12 RODS OF DEFECTIVE BALANCE. 



and it can be stained and polished to an}^ colour 

 or brilliancy — to that of old oak or rose-wood, to 

 which elbow-oil for years has been assiduously 

 applied. It is vastly preferable to lance-wood. 

 The top-joints of salmon-rods should be of the 

 finest bamboo cane, and I see no objection to a 

 short piece of lance-wood at their thick ends. 

 Every salmon-rod should have two small-pieces 

 and three tops, one of which, for strong w^ork, 

 should be made of rent and glued bamboo cane. 

 These spare small-pieces and top-joints are pre- 

 cautionary, but by no means uselessly so. They 

 are remedies for breakage in those joints where it 

 is most likely to occur. 



The best materials will avail little, if the rod- 

 maker be not a good one. First-rate fly-rod 

 makers are scarce. Generally speaking, they 

 understand outward finish, and perform it well. 

 Balance is what they know least about, and no 

 wonder, since very few of them, in London at 

 least, are fly-fishers. If a rod fail in due and 

 equalised balance from butt to tip, it will be 

 cumbersome, fatiguing, and of unsatisfactory and 

 irregular action. There will be more play in 

 one joint than in another ; elasticity, weight, and 

 strength, or their opposite?, will be irregularly 

 distributed, and all the advantages of equi- 



