154 SALMONIA. [SIXTH DAY. 



The barb being made, the shank is thinned and 

 flattened, and the polishing file applied to it ; and by 

 a turn of the wrist round a circular pincers, the 

 necessary degree of curvature is given to it. The 

 hook is then cut from the bar, heated red hot by 

 being kept for a moment in a charcoal fire ; then 

 plunged, while hot, into cold water ; then tempered, 

 by being put on iron, that has been heated in the 

 same fire till it becomes a bright blue, and, whilst 

 still hot, it is immersed in candle-grease, where it 

 gains a black colour ; it is then finished. 



PHYS. Nothing seems simpler than this process. 

 Surely London might furnish manufacturers for so 

 easy a manipulation ; and I should think one of our 

 friends, who is so admirable a cutler, might even 

 improve upon the Irish process ; at least the tem- 

 pering might be more scientifically arranged; for 

 instance, by the thermometer and a bath of fusible 

 metal, the temperature at which steel becomes blue 

 being 580 Fah., might be constantly preserved. 



HAL. Habit teaches our Irish artists this point 

 with sufficient precision. We should have such 

 hooks in England, but the object of the fishing 

 tackle makers is to obtain them cheap, and most of 

 their hooks are made to sell, and good hooks cannot 

 be sold but at a good price. 



POIET. I have heard formerly a good angler 



