60 Big Game Fishes 



essary, as a good line will last a season through 

 if well used, but it illustrates the fact that some 

 anglers take no chances. The reel most in 

 vogue is made especially for the purpose ; it 

 is as well put together as a watch, and costs 

 from thirty dollars upward. It is of rubber and 

 silver, and is so perfectly adjusted that a whirl 

 of the handle will cause it to run some time. 

 It must have a capacity of eight hundred feet 

 of number twenty-one line when wet. It should 

 have a melodious click, and a drag to prevent 

 over-running, and attached to the lower or upper 

 cross-bar there should be a leather pad lined 

 with moose hide. This is the brake par excel- 

 lence, used by pressing it upon the line with 

 the thumb, and it should never be used unless 

 the line is wet, as the friction will burn the 

 line. The reel should always be lashed to the 

 rod. As to the line, there are several makes 

 in use. What is known as twenty-one cutty- 

 hunk and one or two others especially made 

 have all been tested on the tuna grounds. One 

 particularly good line is of Irish linen, hand 

 laid ; the twenty-one tested to pull forty-two 

 pounds dead weight ; the twenty-four, forty-eight 

 pounds; the eighteen, thirty-six; the fifteen, 



