98 TROUT FISHING 



ing with a long large arc; the top joint is the 

 greatest point for attention, as unless it be very 

 carefully made, the rod will be either top-heavy, 

 or the action of the rod will not be proportionally 

 and uniformly diffused over the entire length ; a 

 too heavy or too stiff top will throw too much 

 action on the middle joint, and a too light and 

 limber top will make the rod like one of those 

 tandem whips, which have a long piece of whale- 

 bone at the finer end ; it will, indeed, be flicking 

 about and partaking almost as much of the course 

 and direction of the line as of the rod itself. But 

 we have said that a four- jointed rod is most con- 

 venient, and on the whole, for general purposes, 

 the most desirable; the butt of this rod may be 

 either ash or hickory ; I should prefer the former 

 and the same caution as to large size should be 

 remembered in this as in the three-jointed rod. 

 The second and third joints are usually formed 

 both of hickory and the top, cane. The great- 

 est possible care should be exercised in selecting 

 cane or bamboo for rod-making some, or indeed 

 most of the bamboo is so thin that when it is 

 worked down and made round, the remaining 

 wood for the joint will be found of unequal tex- 

 ture, in part hard, corresponding to the outer 

 enamelled surface of the cane ; and in part soft, 

 corresponding to the inner or hollow portion of 

 the wood ; which, in endogenous woods, such as 

 cane, nourished from the interior, is always po- 

 rous, and consequently soft, and unfitted for the 

 purposes we require of it. We must, then, always 



