SPLITTING OUT AND ASSEMBLING 51 



Exhibition, in 1851, at which Ainge and Aldred, 

 J. Bernard, and J. K. Farlow exhibited the imple- 

 ment. The Aldred firm showed their rod also at the 

 Exhibition in 1853, at New York. All these rods 

 were of three longitudinal sections, running the whole 

 length of the cane, and not in strips glued up with 

 staggered knots. In 1856 there was printed in Lon- 

 don an edition of Walton's Compleat Angler, with 

 notes on fishing-tackle by the publisher, Henry C. 

 Bohn. On page 325 he says: 'The split or 

 glued-up rod is difficult to make well, and very ex- 

 pensive. It is made of three pieces of split cane, 

 which some say should have the bark inside, some 

 outside, nicely rounded." 



In the first edition of his Handbook of Angling, 

 London, 1847, Edward Fitzgibbon quotes Mr. Lit- 

 tle, of 15, Fetter Lane, rod-maker to His Royal 

 Highness Prince Albert, and speaking of the top- 

 and middle-joints of a salmon rod, as follows: 

 " They are to be made from the stoutest pieces of 

 bamboo-cane, called ' jungle,' and brought from 

 India. The pieces should be large and straight, so 

 that you can rend them well through knots and all. 

 Each joint should consist of three rent pieces, . . . 

 and afterward glued together, knot opposite to knot 

 . . but the best part opposite to that which may be 

 imperfect, so as to equalize defectiveness and good- 

 ness. The natural badness of the cane you counter- 

 act by art, and none save a clever workman can do 



