The Split Bamboo Rod. 599 



rod. The date under which Mr. Aldred claims, I have never been 

 able to find. It was, however, previous to the Crystal Palace Exhib- 

 ition in 1 85 1. There were three exhibitors in the Exhibition at the 

 Crystal Palace at London in 185 1, viz.: Ainge & Aldred, J. Ber- 

 nard, and J. K. Farlow. The rods exhibited were all of three long- 

 itudinal sections, the whole length of the cane, and not in sections 

 between the knots and glued. Ainge & Aldred also exhibited the 

 same rod at the Exhibition in 1853 at New York. 



The first record I have been able to find of the construction of 

 the split bamboo rod is in Ephemera's (Edward Fitzgibbon) "Hand- 

 book of Angling," second edition, page 255, London, 1848, where he 

 recommends a tip for a salmon rod to be made of bamboo cane rent 

 longitudinally into three wedge-shaped pieces, then glued together 

 and reduced to the proper tapering thickness, ringed and whipped 

 with unusual care and neatness. He adds: "I have changed my 

 opinion with respect to rods made entirely of rent cane or any other 

 wood rent. Their defects will always more than counterbalance 

 their merits." 



I have not been able to see a copy of the first edition of 

 Ephemera's book, which was published in 1844, in which he had 

 evidently recommended the rent and glued rod, the book not 

 being in the Lenox or Astor library or in any private library that 

 I know of. 



I now quote from Blacker's " Fly Making and Angling," London, 

 1855, page 82: 



• I he rent and glued-up bamboo cane rods, which I turn out to the greatest per- 

 fection, are very valuable, as they are very light and powerful, and throw the line with 

 great fa< ility." 



The first edition of this book, published in 1842, I have also not 

 been able to consult. The author was a practical rod-maker, and 

 made the split bamboo rod I refer to in the beginning of this article. 



In 1856 there was published in London an edition of Walton's 

 "Complete Angler." edited by Edward Jesse, with notes and papers 

 on fishing-tackk by the publisher, Henry G. Bohn. On page 325, 

 in the article on rods, he says : 



• i'hc split or glued-up rod is difficult to make well, and very expensive. It is 

 made of three pieces of split cane, which some say should have the bark inside, 

 outside, nicely rounded." 



