378 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
the English, Scotch, and Irish makers. The round bend 
hook, is that which is most used in England, the Limerick 
pattern being chiefly in vogue in Ireland, and the Scotch 
anglers using, some of them the former and others the lat- 
ter : while many Scotchmen use what is called the sneck- 
bend, differing slightly from both of the above, in being 
made of a more square shape. The round bend hook is 
numbered from 1, the largest salmon size, to 14, the small- 
est midge. The best Irish hooks, made by Philips of 
Dublin, are classed in a different way: F E is intended 
for the smallest trouting-fly; F, the next; then F F ; then, 
again, F F ¥. After this come C and C C; then B and 
BB. The O0’sand B’s have intermediate or half-num- 
bers, and above B B the hooks for salmon are known by 
numbers, beginning with B B, which corresponds with 9, 
and going on regularly up to No. 1. 
Various articles are required for uniting these portions 
of the line—viz., silk of different degrees of strength, cob- 
bler’s wax, spirit varnish, and small scissors, &c. 
The joints used are—first, whipping ; second, knot- 
ting. Whipping consists in drawing successive circles of 
silk, well waxed, tightly around the two objects laid in 
apposition ; as, for instance, two portions of the line, or the 
line and hook. This is finished off by slipping the end of 
the silk through the last circle and drawing tight, and, if 
necessary, repeating the operation again and again; this is 
called the half-hitch. Knotting is effected by several 
modes, the most common of which is the water-knot, which 
is managed as follows :—Lay the two pieces of gut or hair 
together, one overlapping the other three inches or more, 
