THE TREATISE. 23 



respect, he was so equipped. True, his rod, 

 which must have been between twelve and 

 eighteen feet long, seems large to our thinking. 

 It must not be forgotten, however, that its 

 hollow butt and hazel middle joint made it light 

 for its length. Cotton, too, who fished skilfully 

 enough to satisfy the most critical, used a rod 

 fifteen to eighteen feet long, a single-handed 

 rod too. The fact is that before the reel was 

 invented the long limber rod was essential if 

 you were to kill big fish without being broken, 

 and indeed long rods survived years after the 

 invention of the reel, for as late as the first half 

 of last century Ronalds says that a strong man 

 can use one of fifteen feet. The short rods we 

 now use are a modern invention. 



The one exception to the excellence of Dame 

 Juliana's tackle is her line. It must be 

 confessed that she did not fish fine. In fact, 

 very much the contrary. Lines are to be used of 

 varying thicknesses for different fish, starting 

 with a single hair for the minnow, and running 

 up to fifteen hairs for the salmon. The trout 

 is to be fished for with a line of nine hairs, and 

 the great trout with one of twelve. It must 

 be admitted that these are monstrous thick 

 lines. Lawson, writing one hundred and 

 twenty years later, tells you to use a line three 

 hairs thick : and Barker, thirty years later 

 still, says that you can kill the greatest trout 

 that swims on a single hair, if you have sea 

 room, and that a single hair will kill five trout 



