4^ The American Salmon-fisherman. 



example, should turn out such wretched ferrules on their 

 rods. Their patent-list, their angling books, and the 

 advertising columns of their fishing papers, bristle with 

 devices to prevent ferruled fishing-rods from throwing 

 apart. Now, with our fifty-five millions of people, and 

 the great and constantly increasing popularity of angling 

 among them, it may safely be assumed that full as many 

 ferruled fishing-rods are in use here as in Great Britain, 

 if not more. How is it, then, that on that side of the 

 Atlantic some device to prevent the joints of a ferruled 

 rod from throwing apart is thought absolutely necessary, 

 while on this side such a device is thought to be abso- 

 lutely useless ? 



This tells the whole story. While we are altogether 

 indebted to England for the art of fly-fishing, and while 

 we have learned and have still much to learn from 

 there, it may well be questioned whether, in all that 

 relates to the mechanics of the art, fish-hooks excepted, 

 we are not in a position to repay her some of our many 

 obligations. 



When a salmon takes the fly and starts for a run, his 

 mind is fully made up. He is an obstinate brute, and 

 run he will. He may leave the fly behind, or take it, or 

 it and part of the leader with him; but at all events he is 

 bound to go. If the performance is not to end before 

 the curtain has fairly risen, it is essential that the line 

 suffer no check beyond the steady drag imposed by the 

 click of the reel. An enamelled water-proofed salmon- 

 line is an expensive thing, and the less it is worn in use the 

 longer it will last. If, on the other hand, a small linen 

 line be spliced to twenty-five or thirty yards of the more 



