Chatt. win. The Maimer Bod 235 



An ordinary ferruled rod is the general favourite, and though 

 glue dissolves in the damp, and wood shrinks in the drought, of a 

 climate which runs to extremes, still, if the ferrules are all ri vetted 

 inside and outside, as a good rod should be, they will stand. Kline 

 have had a pretty lively experience, in as much as 135 inches of 



rainfall in two months, and have consequently had a constant 



glue-melting atmosphere, besides a very bone-drying one at other 



times. 



But be very careful how you choose your rod, for it is to be 

 your best friend in Mahseer fishing. < »n no account huy one of 



those stiff, almost pike, rods ordinarily advertised as Mahseer rods. 

 I know there are those who commend them, and that it is on that 

 account that they are so made and SO styled. I suppose, also, that 

 the commenders thereof are held to be law-givers in the matter of 

 rods, or the trade would not follow them. < >ne such writes to the 

 "Field," under the oame of " Barkis," and I will not do his view of 

 the ease the (injustice not to state it fully. I will also give you 

 the opinions of another writer, equally unknown to me, a 

 writer to the " Asian," under the name of " Doon," one, however, 

 whom I gauge from his writings to be an expert. lie entirely 

 disagrees with " Barkis," and goes further even than myself in the 

 opposite direction. While you read what " Barkis " says about 



rods, complete his argument by noting also what fearfully heavy 

 tackle he has to use on his still' roil, nine strand gut traces ! Hi- 

 rods are, in my humble opinion, specially designed to smash anj 

 ordinary tackle. I argue as I have argued above, that it is not the 

 heavy fish, hut the heavy rod, the barge pole, that smashes the 

 tackle. But I will not repeat the argument, I will rather beg 

 your re-reading of it in this connection, and the tackle-makers 

 reading of it asset forth on page 4 o. I will only add to those 

 remarks that all the experience and talent of England, Scotland, 

 Ireland, Norway, and Canada has devised i-i the capture of a fish, 



the salmon, that shows much and runs up to 70 lhs. 01 



thereabouts in weight, a thin;.; called a salmon rod, certainly not ,, 

 died Mahseer rod ; and no proper reason has been shown to my 

 thinking why a fish, the Mahseer, thai exhibits the selfsame 

 qualities, in a somewhat higher degree, should be best captured by 

 an implement devised on opposite principles. I hold that the 

 principle adopted by all the salmon fishing skill of the world is the 



