■TROUT PLY-FISHING. 307 



a handle, as represented in the larger figure of the annexed 

 illustration, and then take a few turns of waxed twine near 

 the bow, and again at the end of the handle, fastening in a 

 leather tab with a button-hole. It is to be suspended by a 

 button sewed on the back of your coat below the collar. It 

 does not annoy or impede your progress, and is ready for use 

 when required ; a bow ten or twelve inches in diameter, and 

 a handle six or eight inches in length, is sufficient. "Where 



the two surfaces of the rattan come in contact, pare off a thin 

 strip from each, to make them lie together snugly; but do not 

 take off enough to impair the strength of the handle. 



A more sightly net can be made as follows [see the figure 

 to the right] : Bend a piece of rattan thirty inches long into a 

 circle, sticking the two ends into a brass tube, which has a 

 screw on the outer circumference ; this screw is fitted into a 

 nut in the end of a ferule fastened on the end of a short han- 

 dle. The handle can be unscrewed, and the net may be 

 packed in the creel by slightly compressing the bow. It is 

 carried, when fishing, in the same way as the net before 

 described, buttoned to the wading-jacket by a tab. 



For fear I may fail to mention it elsewhere, I would here 

 impress on the angler the convenience, and, as it frequently 

 turns out, the absolute necessity, of having fine and coarse 

 silk and twine in his pockets, as well as the indispensable lump 



