THE WIND 51 



excepting in so far as they are moved by the 

 angler, who as a rule should not move 

 them at all, they do remain where they 

 alight. On a lake, then, when the water 

 is not ruffled by the wind, it is desirable 

 that the gut should be as fine as is com- 

 patible with reasonable strength. 



In the hope of making the gut invisible, 

 it is often dyed. Some soak it in a solu- 

 tion of logwood ; some in ink ; some in 

 tea. All these expedients are rather 

 worse than useless. This will be readily 

 realised if you place a strand of dyed gut 

 and a strand of gut undyed in a crystal 

 bowl of water. The dyed gut will be 

 conspicuous ; the undyed, being opaque, 

 will be almost invisible. If the bowl 

 were black, or brown, or blue, or inky, 

 the results would be the reverse ; but it 

 should not be forgotten that the colour 

 of water looked through from below, as 

 the trout look, is much more nearly the 

 colour of unstained gut than that of any 

 of the dyes. 



For reasons which will be set forth in 



