338 TROUT AND ANGLING. 



" in icy fetters bound,") to include such as are de- 

 signed, in England and Scotland for each particu- 

 lar month. 



A pocket-book, not only well supplied with ar- 

 tificial flies, but with such materials, particularly 

 feathers, as enable him to repair his losses, and 

 imitate nature upon the spot, is an important arti- 

 cle of the fly-fisher's equipment ; his rod, howev- 

 er, deserves the first consideration. The wood is 

 hickory ; it is twelve and a half feet long ; it has 

 but three joints, which are ferruled only on one end 

 for the sake of lightness; the butt is solid, very 

 large in the hand, and tapers very suddenly ; into 

 the end of it a spike of five inches in length, 

 thin like a knife, is made to screw, for the purpose 

 of supporting the rod upright in the ground, as this 

 is a position in which it is least exposed to dan- 

 ger ; the length of the spike is required to give it 

 firmness in the ground in which it is thrust, which 

 is often of a sandy or mossy nature — finally, when 

 put together, it weighs but thirteen or fourteen 

 ounces without the spike, and may be held all day 

 at the extremity, or, as some prefer, above the 

 winch, without the least fatigue, and is under as 

 much command as a coach-whip. A reel or winch 

 is indispensable ; it should be such as is called 

 multiplying, with which advantage is taken in ex- 

 hausting the fish, by winding up the line with greater 



