103 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



dustry to those incapable of severe manual labor has 

 been already dwelt on. 



One thing is absolutely certain, and that is, if gut can 

 be produced from our native silk -worms which will 

 equal in strength that we now use, diameter for diame- 

 ter, the Spanish gut could not compete with it for a 

 moment. The great length of strand of the native gut, 

 so many times that of the longest Spanish gut, must 

 give ours the preference here and abroad. But upon 

 this question of strength there seems small room for 

 doubt. All authorities agree that the silk in the co- 

 coon of the Cecropia worm is of great strength. Dr. 

 Garlick's query, "If the silk of the Attacus Cecropia 

 is strong, why should not the gut be strong ?" would 

 appear to admit of but one reasonable answer. If the 

 silk is strong, it is strong, seems a proposition affording 

 scanty room for debate. But even assuming it to be 

 somewhat inferior to that of the Chinese moth in 

 strength, still we ought to capture the market in the 

 thicker grades, since in those grades a very slight in- 

 crease in diameter involves a large proportionate increase 

 of material, which should more than make good any 

 moderate difference in relative strength. 



Influenced by these considerations, I have at last con- 

 cluded to ignore the scrap - basket. Should in the 

 future this industry be established in this country, as I 

 have no doubt that sooner or later it will be, and what 

 I have written on the subject become stale and unprofit- 

 able, I trust my then readers will remember that what 

 is an old story to them was still a possibility of the 

 future to me. No just judgment of any fact is possi- 

 ble if attendant circumstances are ignored. We should 

 hold him mad who attempted to swim on dry land or 



