70 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[July 22, 1905. 
sea trouT which appear in the early spring with the smelts 
and feeding on them come from ? My. opinion is that 
these trout have recently been released from the large 
Newfoundland and Labrador rivers, where they were im- 
prisoned by ice, and as soon as released they have gone 
cut into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, struck the spring run 
of smelts and herring, and followed them into the Baie 
de Chaleur. No doubt, they are joined by thousands of 
their brethren from the Baie de Chaleur .rivers, particu- 
larly the large rivers like the Cascapedia, Pabos, etc., on 
the north shore of the bay. These are, therefore, the 
trout which we find feeding on smelts and herring spawn 
in May ami early June, 
When the fresh run salmon come into the Baie de 
Chaleur during the latter part of May and all through 
June. large sea trout are found among the schools of 
Salmon. These trout do not come into the Nepisiguit 
anyhow. Whether they go into the Restigouche, Casca- 
pedia, Pabos and other large rivers of the bay I am not 
quite certain, but I do not think they do, for none are 
caught in 'the Restigouche anyhow, the only large sea 
trout caught in lower Restigouche in the spring are the 
ones which were feeding on the smelts, some of which 
may have come down that river, and some of which may 
have come down that river and some of which may 
have come up from the sea with the smelts. Certainly 
none of these big trout go up the Nepisiguit, although 
they are caught in the salmon nets four miles on each 
side of the entrance of the river. Some of these big 
trout are large enough to mesh in the salmon nets. Now, 
whether these which are caught thus are some of the 
same schools which were feeding on the smelts a few 
weeks before, or whether they are another lot I would 
not like to say. They are certainly more fat and plump — 
splendid big fellows as silvery as the salmon, with small 
bright red spots showing through the silver of their 
sides. They are also first class food, although some of 
them are not quite as pink as a salmon. Wherever these 
trout belong to they certainly do not spawn in any river 
within fifty miles of the place in which they are taken in 
the nets, and they appear to come directly from the open 
sea with the fresh run of salmon. 
These facts being proved, we have the big sea trout, 
8 and 9 pounds in weight, caught in the open bay. Then 
we have trout almost as large but different altogether in 
appearance taken far up the Nepisiguit, sixty and eighty 
miles from the mouth, and which trout never go to sea, 
but spawn and live on the upper reaches of the river. 
Three were caught last year at Indian Falls, fifty-two 
miles up river, which weighed in the aggregate 18 
pounds. There is j ust as much difference, between these 
two kinds of fish as there is between a landlocked sal- 
mon and a fresh-run salmon from the sea. 
But again the fact remains that when sea trout have 
been in a river for several weeks they lose their silvery 
appearance and develop color very much like that of the 
brook trout. What conclusion can we come to there- 
fore? You can draw it as well as I; better, in fact, for 
you have studied the subject more thoroughly. I have 
not the slightest doubt about what you say regarding sea 
trout depositing their spawn in the Godabout River, 
where the tide ebbs and flows, and covers up the spawn. 
Salmon would do the same thing. If a salmon comes 
into a small river to spawn and is stopped by a dam she 
will spawn below the dam, even if the tide comes up to 
that point. They do it in the Millstream, if they are not 
netted or speared before they have spawned. Whether 
the Qva would mature is another thing. If the tide only 
came up. leaving running water most of the day, they 
would mature all right, I think. 
All the same, it is the nature of both salmon and sea 
trout to deposit their spawn in clear fresh running water. 
Edward Hickson. 
On Fishing Gut 
A paper on fishing gut read before the members and friends of 
fte tiresham Angling Society by the hon, sec., Mr. h'. E. 
Eldrtd. 
I THINK no discussion would be complete without some 
reference to the litde animal, to whom we, as anglers, are 
so much indebted ; for, in spite of various materials which 
have been tried, nothing so good as silkworm gut has 
been found to take its place. Its life historv may be briefly 
given as follows ; The silkworm moth lays a number of 
eggs, from 250 to 300, on the leaves, generally mulberry, 
which are to form ihe food of the grub when hatched. 
