324 SALMON AND TROUT. 
fully brazed to prevent swelling in the socket, and patent 
ferrules to save the awkward process of lapping the joints 
together, is a handy tool enough for practical purposes. On 
a wet day it is a good precaution to rub a little oil or deer’s 
grease round the rim of each ferrule. 
As for the reel, good ones are now as plentiful as blackberries. 
The circumference should be large and the barrel short, so that 
a.single turn may gather in or release many inches of line. 
Multipliers might be pronounced an abomination, did not the 
proverb forbid our speaking ill of the dead. Anglers generally 
place the reel with the handle on the right, but I suspect the 
opposite practice is preferable ; the control of the fish will thus 
be left to the ‘better hand,’ while the left will suffice for ‘ pirn- 
ing in’ and ‘ pirning out.’ 
With regard to reel lines, I still adhere to the old silk and 
hair, but I can well believe that oiled silk, sugiccently tapered, is 
better in a high wind. Its weight, moreover, is a constant 
quantity, while that of silk and hair varies unpleasantly in rain 
and towards what I heard a Lancashire keeper call ‘t’ faag 
eend o’ t’ dey.’ 
As to the gut collar, the question of ‘tapering’ is yet more 
important ; in fact, perfection in casting cannot be attained un- 
less this be ‘fine by degrees and beautifully less.” I have 
never bought any as perfectly adjusted as those I have tied for 
myself. But the graduated arrangement of the links is delicate 
and laborious work—more trying, I think, to the sight than even 
the dressing of flies, and the difficulty of the task of course in- 
creases with years. It is a good plan to have the gut sorted 
. beforehand into distinct sizes—thick, medium, fine, and finest— 
and to tie a good many collars at one sitting when your eye 
and hand are in. Be very careful with your knots, and never 
attempt to make one till the gut has been thoroughly soaked in 
tepid water. Pay a high price for the best gut, particularly for 
picked samples of the finest. Engine-drawn gut is generally 
worthless ; single hair is far preferable—indeed, were not the 
docking of horses so universal, it might be often used with 
