50 



Professor Rennie, quoting Bainbridge, says, 

 that "the best rods are made of ash for the 

 bottom-piece, hickory for the middle, and 

 lance- wood for the top-joints. If real bamboo 

 can be procured of good quality, it is prefer- 

 able to lance-wood. Rose-wood and partridge- 

 wood, from the Brazils, may also be used for 

 the top-pieces. The extreme length of the 

 top-piece is usually composed of a few inches 

 of whale-bone. The rings for the reel-line 

 may be made by twisting a piece of soft brass 

 wire round a tobacco-pipe, and soldering the 

 ends together. They ought to diminish in 

 size as they are made to approach the top, and 

 must form a straight and regular line with each 

 other when the rod is put up for use." 



In an old work, written about the middle of 

 the last century, entitled the " Sportsman's 

 Dictionary," the following directions are to be 

 found : "If you fish with more than one hair, 

 or with silk-worm gut, red deal is much the 

 best, with hickory top, and about four yards 

 long the whole rod; but for small fly, with 

 single hair, about three yards, very slender, 

 the top of the yellowish hickory, with whale- 

 bone about nine inches, and very near as long 

 as the stock ; the stock of white deal, not too 

 rush-grown; let it be thick at the bottom, 

 which will prevent it from being top-heavy, 



