142 WEIGHT OF THE SINGLE-HAND ROD. 



Altlred. This is one of the glued triangular spliced 

 rods, that is, the joints consist of three long pieces of bam- 

 boo cane, carefully fitted, glued up, and tied every inch and 

 a half. This rod, though a beautiful specimen of work- 

 manship, is rather tiring to tho arm, being a little top- 

 lira vy, and lacking the free spring of the last two, though 

 it has great power of resistance with a heavy fish. Length, 

 twelve feet four and a half inches ; weight, thirteen ounces 

 eight drains. 



That the reader may get an accurate comparative view 

 of these, I put them together : 



at. clrs. ft. in. 



1 Gould ... 13 12 ... 12 8 



2 Cheek .;. 14 6 ... 11 7 



3 Bowness ... 13 4 ... 11 8 



4 Aldred ... 13 8 ... 12 4J 



So that, after all, it reduces itself to a question of drams. 

 Well, if a horsehair can pull down the strength of a great 

 fish, a dram or two (no pun intended) may well pull down 

 the strength of the human arm. The great thing I 

 deduce from the above is, not to have a single-handed rod 

 the least top-heavy. The rod which figures as the heaviest 

 by ten drains in the above list is lighter to the feel and 

 easier to fish with than either of those numbered 1 and 4, 

 and yet it is ten drams heavier than one, and fourteen 

 drame, or nearly an ounce, heavier than the other ; and 

 this I hold to be a significant fact, because the introduc- 

 tion of greenheart and Castle Connel rods at one time 

 worked an entire revolution in this respect, and top-heavy 

 rods we're the order of the day, but I think that common 

 sense is setting all this right again. There is no doubt 

 that you can with these rods heave out more line, but if the 

 stream I desired to fish required long throws and more 

 power, I would not sacrifice comfort in fishing, but would 



