30 The American Salmon- fisherman. 



of eighteen or twenty feet, it is incomparably superior in 

 the comfort its use will afford, as well as in its control 

 over a heavy fish. It is not the actual weight of a rod 

 in avoirdupois ounces which fatigues the angler, but the 

 leverage against him. To lift a given length of line, or 

 to impose a given strain upon a fish, with an eighteen- 

 foot rod, must necessarily require a far greater effort on 

 the part of the angler than if the rod measured but fifteen 

 feet. All agree that to cast all day with a salmon-rod is 

 really hard work even for the able-bodied. But in view 

 of the preceding considerations, it may well be ques- 

 tioned whether one half of this is not often absolutely 

 waste labor. 



I therefore recommend the purchase of an American 

 rod, or at least one made upon the principles accepted 

 and acted on by American rod-makers; and, unless the 

 purchaser be one " the muscles on whose brawny arms 

 are firm as iron bands," I would recommend fifteen feet, 

 or that and a few inches, as a quite sufficient length. 

 Not to Goliath of Gath, would I recommend a rod much 

 exceeding sixteen feet. 



Indeed, where the fishing is open and fortune smiles, 

 after the wire-edge of the appetite has been taken off by 

 the capture of a reasonable number of salmon with the 

 double-handed rod, so that the loss of a fish is not too 

 harrowing, I question whether strict angling morality 

 does not thereafter require us to resort to a single-handed 

 rod of ten feet six inches to eleven feet in length, and 

 of from nine to tea ounces in weight, particularly if the 

 fishing is so remote from communication that the fish 

 cannot be sent out, and the supply exceeds the camp 

 needs. For a fly-fisherman to condemn fish legitimately 



