IDEAS ON FLY- FISHING. 237 



that they do not deserve, but their price is necessa- 

 rily high, from the care with which the cane has to 

 be selected and put together. 



When I was a boy, I believed Flint and Martin 

 Kelly, both of Dublin, before all other makers. I have 

 used their rods over a great portion of England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, and did not, until I used the 

 cedar rod, believe that any rod ever was made that 

 could compete with theirs, but so it is, and so it will 

 continue to be. Old bluff-bowed lumbering packet- 

 ships sufficed our fathers to go to India ; now we have 

 the P. and O. service, with rail across the Isthmus, 

 and it is far from probable that this means of transit 

 will always suit our children. If Joe Manton was 

 to arise among us, I doubt much if he could hold his 

 own among modern gunmakers. 



Some persons, particularly Irish fishermen, are at- 

 tached to double-action rods; that is, rods which 

 have so much elasticity in them, that they display 

 two movements, one up and the other down, when 

 suddenly used. I do not like them, for more than 

 one reason ; the movement of the wrist in striking the 

 fish, while raising the butt, throws the tip down, thus 

 giving quite a contrary motion to what is intended. 

 Again, if you have to fish against the wind, they 