These eggs, which somewhat resemble spiders’ eggs, are 
hatched by the sun’s heat, and when the grub emerges it j 
is about a quarter of an inch in length, and looks like a 
small black worm. It at once commences to feed, and in 
from eight to- ten days it casts its skin and assumes a 
grayish color. This operation over, it continues, to feed, 
and in five or six days it moults a second time, and after 
five more days, moults a third time. In the intervals be- 
tween these processes it grows considerably, and when it 
moults for the fourth and last time, it has grown to be 
from one and a half to two inches in length, and is now 
a perfect caterpillar. Ten days later it searches for a 
convenient place where it can form its cocoon, and for 
this purpose it mounts upon, and attaches itself to, twigs 
by a number of fine flilaments of silk. 
■ Naturally, in the silk and silkworm gut-producing dis- ^ 
tricts of Spain and Italy, every care is taken to assist the“ 
little creature, both in providing it with food and shelter, 
and in forming for the caterpillar layers of branches and 
twigs to which it can attach its cocoon. It is at this 
point that further development is arrested if it is to pro- 
duce silkworm gut. If. however, it is ,to produce silk, it 
is allowed to form its cocoon, which it does_ by spinning 
around itself an oval-shaped dwelling; this operation 
takes four days. When the cocoon is finished it smears 
the inside wi,h a silky kind of gum from its spinnerets. 
This hardens, and its, house is made waterproof. During 
the whole operation of forming its cocoon it is gradually 
undergoing a change, and this change continues until it 
has become a more or less rounded ball, somewhat eloti- 
gated, and covered wdth a smooth, shell-like skin. It is 
to all’appearance dead, and is now termed a chrysalis. If 
left to itself, in about ten days it changes into a moth, 
and works its way out of its cocoon by ejecting from its 
mouth a liquor which dissolves the gum lining its dwell- 
ing., and then with its head and hooked feet it .pushes its 
way through its silky envelope, and emerges as a perfect 
moth, and thus the cycle of changes is complete. It is 
curious to note that the animal never dies — only a series 
of metamorphoses go on, by which, apparently, distinct 
forms of life are assumed. 
Now, to return to the stage where its development is 
arrested, if it is to produce silkworm gut, and to us, as 
anglers, the most interesting. As most of the silkworm 
gut is obtained from Spain, Murcia being the center of 
the industry, it would perhaps be as well to follow the 
modus operandi which obtains there. The worms are 
bred by the country people in their cottages, consisting 
of but two rooms on the ground floor. This industry is 
the sole occupation of the villagers near Murcia, and 
while some of them breed the worms, others perform the 
initial stages in gut making. A number of bamboo rods 
are tied together by the breeder, in order to form a. bed 
from twelve to fifteen feet long by four feet wide, and 
raised about a foot from the floor of the room. On this 
bed are spread the worms, which are fed five times daily 
with mulberry leaves. Great care is taken to pick out all 
sickly worms, in order that only good, sound gut may be 
produced. 
When the worms are ready to spin the cocoon, they 
creep upon branches of trees which are placed over the 
bed. They are taken off these branches, and are killed 
by being put into vinegar, in which they remain for six 
hours, after which they are thoroughly washed in clean 
water. Girls take the worms from the water, break them 
in half with their fingers, exposing the one, two, or three 
yellow sacs which each worm possesses. This is a deli- 
cate but very sickly operation, and great care is necessary 
in the handling of the worm. The ends of each sac are 
taken between the thumb and finger, and gently but firm- 
ly pulled out as far as the sac will go without breaking, 
considerable skill being required in drawing to keep the 
now elongated sac and contents as round as possible. The 
ends of the sac are secured, and the gut and its envelope 
placed so that they may dry and harden. Each strand 
when dry has a yellow appearance, the color being due 
to the surrounding sac, its shape being more or less round, 
and tapering more or less according to the care taken in 
drawing from one end to the other. 
It is interesting to note that, even in worms of the 
same size, there is not the same number of sacs, some 
worms possessing gne, others two or even three sacs. 
The strands, tied up in bundles, are now turned over 
to the finishers, and their first operation is to remove the 
outer skin or sac which surrounds the gut proper. This 
is done by steeping or boiling the gut in water, to which 
is added some soap and soda. The skin is then easily re- 
moved by drawing through the fingers. The color is 
now a dirty white. It is now washed several times in 
clean water to remove all traces of soap and soda, and 
then bleached. This bleaching process may be performed 
by damping and exposing the gut to the action of sun- 
light, or it may be chemically treated. The former pro- 
cess is the slower, but the more natural and the safer way, 
though from inquiries which have been made, it is as- 
serted that in the hands of a skillful operative no injury 
is done to the gut by adopting the chemical method. 
