192 SALMON AND TROUT. 
been used look like perfection in the fishing-tackle maker’s 
shop, it will often be found after they have been used a very 
short time they will ‘knuckle,’ when they may just as well be 
thrown into the fire. There is no mistaking a ‘knuckled’ 
line, and nothing can be more unsightly. Instead of being the 
beautiful even-looking coil that came out of the fishing-tackle 
maker’s shop, about every two inches or so, where the line has 
passed through the rings of the rod, the varnish comes off in 
dust, and a small white ring appears, giving the line the appear- 
ance of the knuckles of the finger. 
I have seen many of the best American dressed lines ‘knuckle’ 
in a very short time and become quite unfit for use. After 
paying a good price for a line, nothing to my mind can be more 
annoying or disappointing, and if this were to happen in a far-off 
country where there were no fishing-tackle makers’ shops, for 
instance in Norway or Canada, the consequences might be very 
serious. This evil can, however, be avoided by dressing lines 
in my fashion, and these I will guarantee to last for years if 
taken care of and dried every day after fishing. I would not 
trust the-best looking dressed line that ever came out of a 
fishing-tackle maker’s shop ; but the wholesale manufacturers 
are to blame for this, and not the fishing-tackle makers, who as 
a rule do the best they can to supply the best article for their 
customers. I would recommend anyone who has time to spare 
to dress his own lines, but without dryers ; or, if he has not any 
time to spare, to use them undressed. An undressed line will get 
saturated with water after the first cast, and this supplying the 
place of the dressing, the line will be found quite heavy enough 
to make the longest cast required. The only objection, and 
it is but a very trivial one, to the use of undressed lines, is that 
should it be desired to add to the length of a cast by pulling 
out a yard or so of line before the cast is made, when this is 
let go it is very apt in its wet state to get twisted around the 
butt of the rod, which will defeat the object. 
