tly, when the night proves Dark, and Cloudy, you
need not trouble your self the next day, 'tis to no purpose, _&c._

III. For providing _Stocks_, the best time is the Winter _Solstice_,
when the Sap is in the Roots of Trees, and their Leaves gone. It is
improper after _January_, the Sap then ascending into the Trunk, and
expending it self over all the Branches. See that your Stocks be
_Taper-grown_, and your Tops of the best _Ground-Hazle_, that can be
had, smooth, slender, and strait, of an Ell long, pliant and bendings
and yet of a strength, that a reasonable jerk cannot break it, but it
will return to its first straightness; left otherwise you endanger your
Line. Keep them two full years, before you use them; having preserved
them from Worm-eating, or Rotting, by thrice a year rubbing, and
chaffing them well with Butter (if sweet) or Linsed or Sallet-Oyl; and
if Bored, Oyl poured into the Holes, and bathed four and twenty hours in
it, and then thrown out again, will exceedingly preserve them.

The line, to make it neat, handsom and strong, twist the Hair you make
it of _even_, having seen if the Hair be of an equal bigness; then steep
your Line in Water, to see if the Hairs shrink, if so, you must twist
them over again. The Colour of the Hair is best of _Sorrel_, _White_
and _Grey_; _Sorrel_ for muddy boggy Rivers, and the two last for clear
Waters. Nor is the _Pale watery green_ contemptible, died thus: Take a
pint of strong _Ale_, half a pound of _Soot_, a little of the Juice of
_Walnut-Leaves_ and _Allum_; Boil these together in a Pipkin half an
hour, take it off, and when 'tis cold, put in your Hair. In making your
Line of Hair mix not Silk; but either all Hair, or all Silk; as likewise
distinguish the Line for the Ground Angle, and that for the Fly-rod, the
last must be stronger than the first; in that for the Artificial Fly,
making the uppermost Link twenty Hairs long, less in the next, and so
less till you come to the Fly. Lastly at each end of your Line make a
Loop (called a _Bout_) the one larger, to fasten to, and take it from
the top of your Rod, and the other Lesser to hang your Hook-line on.

Your Hook must be long in the shank, something Round in compass, the
point strait and even, and bending in the shank. Set on your Hook with
strong small Silk, laying your Hair on the inside of the Hook.

Your _Flote_ challenges divers ways of making. Some using _Muscovy_ Duck
quills for still Waters. Others the be