FISHING TACKLE AND HOW TO MAKE IT. 



513 



of tip below terminal ring, three thirty-seconds of an inch. 

 Fig. 2 shows a section of the wood from which the rod is 

 made, and the method of cutting it out. The dotted hnes 

 represent the shape of the strips when they are planed down 

 to the proper angle for greatest strength. 



Fig. 2. 



The apparent fragility of this rod does not indicate its 

 actual strength. I have, during five seasons, used mine on both 

 Bass and Trout, and the largest Bass was six pounds. It is 

 to-day as straight and strong as when I got it from the maker. 

 There is nothing to be said against the solid-wood rod — if 

 properly made. Several kinds of wood are in popular use, 

 and the favorites, both in this country and England, are 

 greenheart, blue mahoe, lance-wood and hickory. Occasion- 

 ally one meets with ash, but it is seldom used, except for 

 butts. Lance-wood and greenheart (bethabara I hold to be 

 a species of greenheart, and very unreliable at that) — are the 

 chief of these four, and may be said to be preferable above 

 all the solid woods used in rod-making so far. 



The split-cane Salmon-rod is but an enlarged edition 

 of the split-cane Trout fly-rod. I have seen a very good 

 specimen of the kind of rod used on the Restigouche. The 

 specification of this rod was furnished to j\Ir. Chubb (Rod- 

 maker, Port Mills, Vermont) by Dr. Baxter, weighs from 

 twenty-five to twenty-eight ounces, and is composed of eight 

 strips, therefore being octagonal. It is four-joi'nted, sixteen 



