38 FLY FISHING, 



requiring much greater skill and trouble to fabricate them than 

 the commoner sort, yet they are the only kind worthy of gracing 

 an angling rod. As for those slit down in the manner of key-rings, 

 which some writers have recommended, they are both clumsy and 

 heavy, and the only use to which they should ever be applied, is 

 to supply the place of a ring that may become unsoldered during 

 the course of a day's fishing, as the common sort of rings above 

 alluded to are very apt to do ; though even in these instances a 

 common ring, if at hand, tied on with a turn or two of coarse 

 waxed thread, will be found to answer the purpose far better. 

 Now all this most assuredly seems entering rather fully into 

 minutiae ; but minute matters are oft of great importance, and 

 depend upon it, a well-ringed rod is almost as essential to an 

 angler's success as to his comfort ; for as a valuable horse may be 

 ruined outright for the want of one nail only in his shoe, so may 

 the enjoyment of a good day's sport be utterly frustrated by the 

 loss of one ring only on a fly rod, particularly when it occurs on 

 the top, as the uneven strain caused by the wide gap between the 

 rings, may enable the first weighty fish to snap it asunder, when 

 perhaps the loss may prove irreparable, as the greater number of 

 persons who style themselves anglers, are as capable of repairing 

 a fracture of this kind as they are of discovering the longitude, 

 and yet the greater part of these sportsmen never dream of the 

 result of inattention to these minute matters, till they suffer the 

 inconvenience incurred in consequence of it. Whenever, indeed, 

 I have inspected the fishing rods of my acquaintance, I have gene- 

 rally found that after the first shine is taken out of them, it is as 

 rare to see one possessing a complete equipment of rings as to 

 meet with a fading beauty who has retained her full compliment 

 of teeth : though the deficiences in both these instances, if only 

 to a limited extent, frequently escape the notice of casual observers. 

 Rods after the shine is rubbed out of them do indeed sometimes 

 retain all their rings, and beauties on the wane, sometimes all 

 their teeth, but these are rare occurrences, and therefore the more 

 remarkable whenever they happen. 



Now as to the colour of the rod, most who have fished much, 

 and myself among the number, seem to think it ought to be of 

 an uniform dark colour. Others, however, prefer something 

 pretty and gay ; and a friend of mine a short time since rejoiced 

 not a little in being the owner of one of a bright yellow colour, 



