172 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



our purpose. The rod-cedar is darker in color, harder, 

 heavier, stronger, and much stiffer. I have never been 

 able to find it at the wood-dealers in the vicinity of New 

 York, and am inclined to believe that if it is used at all 

 in the arts, it is so but sparingly. 



The wood in question is the product of the cedar of 

 our northern seaboard, notably of Long Island. It 

 grows in poor soil and is apt to be scraggy. Its sap 

 wood is white, its old wood dark red. Certainly a rod 

 well proportioned, from a good, straight-grained speci- 

 men of this wood, for lightness and promptness of ac- 

 tion cannot be excelled. Strain it as you will short 

 of the breaking point, it will take no set, nor will any 

 change in its feel show that its powers have been over- 

 taxed. But it is the weakest of all material used for 

 that purpose, and only fit for a dilettante angler who 

 fishes open water where there is no danger of a foul on 

 his back cast, and who is ever on his guard to give the 

 fish no opportunity to strike his fly when the rod is ap- 

 proaching the perpendicular. For a rod of this wood 

 the ferrules should be considerably larger than for the 

 preceding. 



MAHOE.* 

 Specific gravity, 0.6607. 



For this wood I have quite a predilection, not shared, 

 it must be confessed, by the majority of those who have 

 used it. It is a native of Cuba, grows to a considerable 

 size, and is there used for the springs of their peculiar 

 two-wheeled vehicle the " volante." In color it closely 



* Rods are on the market under the name of " Maltese wood," the 

 material of which I am unable to distinguish from mahoe. 



