32 
LANDING AND BAIT-TCETS, &C. 
good quality, and carefully used, will outlast anything of the 
kind which can be procured. 
It is used singly, twisted, aqd plaitted for lines, leaders or 
snells, for hooks. The smallest sizes are used for trout, and 
the larger, when of superior quality, are highly esteemed 
and in great demand for salmon or bass. 
Leaders are made from the above-mentioned article, 
twisted horse-hair, and India grass, and should always be as 
light as possible. 
LANDING AND BAIT-NETS, GAFF-HOOKS, AND 
CLEARING-RINGS. 
In the pleasure of anticipation, the enthusiastic fisherman 
is very apt to forget many little things which are very im- 
portant items in the success of his day’s sport ; among these 
are the articles enumerated above. 
The Landing-Net in ordinary use is made of linen twine, 
or fish-line, sixteen inches in diameter, and about two feet in 
depth, with a mesh of three-eighths of an inch, and is at- 
tached to a stout wire ring, of iron or brass. The latter ma- 
terial is better adapted to the purpose, for the reason that it 
does not corrode the net, whereas with almost every precau- 
tion, the former cannot be prevented from acting on the 
twine. The handle should be made of stout hickory or ash, 
and not less than five feet in length. A very convenient form 
of this net is now made, and which occupies about half the 
space of the ordinary net. The ring or hoop is composed of 
three joints or hinges, by which it is folded into a very port- 
able shape. The handle to this contrivance, in order to carry 
out the principles of its space-ecouomizing inventor, is made 
of three joints, which slide into each other like a telescope, 
or, as Blaine, in his “ Rural Sports,” calls it, “ a swallowed- 
up handle .” 