It has now a rather dull, certainly by no means a shiny, 
appearance, and it is, from an angler’s point of view, 
quite a question whether it would not be better to omit 
the polishing process altogether. This polishing is per- 
formed by rubbing each strand (held by the teeth and 
hand) with wash-leather. It is now sorted according to 
length, strength, and thickness into the various qualities, 
an operation requiring very great experience and judg- 
ment. It is now tied up in hanks of one hundred and 
made up into bundles of one thousand or ten thousand, 
and is ready for export. It is usually classified thus : 
Retina, very finest; Fina, fine; Regular, of a medium thick- 
ness ; First and Second Padron, thick ; Marana, Imperial 
and Hebra are very thick and strong, suitable for salmon 
fishing. All the above are undrawn, that is, they have 
not been through a drawing-plate to level them. 
Drawn Gut. — In order to level the thicker, and to make 
finer the finer qualities for the market, the strands are 
drawn through steel plates, or even through minute cir- 
cular apertures in precious stones set in the drawing- 
plate. This makes the strands perfectly parallel through- 
out and perfectly round, at the same time compressing 
and slightly elongating them. Thus gut of any desired 
fineness is obtainable. 
Staining. — This process' is performed by the action of 
chemicals, and the question is what chemical can be used 
to give the desired shade, and at the same time not in- 
jure the gut. In order to produce a neutral or slate color 
pounded logwood is steeped in water, to which is added 
a small quantity of copperas, but great care and skill are 
required or the gut is spoiled. 
The Keeping of Gut. — Opinions on this are very much 
divided, and it would be presumpuous on my part to sug- 
gest, as some anglers do, that all gut should be discarded 
at the end of the fishing season, and a new lot obtained 
at the commencement of another.^ Personally, I have 
found that gut if properly stored— ^that is, placed where 
the light is excluded and where the temperature is even — 
will keep for several years without undergoing much 
diminution in strength. 
Tying. — Into the question of knotting I do not pro- 
pose to go, beyond remarking that whatever knot is used 
it should be as neat as possible, and that the cast should 
be tested knot by knot and then in its entire length with 
such a strain that it is estimated the gut should bear. 
I desire to express my great indebtedness to Messrs. 
Allcock & Co., for their kindness in assisting me, and 
especially for the loan of such fine samples of gut in the 
raw, preparatory, and finished stages. 
The Discussion. 
In the discussion which followed much useful informa- 
tion was elicited, and the following questions were pro- 
posed. In order that definite information might be given 
in answer to these questions, it was agreed to adjourn 
the discussion, and after various authorities had been 
consulted, and a number of chemical, ph3'sical and micro- 
scopical experiments had been performed, the following 
results were obtained : 
I. Does drawing injure the gut? 
Drawing, when performed by an experienced workman, 
jnjur#6 the giit/yery little, but it teiids m produce a lia- 
bility to fray with usage. It decreases the diameter, but 
it is found that taking strands of equal diameters the un- 
drawn will support no greater weight than the drawn. In 
the undrawn sample the surface is smoother, as may be 
seen by comparing specimens of drawn and undrawn gut 
under the microscope. Minute roughnesses are visible on 
the surface of the latter, and these roughnesses become 
accentuated in use, and small fibres peel off, thus weaken- 
ing the gut as the diameter decreases. These roughnesses 
are to some extent got rid of by polishing the gut, and 
this should be done by rubbing in one direction only, that 
is, with the fibre. This polish, however, is just one of the 
things anglers do not require, as polished gut undoubt- 
edly scares the fish. The principal reason why undrawn 
gut is not so dependable, size for size, as drawn, is that 
inferior qualities of undrawn gut are often drawn, and 
appear to possess, except to the experienced eye, the same 
characteristics as undrawn gut. 
The only remedy which the angler has is to purchase 
from firms which will guarantee that the quality is of the 
best. If this be done one may now and then get a weak 
cast, but the chances of this happening are minimized. It 
is the falsest economy to buy inferior qualities, in this, 
as in most things. 
2. Is it not a fact that nearly all, and all the finer sizes 
are drawn? 
