158 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



will serve the purpose ; exceed it, and the very best 

 fails. A strip of the weakest pine can be so reduced in 

 thickness as to successfully pass this vaunted test. It is 

 absolutely no indication whatever of the strength and 

 elasticity of the material of which a rod is composed, 

 unless at the same time its length and calibre are taken 

 into the account. To the judicious, therefore, a state- 

 ment of this kind not only utterly fails to convince him 

 of the excellence of the rod in question, but even raises 

 in his mind a strong presumption that every quality of 

 real value has been sacrificed, for what he will hardly fail 

 to think is a catchpenny purpose. There are good rods 

 with which this may be done, but in my judgment they 

 would have been far better, and practically much more 

 agreeable and efficient in use, had they been given suffi- 

 cient "backbone" to render this impossible. I have 

 stood upon a boom of logs, and, with a split-bamboo of 

 some eight ounces weight, successfully withstood every 

 effort of a freshly fastened four-and-a-half -pound trout, 

 in the full vigor of perfect health, to regain the shelter 

 from which he had been seduced by the delusive fly. 

 The rod bent under, and recovered from each fresh ef- 

 fort, as we sometimes see the water-level fluctuate in 

 the glass gauge of a steam-boiler the resistance always 

 in exact equilibrium with the pressure upon it. The 

 tip never came near the butt, though at times perhaps 

 nearly upon the same level ; nor was this a very stiff rod, 

 nor one with which casting was other than a pleasure. 

 The truth is, the ultimate strain which a fish can impose 

 is grossly exaggerated in public opinion, as we have en- 

 deavored to show elsewhere. A firm, but above all things 

 a steady pressure, the most vigorous of them strive in 

 vain successfully to resist. The result for some time 



