APPENDIX. 319 



month, more easily than a clumsier hook. The barb, too, 

 is small and gives less room for play and does not tear so 

 large a hole as a coarser hook. When fishing with a light 

 rod, this is a great advantage both in striking and playing 

 a fish. In fact it is almost impossible to drive a coarse 

 large barbed hook through the tough mouth of a black- 

 bass with the light rods that are now coming into favor.* 

 For fly-fishing there is no rod like a well-made round, 

 split bamboo ; but to be well made, and no other is really 

 worth having, a round eight-piece split bamboo is an ex- 

 pensive implement and costs a high price. But when 

 well made it is not only a thing of beauty and a joy for- 

 ever, but will stand an amount of exposure and hard work 

 not to be obtained from inferior rods. It has not always 

 been possible to obtain such implements in their per- 

 fection, as some manufacturers who have not had the 

 necessary experience, or who in their anxiety to produce a 

 cheap article have slighted their work, have given the split 

 bamboo rods a bad name. They should be made from the 

 upper part of the canes alone, as in that part the nodes 

 which give them their strength are the thickest. The 

 outside or glazed part of the cane should come on the out- 

 side of the rod, and the joints should be so perfect that 

 they cannot be traced by the eye, as if there is the least 

 opening water will get in and destroy the rod. While if 

 thoroughly well finished, they are the best article of their 

 kind, nevertheless greenheart, cedar and lancewood rods 

 all have their admirers, and in skillful hands will do effi- 

 cient work. Machine-made rods should be avoided by 



* Some of the illustrations in this volume have been furnished us by Messrs. 

 Wm. C. Harris, and Abbey & Imbrie. 



