22 A CHAPTER ON LINES. 



it not for the purpose of warning others from risking 

 both their sport and reputation by the use of such a 

 bauble. I can easily imagine the sorry plight of some 

 unlucky brother furnished with one of those mis- 

 chievously-ingenious pieces of mechanism, who has un- 

 wittingly placed the stop in the lock, and rendered his 

 reel motionless as a mooring-post ; when suddenly, a 

 walloping yellow-fin, or a 5 Ib. grilse, takes it into its 

 head to appropriate the fly, but not by any means relish- 

 ing the pungency of its flavour (as some wiseacre has 

 remarked, fish in general preferring flies without stings), 

 it darts full down stream, followed, no doubt, by our 

 disconcerted friend as fast as legs can carry him, while, 

 perhaps, he has neither time nor presence of mind to 

 release the unfortunate stop ; until splash dash goes the 

 fish, crash goes the rod, flash goes the line, and jpop goes the 

 weasel, all owing to the ill-fated stop. This is no fiction. 

 The same has happened to the author, and doubtless to 

 many who have used this kind of reel. Many and 

 hearty have been the wishes, without doubt, that the 

 daily viands of the inventor of this provoking piece of 

 mechanism were duly seasoned with a mixture of 

 Cayenne pepper, wasp-stings, and fish-hooks. 



LINES. 



The reel-line will now engage our attention. These 

 are usually made either of hair, cotton, or silk, alone 

 or mixed. I regard a line made of hair and silk spun 

 together as decidedly the lightest, strongest, and most 



