94 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



foot rod may be sent through the air as fast as that 

 of a twelve-foot one ; and, therefore, if the angler 

 was standing on an elevation of six feet, he could 

 throw almost as long a line with the small rod as he 

 could with the large one standing on a level with the 

 water. But standing on the same level he could not 

 do this, because with the short rod the line would 

 come into contact with the water long before it had 

 reached its full length ; so that upon the altitude of 

 the point of the rod, or the time the line gets to go 

 forward without touching the water, depends the 

 length of line that can be thrown. 



Now, supposing the angler holds both rods in his 

 hand, at a distance of five feet from the ground, the 

 altitude of the point of the six-foot rod will be eleven 

 feet and of the twelve-foot rod seventeen feet. But 

 as substances fall faster every succeeding moment, 

 instead of the times which the lines take to fall from 

 the respective rods being in the proportion of eleven 

 to seventeen, they will be nearly in the proportion 

 of seven to nine ; and since the length of line that 

 can be thrown depends entirely upon the length of 

 time it gets to go forward, seven to nine will also be 

 nearly the proportion of the lengths of line that 

 can be thrown. Now, if twenty-one feet is the 

 utmost length of line that the small rod will throw, 

 the large one will throw twenty-seven, or six feet 

 more. Besides this, there are six feet additional 

 length of rod. But as both rod and line are at 

 an angle with the water, the whole gain will only 

 be about nine feet additional command of water. 



