THE "LINE OF PULL." 



35 



described elsewhere that is to say, we realise not only the extreme 

 likelihood of the hook catching hold, but also the ease with which the 

 point of it works deeper and deeper during a fight with a fish, for the 

 barb works as a wedge to imbed it. Such evidence is, to the unbiassed 

 mind, irresistible. 



Of course, writers take their own views and inculcate their own ideas 

 of the hooks they themselves fancy. But men, now-a-days, want facts 

 not fancies, and we must all stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of the 

 former, otherwise this branch of my subject might just as well have been 

 left unwritten. 



I hope that I seldom find fault without just cause ; but when the 

 mania for eyed hooks broke out afresh I pointed out their faults, and 

 persistently maintained that they never could and never would become 

 popular. I predicted and published my opinion as to what would happen 



THE PULL. 



in regard to " the pull " with those hooks having turned-up eyes. I need 

 not make quotations, for the student who has followed the foregoing 

 arguments will clearly perceive the awkward results of attaching the cast 

 to a hook of that sort. 



D2 



