30 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



These are the best. Never select a bright, glisten- 

 ing gut. Always search for the creamy looking 

 ones. The entire outfit need not cost (rod ex- 

 cepted) over ten dollars, and for all practical 

 purposes is as good as one costing a hundred. 



WHEEB TO BUY TACKLE. 



If you buy in I^ew York, go to J. Conroy, 

 Fulton Street. This house is noted for its rods. 

 No better single-handed fly-rod can be had than 

 you can obtain at Conroy's. A rod of three pieces, 

 twelve feet long, and weighing from nine to 

 twelve ounces, is my favorite. A fashion has 

 sprung up to fasten the reel on close to the butt, 

 so that when casting you must needs grip the rod 

 above the reel. This is a great error in construc- 

 tion. Never buy one thus made. The reel should 

 be good eight inches from the butt, and thus 

 leave plenty of hand-room below it. At Con- 

 roy's you can obtain such a rod, brass mounted, 

 for some fifteen dollars ; in German-silver mount- 

 ings, for seventeen. At other houses, for the very 

 same or an inferior article I have been charged 

 from twenty to twenty-five dollars. The first rod 

 I ever bought at Conroy's, some six years ago, 

 was a brass-mounted one, such as described above, 

 which I used constantly for four years, but which 

 I saw, on an evil day, go into four pieces, in a 



