122 THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 



secure. There are many more hitches, but these are 

 sufficient for the angler's purpose. 



Hollow Butt is now seldom used in a fishing rod ; 

 still, if the angler is having what is called a general rod, 

 where a nice style of casting is not aimed at, he will find a 

 hollow butt useful to carry a few tops of different lengths so 

 as to make his rod suitable for the style of fishing engaged 

 in. The butt to be hollow is necessarily thick, and not 

 much tapered, to permit a suitable cavity to be bored up its 

 entire length. It is clumsy in the hand and devoid of 

 spring, not at all suitable for fly casting. 



Hooks. These important necessaries of an angler's 

 outfit are numerous and varied. There are four distinct 

 recognized bends made by all hook manufacturers, namely, 

 sneck, round, Kirby, and Limerick ; and springing from 

 these four are many modifications, such as Sproat, 

 McKenzie, and others. No less than one hundred and 

 eighty different sorts, each having twenty to thirty sizes, 

 are in use, such as quadruple, treble, double, gorge, 

 lip, and snap hooks, eyed hooks of various styles, and 

 many others too numerous to give details of. Redditch 

 is the largest hook producing district, and several well- 

 known makers have their factories in that town, viz., 

 Messrs. Allcock & Co., Messrs. W. Bartlett & Sons, and 

 one or two others. The Redditch makers number their 

 hooks as follows : Round, sneck, or Kirby commence at 

 No. 17 as the smallest and run up to 10/0 as the largest. 

 The Limerick bends commence at No. 18, the smallest, and 

 run up to 10/0. These latter run larger than the other 

 three makes ; for instance, the No. 18 Limerick is about a 

 No. 16 of the others. The Kendal makers run their sizes 

 the reverse of the Redditch makers, hence there is a good 



