48 SALMON AND TROUT. 
warranty for this nicety of refinement, if, indeed, it be a 
refinement at all in the proper sense of the word. When we 
see a porter-coloured water we forget that we are looking down 
from above, whilst the fish we wish to catch is, in all proba- 
bility, looking up from below, and that our line being ‘ flotant’ 
is but a few inches below the surface of the water. The result 
is that when he comes up to take the fly the stratum of water 
interposed between the gut and the sky is really, when viewed 
by the human eye at any rate, almost colourless. It is the 
depth of water which produces the depth of colour. The 
same thing again applies to the clear streams which after a 
flood become merely slightly thickened with mud and never 
take the red or bog-water stain under any circumstances. 
In order as far as might be to satisfy my own mind as to 
what practically was the best stain, I arranged an experiment in 
which the actual conditions of the floating line were as nearly 
as possible reproduced—substituting my own eye for that of 
the fish. A glass tank was obtained with a glass bottom, and 
I found that with about three’inches of water in it the difference 
between water stained with tea or coffee to about the same 
extent as the red water of a river, or slightly clouded to repre- 
sent the waters of a chalk stream, was, for practical purposes, 
ail, and, after trying various experiments, the general conclusion 
appeared to be that the stain which was most like the colour of 
the sky was the least visible ; also, that the very lightest stain 
was better than a dark one, and that in the case of perfectly 
sound clear gut no stain at all seemed practically to be required, 
as the negative colour, or rather approximate colourlessness, of 
the gut harmonised, on the whole, very well with most kinds 
of sky tint. , 
Probably a light ink-and-water, or ‘slate,’ stain is as good 
as any, taking one day with another. To produce it, mix 
boiling water and black ink, and soak the gut in it—rinsing 
it thoroughly when it has attained the desired colour. This, 
indeed, is a precaution that should never be omitted in staining 
gut, which is otherwise apt to lose its transparency. When too 
