CUM'. XX. 



!'<> rules. 



301 



6 inches or a foot. But then he would probably have to have it 

 specially built for him. 



A button at the bottom of a Mahseer rod is a very great relief from 

 the puin which a sharp end to a rod gives when pressed continuously 



a-ainst your side in playing a, bi^ fish. In 



a cold climate like England an india-rubber 



knob is commended MS a luxury, but I don't 



know that I would advise it for Indi.-i, as I 



doubt if it would stand the climate. Still 



if it fails it will screw out and you can 



revert to your wooden button, on which 



many a good man in India has killed many 



times his own weight. It will screw into 



the same place, and as the forms of both are much alike one illustration 



will equally serve to explain the technical term button. 



Ferrules. The old ferrules are out of date. Though the eye 

 ini^ht 'not detect it till educated to do so, they were cone-shaped 

 and tapered too rapidly, and consequently did not bite all the way 

 down, but at only a small point. Metal turning by engine is now 

 reduced to such exactness that an error of a thousandth part of 

 an inch is considered a misfit, and ferrules are now made to fit so 

 exactly that even the air cannot escape, and you hear it expand on 

 being released by the withdrawal of the 

 joint. From the noise thus made these 

 are called in the trade suction joints, 

 because a name is wanted, though there 

 is and can be no suction. It is that the 

 ferrules are more nearly parallel and fit 

 closely all the way down. They never 

 slip loose and need no binding together 

 as the old ferrules did. 



The lock-fast joint is another ex- 

 pedient which answers admirably. One 

 of these two, the former for preference, 

 you ought to have on any new rod, for 

 tying the joints together was a trouble, 

 and if neglected a worn joint often got loose in the course of the day, 

 and then the rod would not cast well, and there, was danger of a 



