22 SCIENCE OF FISHING. 



but it is a very good wood. Greenheart is an excellent wood, 

 more pliant than lancewood and also harder and heavier. 

 It is not used in this -ountry as much as lancewood, and 

 it is said that for some reason good greenheart cannot be 

 imported, or if it is, it gets bad here in our climate. Of 

 this I do not know, but greenheart is the favorite rod wood in 

 England and the English greenheart rods are fine ones, 

 though heavier than the American rods, usually. Bethabara 

 is a fine wood but is not so common. It is more resilient 

 than either of the others. The wood is dark colored and 

 very hard and close grained. It is very strong and springy 

 and makes excellent rods. Another wood used by a Canadian 

 firm is called kaliki. This is a native wood, coming from 

 British Columbia. It is- said to make very good rods. 



Those who use solid wood rods are divided into as many 

 classes as there are kinds of wood and each defends valiantly 

 the wood of his choice, but the users of wood rods are in the 

 minority. The largest number of anglers in this country 

 pin their faith to the built-up rod of Calcutta bamboo. 

 These rods have each section made of six triangular strips 

 of bamboo, fitted perfectly their entire length and glued 

 together so that they form a six-sided strip, with the hard 

 outside part of the bamboo on the outside of the stick. 

 After gluing the wood is wound tightly with a cord and when 

 dry the ferrules are fitted and the sticks are wound at close 

 intervals with silk thread. This makes a rod much stronger 

 than any solid wood rod and it is exceedingly springy and 

 casts accurately. But it will be seen that such a rod, if 

 faithfully made requires a lot of labor and this naturally 

 makes it expensive. Carefully made, of first class materials 

 it makes the best kind of rod for any kind of fishing that 

 money can buy, but if poorly constructed or made of second 

 grade material it is likely to prove less worthy than the 

 solid wood rod. For this reason it is advised that when the 

 purchaser can afford to pay well for a rod he get the split 



