34 The American Salmon-fisherman. 



and must be protected with assiduous care when the rod 

 is apart. Nay more, if really crowded into a corner, an 

 admission may be extorted that it is rare to find a spliced 

 rod of two or more seasons' use, the thin ends of the splices 

 of which are not split or broken. 



But nothing is absolutely perfect in this world. Is not 

 a rod all in one single piece the ideal rod ? And what is 

 a spliced rod when joined together but a single-piece rod? 

 " Pretty must hurt." We do submit to some inconven- 

 iences, but we obtain thereby the true ideal a degree of 

 perfection unattainable in any ferruled rod! 



This sounds rather plausible. But before we are talked 

 into any really revolutionary action let us consider the 

 matter a little. 



When a fishing-rod is straight, if we limit our attention 

 to any short portion of its length, its sides may be con- 

 sidered as parallel and of equal length. Now let us bend 

 the rod, and, confining our attention to the same part, 

 see what takes place. The upper and lower sides of the 

 rod are no longer straight, but each has assumed the form 

 of an arc of a circle, one arc lying within the other, and 

 both having a common centre. That arc most distant 

 from the centre must therefore be the longer, and the arc 

 nearer the centre must be the shorter. And such is the 

 fact. In bending the rod we have stretched the fibres of 

 the upper and compressed those of the under portion of 

 the rod. It is the reluctance of these fibres to submit to 

 this distention and compression which is the stiffness of a 

 rod, and it is their promptness to return to their original 

 condition which constitutes its elasticity. 



We have now clearly in mind that in bending a rod we 

 stretch the upper and condense the lower side, and that 



