The Anglers Companion to the Rivers And Lochs of Scotland

quality either being intrinsically finer, or more attention is paid to its manufacture and getting up. It is not nearly so long as some of the Sicilian article, which evidently is produced from a larger variety of silk-worm. This advantage, however, in the latter, is counterbalanced by the coarseness of its texture, as well as by the want of roundness and equality in the, thread or fibre. Good useful gut is always distinguished by the possession of these two properties. It should also be quite transparent, not lacteous in its appearance, and free withal from flaw, film, and flossy matter. In Syria, also, a considerable quantity of this article is manufactured and used by fishermen on the clear waters of the Mediterranean. I was presented with several parcels of it lately, one or two of which, containing some hundreds of threads, are really excellent, almost as strong and round as the best Spanish gut, and of fully twice the length. Attention, I understand, has recently been directed to its manufacture in that quarter; and we may hope, ere long, for supplies of an article greatly superior to any at present in use. The descriptions of gut most difficult to procure, are those used for fine trouting and for salmon fishing. What intervenes betwixt the above-mentioned sorts is abundant enough, and very excellent hanks of this accommodating description may be picked up now-a-days, at a small expense. Still it is desirable that the angler have a larger choice of the qual...