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but by excellent practice. The result of my own practice 

 and experiment is to lead me to give the preference to a 

 tapered dressed silk line, for every kind of fly-fishing, both for 

 salmon and trout. The experiments carried out by Mr. Henry 

 P. Wells, on the subject generally of the comparative invisibility 

 of lines in the water, conclusively show how vitally important is 

 the question of the fineness of every part of the line whether 

 reel-line or casting-line that comes anywhere near the flies or the 

 fish. The tapered line is, of course, finer at the critical point in 

 question than the untapered, and if only on the score of 

 " fineness," should, therefore, be preferred. Apart from fine 

 fishing, and regarded merely in relation to casting, the matter 

 may not be one of very great moment on windless days and in 

 calm weather ; but in rough, stormy seasons, when the wind is 

 blowing half a gale, perhaps right in the fly-fisher's teeth, the case 

 is radically altered, and the man whose line is properly balanced 

 and hard enough and heavy enough to cut through the air like a 

 bit of wire will be able to go on casting with comparative 

 efficiency, while his neighbour, less perfectly equipped, will find 

 his flies " blown back into his face," as the saying is, at every 

 other cast. 



I had some reel-lines manufactured about a year ago with the 

 design of still further developing the important principle here 

 indicated, and I think the results obtained on actual trial with 

 lines of different weight, and with both salmon rods and double and 

 single-handed trout rods, were sufficiently successful to justify me 

 in suggesting to fly-fishers, and salmon-fishers especially, to give 

 them a trial. The principle is to " swell," or double taper, the 

 casting-line like the thong of a whip at a point so near the 

 " casting-end," that the whole of the " swelled part " shall usually 

 be between the rod and the fly. The " swelled taper " may be made 

 at both ends of the reel-line, so that when one end gets worn out 

 it can be reversed and the other end used. In the experiments 



