2 ON EYED-HOOKS. 



dried up, they will doubtlessly arrive at the con- 

 clusion that the invention of Mr. Hall, or, rather, 

 adaptation by that gentleman to small flies, of the 

 old plan of forming the loop of a salmon or large 

 trout fly, by turning up the wire of the hook itself, 

 is one which should commend itself to all votaries 

 of the gentle craft. A great disadvantage of the 

 old style of fly on gut, was that, in taking one out 

 of a coil of half-a-dozen on a windy day, some two 

 or three of those remaining were frequently blown 

 away, and valuable time lost in vainly searching for 

 them in the long grass. 



Flies dressed on eyed-hooks float better and 

 with less drying than those constructed on the old 

 system. I am quite prepared to find some con- 

 troversy raised on the point, and hence would 

 urge those who dissent from this well-considered 

 opinion to remember that in the case of the hook 

 lashed to the gut by the waxed silk, there is in 

 the body the additional weight of the gut itself, 

 and, certainly, far more silk and wax, owing to the 

 foundation of the body being increased in thick- 

 ness by the substance of the gut. This increase is 

 even more than appears at the first glance, seeing 

 that the augmentation in the diameter of the body 

 produces more than thrice that augmentation in 

 the circumference or quantity of silk and wax used 

 in binding it. 



Another, and, in my opinion, paramount benefit 

 is, that at the very earliest symptom of weakness 



