some big silk-worms by a man in New Jer- 

 sey.' This was years ago, more than twenty, before I 

 had thought of investigating for myself." 



Through the kindness of Mr. Orvis I have inspected 

 this sample of gut. It was six feet and one inch in 

 length, badly drawn in that it was hardly anywhere 

 round, rather thicker at one end than the other, of the 

 average diameter of a rather heavy black-bass leader, 

 and quite yellow in color. As Mr. Orvis states, a piece 

 had obviously been broken from the thinner end. Though 

 it was something like forty years old, I could not break 

 that end with my bare hands. 



We are dealing in this case with inert matter as 

 affected by the laws of nature. Neither individual ca- 

 price, obstinacy, or ill-will are factors in the problem. 

 Given the same conditions, and the same result must 

 surely follow. Throw a man out of the window, and he 

 falls towards the ground whether it be a Sunday or a 

 working day, whether it be New Year's day or the 

 Fourth of July. Natural laws know no sleep. It may 

 be difficult to restore the original conditions, or to 

 determine what those conditions were, or which of 

 them are essential conditions ; but this is within the 

 domain of experiment, a domain which intelligent, 