From inquiries made of one of the largest gut import- 
ers in the world, there is no doubt whatever that nearly 
all the finer, and all the finest casts are made up from 
drawn gut which has passed through the drawing-plate 
a greater ar less number of times. However, casts can 
be, and are, made from 6x drawn gut which will support 
a dead weight of one pound without breaking, A cast 
with less breaking strain than this would, in the hands 
of a skillful angler, be sufficiently strong to kill a trout 
of two or three times this weight. 
3. Does boiling, to rid it of its sac, injure the gut? 
This depends largely on the manipulator. In the hands 
of a skillful workman no injury whatever results. 
4 and 5. Is the gut fibrous Or homogeneous? Has it a 
second skin? 
Transverse and vertical sections placed under a high- 
power microscope show conclusively that the only skin 
gut has is the skin of the sac, and this is only seen in the 
raw article. Microscopic investigation further shows, as 
one might expect from the evidence of frayed gut, that 
gut is fibrous, and not homogeneous throughout. The 
fibres, however, are very fine, and do not appear to be of 
any great length. 
6. Does staining injure the gut? 
The evidence on this point is that staining does more 
or less injure the gut, but in the hands of a skillful man 
this injury is reduced to a minimum. To show how care- 
ful one must be a prominent manufacturer volunteered 
the information that through some carelessness on the 
part of one of his employees over £200 worth of gut was 
spoiled. 
7. Which colored gut is the least visible to fish, for 
example, trout ? 
There is no doubt whatever that gut which most ap- 
proximates to water in color is the least visible to the 
eye of man, and probably to that of a fish. This color is 
a very light blue-green. 
White gut when placed floating on clear water has a 
whiter appearance, where the water and gut touch, than 
gut of a neutral tint. 
8. Does gut deteriorate with keeping? 
Definite information on this head is fortunately forth- 
coming. 
Gut can be kept several_ years if stored in a temperature 
of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit in a room from which the 
light is carefully excluded, but it seriously deteriorates 
if kept in too warm a place. Mr. Allcock says : “You 
need not discard gut unless worn out by use. Keep it in 
wash-leather in a drawer in your bedroom.” 
Whether soaking in certain preparations tends to in- 
crease the life of gut or not I am not prepared to assert 
or deny, as I have no experience on this point. I have 
tried soaking in glycerine, but I have not given it a suffi- 
ciently long trial to enable me to speak with certainty 
either one way or the other. 
Commenting on Mr. Elder’s lecture, Mr. R. B. Marston 
writes in the Fishing Gazette : 
“With reference to the keeping qualities of gut, Mr. J. 
W.' Martin, the fishing-tackle maker, sent me recently an 
old tin box containing flies gn gut, with the maker’s note 
referring to them, made over seventy years ago. I tested 
some of the gut, and it is perfectly sound, and the flies 
and hooks are as good as when made. The secret is that 
they have been all this time, in an almost air-tight tin box 
in a dry desk, where the owner had put them about 1830 
and forgotten them. I must refer to the flies again pres- 
ently, but it is interesting to find gut keep good so long. 
I agree with Mr. Eldred that light seems to be prejudicial 
to gut, but damp and dust are worse. I think the best 
gut I ever saw was some unbleached gut, which evident- 
ly had never had the outer skin or sac removed by pulling 
between the nails, as described by Mr. Eldred — it came 
off as a brittle brownish skin, and left the gut exactly like 
threads of the purest colorless glass. Can no manufac- 
turer put some gut like that on the market? 
“I remember being told by the manufacturer at the time 
that unless the gut was bleached there would be no 'n'T- 
ket for it. It seems to me that this is a case where trade 
traditions stand in the way, and the consequence is that 
anglers have to resort to coloring the gut with ink or 
other dyes in order to get rid of the effect of the bleach- 
ing. Consequently the gut is rendered more or less 
opaque, whereas if unbleached it resembles nothing so 
much as colorless water. Several firms now claim to have 
gut manufactories in Spain. Can they not get over some 
best gut in all sizes before any bleaching has been done, 
and also before any skin has been removed? 
“If the s^in peels off when dry, as it did in the samples 
sent to me, there is absolutely no difficulty about that, 
and no soda or soap is required — anything caustic must 
dull the natural transparency. Probably I shall be told I 
know nothing about the requirements of the gut trade, to 
which I shall reply that if gut is naturally transparent 
and colorless to bleach it and dye it shows the trade do 
not understand the requirersents of anglers. 
‘T think it is probabk that gut was originally raamv • 
