42 SALMON AND TROUT. 



after undergoing this process is not, however, so clean and 

 transparent as the undoctored material, and though it looks 

 beautifully fine — and, indeed, is so — it commonly frays and 

 wears out very rapidly when exposed to moisture or friction of 

 any sort. Drawn gut is, however, extensively used for many of 

 the finer sorts of fishing, both with fly and bait. For my own 

 part I prefer to pay almost any price, so to speak, for the natural 

 gut whenever it can be obtained of the requisite fineness. This, 

 however, is not always. 



Knotthig. — There is a kind of ' endless ' knot with which 

 the casting lines prepared in some tackle shops are joined that 

 seems for ordinary purposes to be about perfection ; but how 

 this knot is tied is a trade secret which I have failed to find 

 out. Decidedly the best as well as the simplest knot ' open to 

 the public,* and one which is equally applicable to the finest 

 and the strongest gut, is what is known as the single (and 

 double) fisherman's knot (sometimes called ' water knot '), 

 varied in the case of salmon gut, for heavy work, in the way 

 described presently. 



^ B 



FIG. I. — SINGLE fisherman's KNOT. 



The gut having been thoroughly well soaked beforehand 

 (in tepid water best) — which is, of course, a sine qua ?ion in all 

 gut knottings — the two ends of gut. A, a, are laid parallel to 

 each other, being held in that position between the first finger 

 and thumb of the left hand in the position in which they are to 

 be joined. A half-hitch knot, B, b, is then made by the right 

 hand with the end of each strand alternately round the strand 

 of the other, and each separately drawn tight, the two separate 

 halves of the knot being finally drawn closely together and the 

 ends cut off. 



It has been pointed out that the single fisherman's knot — 

 varied as I have described in the case of salmon lines-is all 



