178 Preservatives for hooks and gut. Chapt. xiii. 



this when the gut is limp after having been well soak- 

 ed, or it is liable to crack, because of the sharp turns 

 given to it round the shank of the lip hook. 



If you are spinning for murrel or sea-fish however, 

 you cannot be quite so sure of hooking with one treble, 

 and can either add another treble to my flight of hooks 

 as above described, or can adopt Francis Francis's or 

 Pennel's flights of pike hooks, which if quoted by the 

 inventors' names, will be sufficiently described for recog- 

 nition by tackle-makers. I however would rather re- 

 commend the use of small stout Mahseer hooks, because 

 Indian waters are generally so bright, and pike hooks 

 are so large and formidable. For these fish however they 

 should be tied on gimp, not gut. 



In consequence of hooks rusting so quick- 

 Antiseptics. ly in India) and the di ffi culty of replenish- 

 ing your stock, it is as well to take precautions. A better 

 precaution than common oil is, I think, the oil in which 

 shot has been well shaken till it is of a leaden colour. I 

 prefer to keep my bare hooks in a small bottle, with just 

 enough of such oil to smear them all over when shaken 

 together. A little mercurial ointment, mixed with oil, is 

 a thorough preservative against rust; but I would caution 

 anglers against it, because it acts by itself taking up the 

 surface of the metal, and forming an amalgam with it; 

 which must blunt your hook points. On this account 

 Doctors do not use it for surgical instruments. 



One more antiseptic and I have done with the long 

 word, though this, I must confess, I have not tried myself, 



