THROWING THE FLY. 101 



must endeavour to impart the requisite force to 

 the top of the rod ; and that only as though in 

 fact the top were held back, and the rod bent, 

 and then suddenly released. With a single- 

 handled rod it is performed by a twist, as it were, 

 of the wrist, raising suddenly the uppermost part 

 of the fist grasping the rod, when the spring 

 backwards is given ; and, with a similar impulse, 

 depressing it in the throw forwards. With a 

 double rod the lower hand being the pivot on 

 which it acts, the upper hand moving with the 

 forearm on the elbow, as the pivot is thrown 

 backwards or forwards about a foot only, the rest 

 of the arm remaining still. You should also aid 

 and increase, if necessary, the spring, by moving 

 the fist inwards or outwards as the throws back- 

 wards or forwards are given : i. e. letting your 

 clenched fingers approach or recede nearer to, or 

 further from your ear than the wrist joint does. 

 Both in single and double rod throwing that 

 which entitles the motion to the name of a spring 

 or jerk, is a sudden momentary restraint; when 

 in the one the fist is raised or depressed, or in the 

 other when the upper hand is thrown backwards 

 or forwards, for a second after, all motion is 

 checked ; and as the whole rod acquires a motion, 

 and the check is felt later in its top than its 

 centre, the former darts forward from its original 

 impetus; just as a man's head would were he in 



