FROM " GAME FISH OF TEE NORTH." 189 



wrists are of bone, muscles, cartilages, and the like, the 

 lighter the better. A rod — and if perfection is absolu- 

 tely indispensable, a cedar rod — of eleven or twelve feet, 

 weighing nine or ten ounces, will catch trout. Cedar 

 rods can only be obtained in America, and then only on 

 compulsion ; but this wood makes the most elastic rods 

 in the world. They spring instantly to every motion of 

 the hand, and never warp. They are delicate. The wood 

 is like woman — cross-grained, but invaluable, if carefully 

 treated. The reel should be a simple click, never a 

 multiplier, but large-barrelled, and fastened to the butt 

 with a leather strap. The line silk, covered with a prep- 

 aration of oil, tapered, if possible, at each end, and 

 thirty to forty yards long. The basket — positive — a fish 

 basket ; the angler — comparative — a fisherman. 



Thus equipped, go forth mildly, approving where the 

 writer's opinions coincide with yours, simply incredu- 

 lous where they do not. 



****** 



There are several ways of landing a trout, but not all 

 equally sportsmanlike. Large trout may be gaffed ; 

 small ones landed in a net ; and where neither of these 

 means is at hand, they must be dragged out of the 

 water, or floated up among the bushes, according to the 

 taste of the angler and the strength of his tackle. 



A tyro was once fishing in the same boat with me, 

 using bait, when he struck his first trout. One can 

 imagine how entirely misspent had been his previous 

 existence, when it is said he had never taken a trout, 



