22 



necessity in the use of eyed hooks to prevent the destruction of 

 the flies in extracting them by the fingers from the cork or felt, in 

 which they are usually stuck for convenience of carriage ; also for 

 cutting off worn flies, superfluous gut-ends, &c., &c. I think my 

 ' combination pliers ' will be found to answer the purpose effec- 

 tually ; at any rate, I can aver that they were the comfort of my 

 life on a recent trouting foray amongst the Sutherland Lochs. 

 Diagrams of the pliers (p. 45), and of the best forms of box for 

 carrying and keeping in stock eyed-hook flies, are given later on. 



I have more than once in the course of the foregoing remarks 

 had occasion to refer to sea-fishing ; and in this connection an 

 ingenious invention of R. B. Marston, editor of the Fishing 

 Gazette the inventor also of the Marston Fly-rod, &c. deserves 

 special notice. Mr. Marston's invention is called the " sliced 

 hook," and, as shown in the cut, there is a second or supplemental 



C 



MR. R. B. MARSTON'S SLICED HOOK. 



barb on the back of the hook-shank the object of which is to pre- 

 vent the soft, flabby baits, such as lug worms and mussels, slipping 

 ' down ' and off as they do with an ordinary hook. I hope some 

 day to see these hooks made with a turn-down eye and with the barb 

 not sliced out of the shank as at present but either brazed on, or 

 otherwise independently attached, as the experience I have had 

 with them in sea-fishing leads me to form a high opinion, for the 

 special purpose referred to, of the principle they embody. The 

 sliced hooks are manufactured by Messrs. Henry Milward and 

 Sons, and Messrs. Wm. Bartleet and Sons, of Redditch. 



