68 The Atlantic Salmon 



materials used, but in the manufacture of this 

 implement, and the adoption of the tension screw 

 to regulate the pull required to take off the line 

 has been of the greatest service to anglers. The 

 general reduction in weight is hardly less useful, 

 although a reel may be too light for the rod as 

 well as too heavy. A multiplying reel, or one 

 which may be changed from a click to a multi- 

 plier, is not thought nearly so good as the plain 

 click reel. A wide spool on a reel is objection- 

 able on account of the tendency of the line, when 

 reeling in rapidly, to become unevenly distributed 

 on the spool, when the coils which are above the 

 general level are apt to slip down and cover a 

 part of the line more lately reeled in, fouling it so 

 it will not render. With a narrower barrel to the 

 reel this risk decreases, but still exists in a modi- 

 fied form ; and one should, in the most exciting 

 period of taking in line, try to so guide it with 

 the thumb of the left hand that it is evenly 

 wound on the barrel of the reel. It is easier to 

 do this when the reel is on top of the rod in play- 

 ing a fish, as it uniformly is in this country, than 

 when it is kept underneath, both in casting and 

 when a fish is hooked, as is generally the British 

 custom. To my mind, the advantages of our 



