THE REEL. 81 



merely an axle passing through a very contracted 

 frame, and turned by a simple handle. But it 

 must not wind too freely, or the line will be apt 

 to over-run, and to be constantly getting en- 

 tangled from the too easy and unchecked revo- 

 lution. This over-freedom of motion is usually 

 guarded against either by the application of a 

 " click," which acts in a manner somewhat similar 

 to a railway break, or else by the action of a 

 spring placed between one of the fixed and re- 

 volving plates. Perhaps the latter is the neatest 

 and simplest plan, but we confess to a partiality 

 for the click, and chiefly on account of its music. 

 It produces the 



" Something in that circling wheel 

 Which wakes the heart's emotion." 



" Novelties" (as the drapers say) in "the 

 article " of reels, are occasionally presented to the 

 notice of the angling public; but, like many 

 novelties of other kinds, they have, generally, 

 but little of intrinsic excellence to recommend 

 them. Many which have fallen under our notice 

 were evidently the production of parties whose 

 knowledge of the use of the articles they made 

 was infinitely surpassed by their mechanical skilL 

 The reel should be firmly attached to the rod in 

 G 



