156 GUT SUBSTITUTES 



may be knotless for 40 yards or more) and you may 

 lift a dead weight of 20 Ib. with it wet or dry. But tie 

 a knot in it, and you may snap it with a very slight 

 pull. This, it must be admitted, is a very dangerous 

 feature, for one is very liable to get a knot in the cast 

 when fishing in a high wind. Moreover, special care 

 is necessary in attaching an eyed fly to the cast. The 

 ordinary figure-of-eight knot is perfectly safe,, if the 

 return end of the cast is brought over the eye and 

 made to lie there. If it is left under the eye, pressing 

 against the cast, trouble is likely to ensue. To illus- 

 trate the extraordinary strength of this material, an 

 incident on the upper water of the Beauly early in 

 September 1920 may be cited. My host took me down 

 to where the river issues from Loch Bunacharan in 

 Strathfarrar. Here I had a splashing rise, with no 

 result. Next he bade me fish a long and likely- looking 

 stream, but nothing moved. The sun was very bright 

 and hot ; so my friend said we would go down and try 

 the Strone pool (I think he called it). A long' rough 

 scramble through a wooded glen bestrewn with huge 

 boulders brought us to a remarkable bit of the river, 

 which paused in a dark, swirling basin before plunging 

 down in tossing rapids through a ravine where no 

 human foot could follow. It was obvious that if a fish 

 were to be killed here, he must not be allowed to leave 

 the pool. 



We were on the right bank with a strong backwater 

 running on the hither side. The lie of the fish is along 

 the foot of the cliff on the left bank and in a small 

 space of glassy water just above the rapid. Owing to 



