TO PKESEKVE LINES AND EEELS. 391 



HOW TO KEEP, STAIN, AND PRESERVE SILKWORM 

 GUT, GIMP, AND LINES, AND THE CARE OF 

 REELS, etc. 



It has become fashionable in this country to stain silkworm- 

 gut ; the father of anglers, old Izaak, and his follower Salter, 

 gave directions for " dyeing hairs." The idea is prevalent 

 with most anglers that silkworm-gut should be stained. It 

 is possible that there may be some instances in the extreme 

 shyness of the fish, and clearness of the water, that it may be 

 necessary ; but they are rare, and this beautiful and valuable 

 adjunct to the angler's art should be kept in its natural state, 

 or as nearly so as possible. Being nearly transparent, and 

 barely, perceptible in the water, it makes hardly as much 

 show as the many fine roots and weeds and floating matter 

 to which the fish's ever-watchful eyes are accustomed.* 

 Theophilus South gives a number of receipts, in which cop- 

 peras is a principal ingredient, and which with certain other 

 substances gives a variety of shades, but the use of copperas, 

 unless in a very mild state, is injurious to strands of gut, and 

 should not be employed. When necessary to stain gut, prepare 

 a portion of tea or coffee, as your taste for color inclines, and 

 after boiling to get the full strength of your dye, then having 

 previously trimmed your lengths, place them in your liquid 

 while quite hot, not boiling hot, and allow them to remain a 

 sufficient time to get the needed color, after which take out 

 and rinse in moderately warm water, and when dry rub, by 

 holding each strand separately between the teeth, with a clean 

 piece of India-rubber kept for the purpose. The outer skin 



* A late writer on fishes says : " The brain is very small, and the 

 organs of sense calculated to receive only the simplest impressions 

 of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch." 



