WOODS USED FOR RODS. 5] 



a capability of being highly wrought and polished, not 

 found in any other wood. The great objection to 

 lance-wood is its weight and consequent tendency, 

 when used as a top-piece along with different woods, to 

 injure or discompose the just and desirable balance of 

 the rod. In order to obviate this, rod-makers are 

 now in the habit of constructing the top -lengths, 

 partly of lance-wood and partly of bamboo. The 

 bamboo portion consists of a thin slit or slits de- 

 tached from one of the jointed divisions of the cane. 

 This is rounded off and otherwise cut and planed, 

 so as to admit of being accurately glued on to 

 the lance-wood section of the intended top-piece, the 

 parts thus annexed being afterwards strengthened by a 

 wrapping of waxed thread and coatings of varnish. 

 Rods constructed almost entirely of bamboo are in use 

 in some parts of England, but they do not suit our 

 Scottish rivers, being possessed of little throwing power, 

 and adapted more for trolling with and the pitching 

 out system, peculiar to some localities where pike are 

 fished for. Of other woods used by rod-makers, I may 

 mention log and purple wood, which are frequently 

 employed in the construction of the angler's weapon by 

 Irish artists. They are not, however, much appreciated 

 in Scotland. 



THE FERRULE. In my younger days, I preferred to 

 any other the Scotch screw-joint, as a mode of affixing 

 the lengths or parts of a fishing-rod. I am now con- 

 vinced that the English system is a better one; namely, 

 that of simply introducing the lower end of each length 

 into a corresponding sheath or socket in the division it 

 surmounts. This socket is fenced round with a project- 

 ing portion of brass tube, which accords in thickness to 

 the end or joint it is intended to receive. A fastening 



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