SILK-WORM GUT. 271 



intestines of a cat(?) or a sheep, after the mucous membrane has 

 been removed from it. But such is not the case. It is true that it 

 comes from the inside of the silk-worm, but it is not what we would 

 call the gut. 



More than forty years ago I was curious to know what this article 

 was, but not until within four years ago did I ascertain. Inside of 

 the silk-worm there are two lobes or sacs lying together, somewhat 

 like the two lobes of eggs in a fish. When these lobes are fully 

 developed they consist of a viscid fluid, and if the worm were 

 allowed to live this would all be spun out of its mouth as a cocoon 

 of silk. But if silk- worm gut is wanted, the worms are taken when 

 the lobes are mature (or ripe, as they term it,) and thrown into 

 strong vinegar for about two hours. The effect of this immersion 

 in vinegar kills the worms, makes the external part of their bodies 

 very tender, and thickens the fluid in the lobes into a soft, tough 

 pulp. 



The next process is to remove it from the vinegar and remove the 

 outer part carefully, and one at a time, these lobes are caught by 

 the thumb and finger by the ends, with each hand, and stretched 

 apart to the length required, and given two or three twists around 

 a small pin placed in each end of a frame, where they remain till 

 dry enough to be bunched up ready for market. That this is the 

 way that gut is finished we have some evidence by examining a 

 thread of it in the bunch as commonly sold. At each end you will 

 see where it has been twisted around the pin, and beyond that, 

 where the piece held in the fingers has been stripped out, which is 

 usually flat. 



That there are other insects than the common silk-worm (how 

 many I do not know) who have this lobe of fluid matter that is 

 utilized into fishing gut I am satisfied. More than forty years ago 

 I got a quantity of gut (how or from whom I do not remember), 

 but it was different from any I had ever seen before or since. It 

 was heavy and long. Some of the threads were nearly three feet, 

 perfect in smoothness and equal in thickness, and as thick as good 

 salmon gut. The color, however, differed from the ordinary gut, 

 being brown-colored, as if soaked in tea, but I am satisfied it was 

 the natural color. I still have a few threads of it in my tackle- 

 book, which have been there about forty-five years. I have just 



