448 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
ling, will require only 30 or 35 yards, while the larger 
varieties of trout and the salmon should always have 
from 60 to 80 yards ready for their capture. The hair- 
line should be regularly tapered, and should vary in 
strength from 24 hairs down to 14 for salmon, and from 
18 down to 10 or 12 for trout. The tapering portion, 
however, should only extend in the trout line as far as it 
is clear of the reel, which may be estimated at about half 
the length of the line; and in the salmon line only for 
about 20 yards from the end. Plaited silk lines are now 
much used, especially for salmon, but I confess I have 
never seen any line which could be thrown with as much 
certainty as the hand-made horse-hair line. It has just 
sufficient stiffness to carry itself smoothly through the air, 
with pliancy enough to adapt itself to all the varying evo- 
lutions of the angler’s wrists and arms. The casting-line 
is composed of two, and sometimes of three portions; the 
first, or extreme portion consisting, in all cases, of several 
lengths of single gut carefully knotted together, with or 
without silk “lapping;” the next portion is usually of 
treble gut, twisted by the machine, or by quills and bobbins. 
To these some anglers add a third portion of twisted hair, 
which, however, is unnecessary if the reel-line is properly 
tapered, and is of hair also. The great principle to be 
carried out is to taper the line from the point of the rod 
to the end, so that in working it through the air it shall 
play smoothly, and obey the hand to the greatest nicety. 
In this respect it should imitate the four-in-hand whip, 
which is so graduated that it tapers all the way, and is 
hence capable of taking a fly off the leader’s ear. The 
