194: PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



excellent. They should always be held in dupli- 

 cate. One is apt to be over-timid who has nothing 

 to fall back upon in case of breakage ; and nothing 

 is more fatal to success and nothing more unplea- 

 sant than the constant fear that an extra pressure 

 may snap things and exhaust one's resources. The 

 best of tackling and plenty of it is the only safe 

 rule. If, as in my case, no breakage happens, you 

 will still have the satisfaction of knowing that you 

 are prepared for the worst. My rod and line of 

 last year served me through this, although my three 

 hours and twenty minutes fight with my last fish 

 caused such a perceptible weakening of one joint 

 of my rod as to indicate that a few more such 

 struggles would cause a rupture. I would sincerely 

 regret such a calamity, for, by the verdict of every 

 expert who has handled it, as well as by the verdict 

 of my own experience, a better salmon-rod, in 

 strength and elasticity, never responded to the cast 

 of an angler. And yet it is one of the plain sort, 

 of medium cost and beauty, like some fast steppers 

 you occasionally meet with, u nothing to look at 

 but great to go." It springs, with mathematical 

 exactness, from tip to butt, and only requires the 

 gentlest effort to launch out a sufficient cast to 

 cover any pool of ordinary circumference. Two 

 of our party had superfine split bamboos, upon 

 whose construction as much skill had been dis- 



