42 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 



time elastic to admit of being used in such small bulk 

 in a single piece. Thus in light trouting rods it will 

 very often be found in slips a yard long and tapering off 

 at the end to a substance little thicker than that of a 

 stout darning needle, whilst a 7-foot joint averaging about 

 the circumference of a swan-quill, is the very common 

 " lash" of a Castle Connell. 



In consequence of its great weight, greenhart is only 

 used for butts when they are very slender or tapered 

 rapidly off from the handle, as in the rods turned out by 

 the Irish tackle makers. 



Joints of this wood are hardly ever perfectly straight 

 when fresh cut. They are bent or " warped" straight 

 by hand pressure over a charcoal fire, and when cool 

 retain, at any rate for a long time, their symmetrical 

 shape, much as does the originally straight walking-stick 

 handle its crooked one after a somewhat similar process, 

 — though I believe in this latter case the softening 

 medium is water and not fire. Notwithstanding this 

 " ductility" of some, indeed most, woods, there can be 

 no doubt that the straighter a joint comes ori- 

 ginally from the steel of the sawyer, the straighter will 

 it remain in the hands of the fisherman. A joint 

 that comes out straight from its seasoning hardly ever 

 becomes permanently crooked afterwards, and per 

 contra, one which is radically warped at the end of 

 this process will as seldom be made really straight, or 

 remain so for any length of time, however it may 



