GUT AND CASTING LINES. 41 
stated to be frequently paid in Marseilles—this gut being, it 
appears, principally exported to Constantinople. Some sam- 
ples of the 1884 crop, tested by my friend Mr. R. B. Marston, 
broke at a dead strain of seventeen pounds. A writer under 
the signature of ‘Creel,’ mentions that some thirty years ago 
there could be found in the market a superior class of salmon 
gut now said to be unprocurable owing to the total extinction 
of the silkworm that produced it. ‘Since this time,’ he says, 
‘we have more than once been informed that a new breed of 
silkworm has been raised and encouraged in the South of 
France, introduced from Japan, possessing all the features of 
the former fine and strong gut which from its absence has 
caused the lament of many a veteran salmon fisher.’ 
In the selection of gut, aim first, as Chitty says, in his 
‘Fly Fisher’s Text-book,’ ‘at that which is perfectly round,’ to 
which end the best assistance the eye can receive is from the 
thumb and forefinger, between which the gut should be rolled 
quickly ; if it is not round but flat, the defect by this process 
will be at once discovered. Next to roundness, colourlessness 
and transparency are the two points of most importance ; and 
last—though, as some fishermen will perhaps suggest, not least 
-—comes the question of length. Chitty, above named, gives 
for salmon gut—‘the part used’—‘ sixteen to eighteen inches 
at least.’ I can only say—I wish we may get it! In these 
degenerate days ten to twelve inches would be nearer the 
ordinary attainable mark, and for trout gut an inch or two more, 
say thirteen to fourteen, or, in exceptionally good strands, 
fifteen inches. 
‘Drawn gut,’ as it is called, is simply gut that has been 
artificially scraped or fined down by being ‘drawn’ through a 
hole of a certain gauge or measure. For this purpose a steel 
plate is used having several holes or gauges diminishing gra- 
dually in size, and the ‘face edges’ of which are quite sharp. 
The gut is put through the holes in succession beginning at 
the largest, and ending with the smallest, when it has of course 
become of the desired fineness. The appearance of the gut 
