"Drawn are the rinks where lines and curves combine, The tee, the house, hog score and central line; The cramps are laid, the champions ready stand, With eye intent and trusty broom in hand."
Those who decide to include this game in their activities should put themselves into touch with the Royal Caledonian Curling Club through its honorary Secretary, A. Davidson Smith, Esq., at the headquarters of the club, York Place, Edinburgh. They will then be able to obtain the rules for the proper playing of this delightful game.
$Hints by an Old Hand.$--When fishing in ponds, lakes, meres, canals, or in waters where there is no stream, the depth should be carefully taken the night before, or when ground-baiting, and marked on the rod, or by measuring the distance from the plummet to the cap of the float with a piece of cotton or string. If the angler prefers the bait to be within touch of the bottom, the better plan is to use a self-cocking float, and always use the finest possible tackle in clear water; but if an ordinary float be employed, and the novice wishes the bait to lie six or eight inches on the bottom (a good plan), the lowest shot should be from 15 in. to 20 in. from the hook. This will neither interfere with the proper cocking of the float nor with the angler striking, for, from the moment the fish seizes the bait to the indication of a bite, the resistance of (at most) two or three small shots is infinitesimal. If the bottom be at all muddy, then the plummet should be as light as possible, or into the ooze it will sink, and when this is known to be the case, the depth may be obtained by the aid of a small pellet of bread and bran. Should it drop off the hook before the depth is obtained, the pellet should be made a little stiffer. A piece of "tea lead" from a tea-chest, or lead wire, similar to that used on the gut in Lea fishing (some use nothing else), may be carefully tied round the bottom of the float, to make it cock without using any shots on the tackle, and painted the same colour as the float, or, failing this, the usual self-cocking float sold at the tackle-shops may be used.
Gentles should be kept in plenty of damp sand for a few days in an earthenware pan, biscuit-tin, or tin pail, in a cellar, or any dark, cool place, when they will be ready for use. The sides of the pan or tin should not be allowed to get wet, or many of the gentles will make their escape. They should be kept in what is termed golden sand. This sand, which should be damp, is almost as fine to the touch as barley-meal, of a deep rich golden colour, and they will live in it for days without turning into the chrysalis state, which they do in a comparatively short time if exposed to the sun--a practice to which many anglers are addicted, and then wonder the gentles change colour. It is a great mistake to use silver sand, as it over-scours and makes them attenuated and hard. I have repeatedly seen them in this state. So much for sand. The finest gentles I ever saw were obtained from the best rump steak and a sheep's head, and kept in coarse bran; but for taking out the black steck or "saddle-back" near the head, and scouring them until perfectly white, give me the sand mentioned above and plenty of it.