52 SALMON FISHING 



the life it had when the sap rose through it in the 

 recurring spring ; you can, as you cast, actually feel 

 it quivering, not with weakness, but with a spirit as 

 of tempered steel. In short, when there is even a 

 slight wind to be contended with, a built-cane rod, 

 although it be of the best type, seems rather languid; 

 but, even in a considerable wind, the greenheart thrills 

 and is game. 



This, which I discovered on a trout lake, is partly 

 true on a salmon river. The greenheart is the more 

 mettlesome weapon. On the other hand, the differ- 

 ence between salmon rods is not so perceptible as 

 that between trout rods. As the built-cane rod 

 grows in size it seems to grow also in the quality 

 that is desirable. That, I daresay, is partly because 

 it has a larger and sterner heart of steel. At all 

 events, it is so good that one could scarcely wish for 

 a better. You can use a built-cane rod in practically 

 absolute confidence that it will not break. Para- 

 doxical as the statement may seem, the built-cane 

 rod, though each piece has six strips, or it may be 

 eight, is more nearly a natural product than a rod 

 of any other wood. Hickory, greenheart, and lance- 

 wood pieces are sawn from a plank, and only by a 

 very rare accident are they ever, when finished, 

 perfect. Plane and file have had to cross the fibre, 

 and not infrequently the pieces are apt to snap. 

 Besides, however long and carefully they may have 

 been kept before being manufactured, these woods 

 seem never quite to settle so much, in losing sap, 

 that they can shrink no more. Thus, in course of 



