136 AMATEUR EODMAKING 



with narrow steel ribbons both methods 

 clumsy attempts to bolster up an article that 

 evidently needs heroic treatment. 



There are firms in the United States that 

 make up butts and joints and strips of split 

 bamboo and ship them in very large lots to 

 Great Britain. These are made by machine 

 from all grades of cane. The query naturally 

 suggests itself, Do these parts appear later in 

 the British market as British rods? 



At another time Mr. Marston said: 



" I think the first Englishman to make the 

 modern hexagonal American split cane rod 

 known in England was a man I knew a good 

 all-round sportsman, who hunted, shot, and 

 fished in all parts of the world, well known in 

 sporting literature as * Ubique,' which well de- 

 scribed his roving spirit; his real name was 

 Parker Gilmore. ... In 1869, in his inter- 

 esting book, * Gun, Rod, and Saddle/ he had 

 referred to American fly rods. On page 251 

 he says: 



" ' Next to the cedar rod, but one that will 

 stand any amount of fair work, is the split 

 bamboo; this, I think, can be procured even 

 lighter than the former. There is a firm, the 

 Messrs. Clark [evidently Clerk] of Maiden 

 Lane, New York, who make this a specialite. 



