GUT. 27 



of its faulty shape and clumsiness by this process, 

 it will still be vastly inferior in strength and durabi- 

 lity to that obtained naturally round and perfect from 

 the worm itself. This implement however deserves a 

 place in the angler's cabinet ; as by its means he may 

 be able to shape a hank of thick tape-like stuff, such as 

 he may lay his hands upon in some out-of-the-way 

 country shop, into something like reasonable shape and 

 dimensions, and which may serve his purpose until he 

 can supply himself with the genuine article. 



In dyeing gut or hair lines our only object is to 

 assimilate the shade of the gut or hair to that of the 

 water, so as to render it as nearly invisible as possible ; 

 therefore the proper tint and depth of colour in the line 

 must altogether depend upon that of the water in which 

 it is to be used. But in judging of this we must re- 

 collect that while we behold the line between our eye 

 and the brown bottom of the river, the fish 011 the 

 contrary see it between them and the clear blue sky ; 

 and that with the exception of such as are to be used 

 in dark mossy waters, the tinge ought to be only slight, 

 most dyed gut being of too deep a shade, which defeats 

 the purpose intended, by rendering the dark or nearly 

 black line equally as conspicuous an object in clear 

 water as a glaring white one, if not more so. Stoddart, 

 in his useful work, " The Angler's Guide," says that 

 "the walnut brown," and "the neutral tint" (recipes 

 1 and 2 in the second part of this work, the latter 

 for clear waters), are, after many experiments made 

 by him, found to conceal the gut-line best. But in my 



