ASH OR WILLOW BUTS. 29 



standing that a top maybe very well, in good hands, 

 without whalebone, I can at the same time see 

 no disadvantage in having it : and it is, assuredly, 

 less liable to fracture, (if fracture be possible), 

 than any wood of the same thickness could be. 

 Besides, as has been observed elsewhere, if, in 

 carrying a rod, you happened to poke it, point 

 foremost, against the ground, or a tree, it is ten 

 to one a wooden tip would fly, A recent work 

 on Fly-fishing, — Shipley and Fitzgibbon, at page 

 35, quotes Bambridge as an authority, and re- 

 commends that " whatever number of pieces the 

 rod is to be composed of, between the but and 

 the top-piece, they must all be cut from the same 

 log." This mode of advice I cannot understand, 

 for, in the following page, they recommend as 

 many various woods to be used in a rod as I do. 



Ash or Willow Buts. — According to the 

 work before alluded to, the but of a rod should 

 be of willow, on account of its lightness, rejecting 

 ash as too heavy. This merely alludes to trout- 

 rods, however, whilst my remarks equally apply 

 to those for trout or salmon. Willow is much 

 lighter than hiccory, and if you put an hiccory 

 joint above a willow but, how can you, unless 

 the but be very thick and clumsy, obtain an 

 equally graduated weight throughout the rod? 

 Besides which, you will find that weight in the 

 hand is advantageous, and surely a trout rod of 



