54 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



patience collapsed, together with his rod and tackle. 

 " Luck's dead against me, and it's useless fighting against 

 fate," was the explanation tendered, while the process of 

 unjointing was being gone through. We now thought it 

 high time to expostulate by delivering ourselves of our 

 view of the affair, which we speedily did, winding up with 

 an offer to so rig up our friend that he would equal if not 

 rival us. This was finally carried out, and the result 

 showed that with an accurately constructed hook five 

 bites amounted upon the average to four fish, whilst with 

 a badly made or deformed one, the bites, or rather nibbles 

 in this case, yielded but a meagre per centage of captures, 

 the precise number ranging, as a matter of course, accord- 

 ing to the size and nature of the hook. 



The float should be very light. Another consideration 

 is the substance to mount the hooks upon whether hair 

 or gut some anglers preferring one, and some the other. * 

 There are equally good anglers upon both sides, but the 

 ancient hair, it cannot be denied, is rapidly losing 

 ground before refined gut, which is now imported in such 

 immense quantities from Spain, Sicily, China, and else- 

 where, and may be said to be thrice the strength and 

 half the substance of the traditional hair. It is, or 

 should be, the object of the fisherman to reduce his lines 

 and general tackle so as to be as nearly invisible as possi- 

 ble, to which end it is essential that the bulk and surface 

 presentable should be reduced as far as is compatible with 

 strength. It is therefore an advance in the right direc- 

 tion (and one that should have been taken before) to 

 have the gut drawn whilst in its gummy state to as fine 

 proportions as are requisite to meet special cases, for, 

 although we were the originators of the gut-drawing sys- 

 tem, we have no hesitation in proclaiming the superiority 

 of the gut drawn accurately, prior to its being set and 



* Hair snoods are used by the roach anglers of Philadelphia. 



