THE ROD. 63 



that power can be obtained, supposing the rod 

 be correctly made in other respects. It must be 

 obvious that considerable care should be taken in 

 the selection of this important implement, seeing 

 that upon it so much of the angler's success de- 

 pends. To insure a good cast, or to strike and 

 play a large fish properly with a bad rod that is 

 to say, with a rod which is either too pliable in 

 the lower part, and top-heavy, or else too rigid 

 throughout and of too cumbrous a size amounts 

 to sheer impossibility. We shall endeavour to 

 point out, before we have done, what we conceive 

 a good rod to be, and although our notions may 

 not exactly square with those of many other 

 writers on the subject, we hope the reader will 

 not on that account find them the less worthy of 

 his attention. 



A good rod does not begin to play much till 

 about the middle, whence its elasticity increases 

 upwards in proportion with the gradual tapering. 

 It is made of such just and correct proportions, 

 and its pliability is so nicely regulated, that, 

 whatever be its weight, it balances so well in 

 the hand as to feel very light and free in 

 using. Such a rod is to use a figurative phrase 

 a rara avis a thing so seldom met with as to 

 become a curiosity a piscatory treasure ever 



