A MOST IMPORTANT IMPLEMENT. 211 



ably greenheart, and next to it hickory ;" adding that they 

 in the British Isles had tried bamboo, and found it a failure. 

 He also thinks that ferruled rods are better than spliced ones 

 for general use, and shows, by comparing their weights, that 

 the ferruled ones are not appreciably heavier. Since Mr. Fran- 

 cis gave an opinion against a bamboo rod, Dr. Clerk, of tin- 

 firm of Andrew Clerk & Co., has visited Scotland in the sal- 

 mon season, and carried with him a split bamboo rod made by 

 their house. I have seen the same rod used in Canada, where 

 it was pronounced, by such competent judges as officers of 

 the army, the best they had ever seen in use. The doctor 

 stated that to be the opinion of the anglers and experts in 

 Scotland. This is the fourth season that it has been used, 

 and, though it has played and killed many salmon weighing 

 from twenty-five to thirty-five pounds each, yet it has never 

 started in any part, but appears as good as new. Having 

 seen it used by the side of Castle Connell and Martin Kelly 

 specimens, I frankly confess that the split bamboo is vastly 

 their superior in delivering a fly at a great distance, and re- 

 trieving the line ; in playing a large fish while the angler is on 

 the shore of a wide, rapid river, and in all the essentials 

 which conduce to elegance and satisfaction in salmon-fishing. 

 The rod is twenty feet long, and not more than three fourths 

 the weight of a greenheart or hickory of the same length. 

 The reel is attached to bands from eighteen inches to two 

 feet above the end of the butt, as easier to hold while racing 

 down a river with a salmon. By the use of a couple of feet 

 below the reel, the angler may place the butt under his left 

 arm, and, with the rod perpendicular, let the rod and reel do 

 their duty, while he runs an unequal race along a rocky shore, 

 tangled with shrubbery and fallen timber. I sincerely be- 

 lieve that the split bamboo is the perfection of a salmon-rod. 

 Its make is a secret, but there is no doubt that the butt and 

 second joint are corked with hickory or some one of our 

 tough woods. The only part of the rod which is bamboo is 

 the outside, composed of the outside and tough part of the 



