FASTENINGS FOR JOINTS. 7 



eventually killing, a fine game trout of l or 2 Ibs. 

 weight, which is sometimes to be met with in that 

 river ; when lo and behold ! just when a few turns 

 more would have brought him a gasping and unresist- 

 ing captive to the shore, the upper portion of his rod, 

 which had become loosened by the extra strain, sud- 

 denly parted from its socket, and left the butt sticking 

 up in his hands like a dismembered flagstaff, while the 

 top went gaily careering down the line, far into the 

 rapids beyond. Mr. Fish, not at all relishing this fresh 

 act of aggression on the part of his antagonist, however 

 unintentional it might be, at once dashed off in high 

 dudgeon straight down stream, until, the line being all 

 run out, a most determined flounder and a highly indig- 

 nant flourish of the tail at once announced the un- 

 welcome intelligence that the trout was off, to iny poor 

 friend's unutterable mortification. But this salutary 

 lesson, though dearly purchased, has not been entirely 

 lost upon him; for, I believe, he makes it a constant 

 practice to tie the joints of his rod together ever since 

 with the strongest whipcord he can lay his hands upon. 

 But to return to the subject of fastenings. Several 

 methods are adopted, but the best and least troublesome, 

 to my fancy, is the bayonet-joint, 

 of which Fig. 1 is the socket 

 portion ; in which the slit a, on Fig. i. 



the top of the female ferrule, into which a knob soldered 

 upon the hoop of the male ferrule inserts itself, is shown, 

 and by a twist so far round becomes securely locked 

 precisely in the same manner as a bayonet is fixed upon a 



