11 



and tie lin?, and \vith a sliarp pen-knife, cut down through 

 the ends, about the thickness of your thumb-nail distance 

 from die whipping, so that the ends may come off clean: 

 the piece of quill serves to prevent the knife from cut- 

 ting your line. 



Scissors are bad on these occasions, unless, indeed, 

 their points be very fine j in which case they are soon 

 spoiled} their thickness always raises the end, in some 

 measure, whereby either the cut is uneven, or the whip- 

 ping is a little strained : the latter is a great fault; for the 

 ends of the water- knots cannot be tied down too firmly. 



If you warm your cobler's wax, and rub it round once 

 or twice, tak ing care to do it with the direction of the 

 whipping, it will give a slight coating to your work, and 

 make it much neater ; it will serve to prevent little fibres 

 from rising out of the silk, which, by cutting the water, 

 scare the more cautious kind of fishes. 



How to JFax your Silk. 



Simple as this operation may appear, there is yet some 

 art in doing it completely and equally. The fine silk used 

 in whipping on very small hooks, and in making flies, 

 will not, however good of its kind, bear to be roughly 

 used ; nor will it, indeed, if taken singly, bear the ope- 

 ration of being passed with the requisite degree of force 

 between the wax and the thumb. 



Take, therefore, several equal lengths of your silk, ob- 

 serving to reject all that appear knotty or gouty, for they 

 always make clumsy work, and pass them, fto one iody, 

 between your thumb and the wax, which should be pre- 

 viously spread thinly on a piece of strong shoe -leather, as 

 stiff as can be had. 



* B5 Pass 



