CLEARING KING, AND ROD SCYTHE, 19 



is to be bound over with leather like a whip- 

 handle. Thus you have the hoop and handle of 

 your landing net, to which your own ingenuity 

 must tell you to attach a net of sufficient size ; 

 and the whole machine is so light, that by a loop 

 of string of the upper broad part you may carry 

 it handle downwards at the river side, suspended 

 to a hind button on your coat, and moreover if 

 you are careless, drop it behind you and never 

 miss its weight ! 



Clearing Ring. — You must also have a 

 brass -jointed clearing ring and strong line of 

 considerable length attached to it. This often 

 proves serviceable in breaking off any improper 

 attachment which your fly may form for sticks or 

 stumps at a distance in the water ; and you should 

 never fish in any way without it. 



Rod Scythe. — The rod scythe is a machine 

 for the like use as regards trees on land, and is 

 similar in shape to a reaper's hook, somewhat 

 like a note of interrogation (?) It is made very 

 small and light, of good rough steel, with the 

 inner edge very sharp. That part which answers 

 to the handle in the reaper's hook, is hollowed so 

 as to receive the point of a rod; and to use it, 

 you attach it to the cord of your clearing ring by 

 a loop or hole with which it must be provided. 

 Its use is this, that when your fly gets hung up 

 in a tree in a place where the length of the rod 



c 2 



