Pods and Rod Material. 187 



resembling the lean of the boiled salt-beef of the sailors. 

 It has been used in this country for bows, but the deal- 

 ers say it is principally employed for making violin bows, 

 to the wood of the red and more usual variety of which 

 it certainly bears the closest resemblance. 



It has been sparingly used for fly- rods. Though I 

 have worked this wood for other purposes, I have never 

 either made, or seen a rod which was made from it. But 

 aside from its great weight, which is but little less than 

 that of snakewood, I should think it would serve well 

 for butts and middle joints, if these were arranged as 

 suggested under the head of snakewood. Its market 

 price is from twenty to twenty-five cents a square foot. 



PADDLEWOOD. 

 Specific gravity, 0.8363. 



This wood is another native of British Guiana. It is 

 there known among the English-speaking portion of that 

 community by the name given above and as " Roller- 

 wood," and among the natives as "Yarura" or"Massara." 



This wood was first called to my attention by Mr. H. 

 L. Leonard, the well-known rod-maker, and subsequently 

 by Mr. A. N. Cheney. To the latter and Mr. Charles F. 

 Orvis I am indebted for a specimen. It is a large tree, 

 attaining a height of eighty feet and a diameter of five 

 to six feet. The trunk presents a singular appearance, 

 as though composed of a central mass from which radi- 

 ated a number of flanges six to eight inches wide, and 

 about two and a half inches thick, thus closely resem- 

 bling a coarse cog-wheel. From these flanges the na- 

 tives make their paddles; hence the name. One traveller 

 describes it as appearing as though a number of small 

 trees had grown together, and that this extends the en- 



