FLY RODS. 27 



every rod ought to have in order to its general 

 preservation, w^ill remedy that inconvenience. 

 The advantages of sphced rods 1 conceive to 

 exist, in the spring being more true, and better 

 capable of graduation; while the w^oods vt^hich 

 compose it are lighter, and quite as strong as any 

 entire piece can be. 



In proof, it is very certain that in making a 

 top of an entire piece, it would be madness to 

 use a young shoot of any kind of wood ; as it 

 would contain pith down its centre, and could 

 not be so tough or strong as that of older growth. 

 It must therefore be cut out of a solid of more 

 seasoned stuff. Yet when it is planed down, 

 tapering to a fine point, the grain is cut through 

 obliquely and so rendered liable to split or peel ; 

 and the more it is reduced, it becomes limp and 

 worthless, instead of more elastic. I think the tops 

 made of entire pieces at Liverpool, of wood 

 coming from the Essiquibo River, are too stiff, 

 from the impossibility of reducing them sufficiently, 

 and are therefore objectionable for fly-rods, how- 

 ever desirable in other respects. If, on the other 

 hand, you take several pieces of wood, each 

 lessening in thickness as well as in fineness 

 of grain, and splice them together, inasmuch as 

 you are not required to cut through the grain to 

 taper them, (rubbing down with sand-paper being 

 sufficient to adapt the ends uniformly to each 



