144 



Here are two or three recipes for staining, which are, I should 

 think, likely to be reliable, and which are stated to produce no 

 bad effects on the strength of the gimp : 



" Put your gimp into a little box of card paper, or what not ; cover it with 

 some flowers of sulphur, put it aside, and in a day or two it will be as black as 

 you can desire. If you cannot wait a day or two, but must have it at once, get 

 a little, sulphur in the soluble state, viz., sulphide of ammonium formerly 

 hydrosulphuret of ammonia. Put a few drops of this into water, and immerse 

 your gimp. A few hours will make it black enough, without in the slightest 

 degree injuring the silk within. 



"You had better conduct the process out of doors, as the odour of sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen is not agreeable to everybody." [Mr. HEARDER, in the 

 Fie Id. 1 



Captain Robinson writes : 



" In your * Book of the Pike,' which I have lately read, bichlorate of 

 platinum is recommended for staining brass gimp. This I failed to obtain in a 

 county town, but being convinced of the importance of staining gimp, I thought 

 of trying sulphide of potassium. As I find this gives a permanent stain to both 

 silver and brass gimp, I take the liberty of mentioning it to you. Sulphide of 

 potassium may be made by dissolving a little lapis infernalis in water, mixing 

 flowers of sulphur with it, and heating in a Florence flask. I believe quicklime 

 in boiling water will also dissolve sulphur. " 



Mr. W. N. Locking, in a recent communication, sends me two 

 recipes, tested, he says, by his own experience. I give both, 

 though the second has nothing to do with staining gimp, because 

 it may prove of use to some of my readers : 



" { Spratt's mange lotion for dogs ' is the handiest, quickest and most 

 reliable stain for gimp of all kinds that I have met with. I merely wet a small 

 piece of flannel with it, run the gimp through it once and leave it. In about an 

 hour it is well stained. I have not found it to rot the gimp. . . . Washing 

 with some kind of coal tar soap will usually keep off flies and mosquitos, and 

 is pleasanter than the turpentine unguent." 



RODS. 



The general observations already offered in regard to fly rods 

 apply, mutatis mutandis, to all sorts of rods used in Pike-fishing, 

 and especially to spinning. For no kind of Pike-fishing should I 

 recommend a rod of over 13 feet in length, whilst for any non- 



