180 Artificial Otter. Chapt. xiii. 



For larger fish the common steel yard is the best. If 

 you like to pay, you can huy them from the London tackle 

 shops. But if you like, you can have one made in the 

 bazaar. Do not rely on the spring weighers; they are 

 liable to get untrue. 



An artificial otter is not unfrequently 

 used in the lakes in Ireland; and as some 

 may like to use it in India, where the competition a- 

 mongst anglers is not so great, as to bring down on you 

 from your neighbours the charge of poaching, I will sup- 

 ply instructions for making one. 



Take a light plank, £ inch or an inch in thickness, of 

 2 feet in length, by 7 or 8 inches in depth; and lead it 

 so that the water line shall be about 1a inches from the 

 top. Insert a brass ring, or light staple, exactly half way 

 up in the centre of the stern of , the plank, and two more 

 like staples, two-thirds forward, one in the top edge of the 

 plank, and one in the bottom edge, or exactly opposite 

 each other. To each of these staples tie a cord about 

 two feet long, and bring the ends together, so that when 

 suspended the plank shall hang quite even crosswise, but 

 lengthwise shall have the stern slightly lowered; for it is 

 on the principle of the inclined plane that the otter acts. 

 Then to the point where the three cords are knotted to- 

 gether tie a long cord, push the otter out from the shore, 

 nose foremost, in the direction you mean to walk along, 

 keeping the line taught, and try it. If the otter acts 

 properly, it should keep parallel with you, keeping the 

 line taught all the while. But if the top and bottom 



