102 



The least obtrusive was a line which seemed to have been braided from white 

 silk with two black threads passing spirally around it in opposite directions, 

 thus forming a black diamond-shaped pattern upon the white ground. The 

 waterproofing had given to the white silk a translucent colour of a faint, dull 

 greenish tint. The next in order of merit seemed to be the pea-green." 



WATERPROOF BRAIDED SILK LINES. 



Of the colors of casting lines (' gut collars ') much has been 

 written, and many and learned have been the disquisitions 

 published by fly-fishers and gut stainers, whose dyes are as endless 

 and varying as their individual fancies. I confess I found it very 

 difficult myself to arrive at any original reliable conclusions, the 

 experience of one day being apparently so often contradicted 

 by that of another. 



A few years ago, however, I tried some practical experiments 

 with a glass box of water in which gut of the several stains could 

 be immersed and looked at under varying conditions of light and 

 position. The general result appeared to be that all stains were 

 pretty much alike, and that in the case of perfectly sound clear 

 gut no stain at all was necessary, the negative color, or rather 

 approximate colorlessness of the gut, seeming to harmonise on the 

 whole very well with most sky-tints from whatever position 

 regarded. 



Since then Mr. H. P. Wells in his highly interesting book, 

 " Fly-rods and Fly Tackle," has gone very fully into the subject, 



