412 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



Feathers, the chief ones used being hackles, must be also 

 cleansed by washing them with soap in warm water. The 

 principal colors to be obtained are black, brown, blue, red, 

 and yellow, and by combining, in the process of dyeing, those 

 colors, all other hues and shades can be procured. The reader 

 is requested to bear in mind that the art of dyeing is a very 

 delicate one, requiring minute attention and no small expe- 

 rience. The experimental student must exercise considerable 

 patience, and not be at all discouraged by incipient failures. 

 They will dissolve by degrees into successful results. 



" Recipe for Blue. With soft river- water let your pipkin be 

 about three parts full ; put it on a slow, clear fire, adding a 

 teaspoonful of 'paste-blue,' which can be purchased at the 

 color-shops. Keep stirring it, and when it is more than luke- 

 warm, add a tablespoonful of cold water, into which you have 

 put twelve drops of sulphuric acid. In this dyeing fluid 

 place a quarter of an ounce of material to be dyed, whether 

 pig's hair, hackles, or mohair, taking care that they have 

 been previously thoroughly cleansed as already directed, and 

 rinsed in hot water, and then wrung out just before you put 

 them into the pipkin. Let the whole boil slowly for fifteen 

 or twenty minutes. Then take out your fur or feathers, or 

 whatever material you are dyeing, and rinse in pure cold 

 water. Dry, if possible, in a sunny atmosphere. For stirring 

 your materials in the pipkin always use a clean piece of 

 wood. 



" For Red. Water as before in your pipkin, and with it two 

 handfuls of Brazil wood, and a quarter of an ounce of pig's 

 hair or feathers, or any other material you want to dye. Boil 

 the whole for half an hour. Take out your material, and 

 cool the dyeing fluid by the addition of a little cold water. 

 When cool, put in sulphuric acid in manner and quantity as 

 before ; next, add your material to be dyed, and gently 



