5l6 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



ly trimmed, and in everything good for its purpose — catch- 

 ing big fish and killing them quietly; and if one needs a boat- 

 pole, on an emergency, he has just the implement handy. 



Not only has thQ vegetable kingdom been laid under contri- 

 bution for material in the manufacture of rods, but also 

 the mineral. Naturally, steel has come in for a share of at- 

 tention. Forty years ago old Giles Little, of Fetter Lane, 

 London — an enthusiastic fisherman and tackle-maker — 

 made a steel rod. It was simply a tapered steel-spring, 

 with a swelled butt or handle, and was light and exceedingly 

 powerful. I saw it and handled it, in 1879, and thought 

 then that the time was not far distant when a really efficient 

 jointed-rod of steel would be introduced to anglers. 



The thought is realized in the steel rod produced by the 

 Horton Steel-rod Co., and I have had the advantage and 

 pleasure of testing one of these rods with great severity. 

 First, I may premise that the ten-foot fly-rods will lift a 

 dead weight of ten pounds — there is no wood-rod fit for fly- 

 fishing that will do that — and in practical fishing they are 

 unbreakable, and as far as I have gone they don't rust. 

 They are made from fine sheet-steel, in tubes, not brazed 

 but brought round together without actual juncture. Some of 

 these rods are telescopic, and act very satisfactorily, if a 

 fine line be used; but a thick line is apt to cling to the large 

 surface of contact, because it runs through the interior of 

 the rod. These rods are, however, now made with guides out- 

 side, and the improvement makes an extremely useful rod 

 for rough usage — camping, etc. The temper of the steel is ex- 

 cellent, as it of course must be to be of any use. 



Other rods of whalebone — which trenches on the ani- 

 mal kingdom for material — made like a whip with braiding, 

 have been tried, and I myself once endeavored — and shall 

 do so again — to produce a rod of steel and vulcanite ; but 

 the split cane, as yet, is triumphant over all its competitors. 



