102 SUPI'LEMENr TO THE BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



water, and consequently render very freely in casting the 

 minnow. 



These lines are made in several styles, and of the best 

 selected dressed and raw silk. The dressed or boiled silk 

 line is very firm and light, weighing not quite two grains to 

 the yard one hundred yards weighing one hundred and 

 eighty-five grains. It is of the same caliber as the No. 1 

 sea-grass line, and fully as strong, sustaining a strain -of 

 eight pounds. It is of a pinkish-drab or light chocolate 

 color. 



The raw silk line is very hard and compact, and a trifle 

 heavier than the boiled silk line, weighing about two and 

 one-third grains to the yard, or two hundred and thirty-five 

 grains to a hundred yards. It is mottled in color, usually 

 white and green, like most raw silk lines. It sustains a 

 dead weight of ten pounds, which is at least three times the 

 strength actually required with a pliant rod. I have often 

 killed Bass averaging three pounds with a line that would 

 not sustain more than a pound, dead weight. 



The Henry Hall Company also makes this line water- 

 proof by a new process, which does not detract in any way 

 from its use as a bait line, as the waterproofing does not di- 

 minish its flexibility or softness in any degree a result 

 -that had before been impossible to obtain, as all waterproof 

 lines were too stiff and unyielding for minnow-casting. 



The process of waterproofing, however, makes the line 

 perfectly black in color, which at first sight might be deemed 

 an objection by some. But I have experimented with this, 

 line by numerous practical tests, alternating with lines of 

 lighter tints, and have never discovered that >it made the 

 slightest difference to the Bass themselves. And if we will 

 reflect a moment, and hark back to our youthful experience 



