48 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 
and this condition will, I believe, be found to be fulfilled 
by the pattern of ring of which the engraving, enlarged 
for the sake of illustration, is a copy— 
ee (ae ® 
—E ~ es 
Es Se oll! 
This is, in fact, to a certain extent, a modification or 
adaptation of the principle of the pronged ring recom- 
mended for the bottom joint. After being lapped over 
to within about half-an-inch of the ring, the wire is made 
to branch out in the shape of a V, the upper points or 
sides forming a continuation of the ring itself. These 
sides act as a sort of guard to the ring to throw off the 
line, if it should curl over, much as the sloping sides of 
a gate, on a barge walk throw off the towing-line ; 
whilst the position of the ring—~hat of inclining tm- 
wards towards the butt of the rod, instead of outwards 
from the ~goint—makes it almost impossible for the 
line by any effort of ingenuity to get above it so as to 
“hitch,’—the head of the ring, in fact, forms an acute, 
instead of an obtuse angle with the rod. 
FERRULES. 
One word as to ferrules. These should always be 
“hammered,” and not “tube-cut.” To show the vast 
difference which there is between a good and a bad rod, 
even in such an item as ferrules, a brief explanation of 
