THE SPLIT BAMBOO FLY- RODS. 331 



progress they are making with the split bamboo fly- 

 rods my piscatorial friends in England are looking so 

 anxiously forward for. Acting on the impulse of the 

 moment, I jumped into a street car, and soon reached 

 my destination. A fishing-tackle establishment has 

 always been to me a place of great attraction. True, 

 I had been at this one several times before, but never 

 with sufficient spare time to overhaul and examine the 

 numerous objects of interest that there, on every hand, 

 surround you, with that attention and care that each 

 deserved. And as the proprietors had always been 

 civil and kind on previous visits, I doubted not that 

 they would pardon my prying curiosity. Reach- 

 ing the front of the establishment, which has its 

 special-lib well marked by an immense rod projecting 

 over the pavement, a show-case filled with flies of 

 every size and colour, artificial baits so numerous that 

 they must be nameless, reels, flies, books, &c. &c., and 

 a window crowded with piscatorial attractions, of which 

 not the least attractive is a six-pound trout, I turn 

 the handle and enter. Before me extends an immense 

 room, about a hundred feet long, the upper portion 

 enclosed for an office, while the long walls on either 

 side are stored with every machination the fertile brain 

 of man ever invented to entrap the unwary inhabitants 

 of the liquid element. 



