HOOKS. 285 



In the wareroom we are shown immense quantities of hooks, all 

 sizes, done up in packages of thousands and tens of thousands, ready 

 to be shipped to all parts of the world. Here is the small delicate 

 hook for France, so diminutive that the rude scale of inches has to 

 be laid aside and only the French milimeter can do it justice ; hooks 

 for Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand ; triple hooks, 

 double hooks, hooks flattened, hooks ringed, hooks headed, and hooks 

 eyed. All kinds of hooks for all kinds of fish. 



The most approved hooks for Black Bass, are the Sproat, 

 O'Shaughnessy, Dublin Limerick, Cork Shape Limerick, 

 Round Bend Carlisle, or Aberdeen, and Hollow Point 

 Limerick ; they are best in the order named, and those 

 made by Harrison & Son, and T. Hemming & Son, excel 

 all others. 



There are fish-hooks and fish-hooks, and to the uniniti- 

 ated one hook is as good as another; all they can see in a 

 hook, is the fact that it has a shank, a bend, and a bearded 

 point. But to the angler this contracted view is not suffi- 

 cient. There are many styles of shank, numerous forms 

 of bend, and various ways of fashioning the barb and point, 

 all of which are of the highest practical importance. Some 

 hooks are made for general service, while others are formed 

 exclusively for particular kinds of fish, or for special 

 methods of angling. 'The fish-hook of to-day is not es- 

 sentially different from that used by the ancient Greeks 

 and Romans, to the casual observer ; but to the practiced 

 eye, the hooks now produced, for form, temper, and 

 strength have never been equaled in the history of the 

 world. 



The form, quality, and general excellence of hooks, as 

 now made, is the result of the competitive skill and great 

 experience of the manufacturers of Redditch, England, 



