464 MODERN SEA FISHING 



seasoned, and in Italy and all the way east the two joints are 

 sometimes connected by a rough ferrule ; but more frequently 

 the cane sections, as in China and Japan, are made to fit into 

 one another. When this is done the transaction is signed, 

 sealed, and delivered by tight whipping with strong wax thread 

 to avoid splitting. This, of course, would not be a rod fit for 

 salmon fishing, and it is deficient in what the connoisseur 

 would call action. But it answers the purpose for which it is 

 used passing well. From the point of the rod a wire, twisted 

 hair, or spunyard loop is bound, and the stout end of the line, 

 like a hunting thong, is attached. 



The fisherman at Nice has no bother with a winch, and 

 therefore requires no stand-up rings. With his primitive rod 

 he manages his fifteen or twenty yards of horsehair line, taper- 

 ing from seven or eight to two or three strands, with consider- 

 able efficiency. Small round corks, like the pike fisher's pilot 

 floats, are placed along the line, the first two or three yards 

 from the hook, the rest dotted at intervals of four or five feet. 

 An ordinary sea hook is snooded to the line, and the bait is 

 one of the ragworms found near the mouth of the little stream 

 which runs into the sea a few yards east of the pier. The 

 fishermen must obstinately stick to the old plans, or they would 

 have learned by this time that a finer hook, quite, as strong, 

 would be much more suitable for the inconveniently delicate 

 character of the bait. The anglers stand close together, gener- 

 ally near the point where the little river enters the sea, and the 

 fun is considerably increased by the habit of the sea mullet in 

 feeding close to the shore. The angler, having baited, walks 

 into the sea, hook in hand, and line coiled loosely round the 

 rod. By swishes backwards and forwards the line is gradually 

 released, and the man dexterously lets go at the right time, 

 swings the baited line behind him, and with a neat forward sweep 

 sends it out into the water outside the breakers. No lead is 



