76 SALMON AND TROUT. 



joint, carrying also its own ferrule, is not in any appreciable 

 degree fined or thinned away at the point of junction. In fact, 

 as will be seen from the engraving, the upper half of the brazed 

 plug representing, in fact, the lower end of the upper joint 

 is quite as thick as the joint itself is above the fastening. 



The only possible inconvenience that I see in this fastening 

 is that, should either the lower or the upper ferrules get dinted, 

 or damaged in any way, the joint will, of course, absolutely fail 

 to close. But in order to make such a contingency impossible 

 all that is necessary is that the fastenings should have plugs for 

 both halves of the joint. When once jointed together and in 

 position I think the fastening would be less likely to be dinted 

 or bulged than any other, being treble indeed, practically 

 solid at the point of danger. 



Mr. Farlow has exhibited a joint on entirely different prin- 

 ciples, namely, that of a movable screw-band attached to the 

 top of the lower ferrule (vide diagram, fig. 8) which, when the 

 joints are in position, is screwed upwards, gripping the screw 

 above the brazed plug. The joint when finally adjusted appears 

 as shown in fig. 7. 



This joint has, like all the other fastenings described, the 

 merit of being waterproof. 



Lastly we have Messrs. Hardy Brothers' 'patent lock-fast' 

 joint, which is also waterproof and thoroughly sound and ser- 

 viceable. The method of fastening the attachment is shown in 

 fig. 9 of the engraving, where the two portions of the joint are 

 seen separate, whilst fig. 10 shows the joint when locked and in 

 position. 



The spiral wire on the outside ferrule gives some additional 

 strength where most required, and Messrs. Hardy's system of 

 brazing an additional short ferrule, the same size as the outside 

 ferrule, on the top of the inside one, is a decided advantage as 

 it strengthens the joint just at the point where so many break- 

 ages occur, and is superior to the plan sometimes adopted of 

 putting the inside ferrule on flush with the wood. 



Amongst these several rod fastenings the fly fisher can 



