THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 45 



that they detect the Hue, unless it is as fine 

 as it possibly can be : we have proved this 

 by experience. It must be obvious also, from 

 the fact that they will take the bait over 

 and over again when it is on a single hair, 

 and as soon as you change to gut, they will 

 not touch it. But then the difficulty in the 

 affair is, that you cannot hold them with 

 single hair, neither with the gut which is 

 so over fine, unless you are a most expert 

 hand. It is this that renders barbel fishing 

 so pleasing to some, there being in the mind 

 a desire to excel, and to achieve that which 

 is really very difficult. And it certainly is 

 a very difficult thing to kill a barbel of five 

 or six pounds, with a piece of gut so fine 

 ihat you can hardly see it at any distance; 

 and if any of our readers should feel disposed 

 to be sceptical upon the point, we would 

 advise them just to try the experiment. Yet 

 barbel have been caught with gut, weighing 

 from fifteen to one-and-twenty pounds. Let 

 the shots on your line be as small and 

 as neatly put on as recommended for roach, 

 and they should be at least a foot and a 

 half from your hook, so that they jnay not 

 be perceived by the fish. Your running line 



