LONG RODS WHEN NECESSARY 415 



a boat, It is at times necessary to make use of a some- 

 what longish rod. On the well-known Cruive pool in 

 the Beauly, I have used rods of twenty-two feet in 

 length, but it would be the height of folly to use 

 a longer rod than this; and, moreover, the use of such 

 is not only calculated to cause some considerable pain 

 to the sides and back of the fisherman, but may very 

 probably, as I have known, cause injury to the heart, 

 especially during the excitement produced when fish 

 are rising and sport is good. At first the mischief 

 is not felt and unsuspected, but in after-years all kinds 

 of ailments are apt to make their appearance from 

 the overstrain, to say nothing of a possibly affected 

 heart. 



I would, for a man of short stature, draw the line at 

 a salmon-rod of seventeen feet, and if he is weakly 

 I would reduce that length still further to sixteen feet. 

 The latter length is quite sufficient to kill any salmon, 

 and a greater length would only tire such an indi- 

 vidual in less than no time, and probably produce some 

 incurable malady. Many a man has ere this paid the 

 penalty of carelessness in this respect, and every sports- 

 man of experience is well aware that where brute force 

 has to be employed there is neither pleasure, science, 

 nor sport ; added to which, a man presents a somewhat 

 absurd spectacle in playing a salmon with a huge rod 

 the size of the mast of a ship. And the same remark 

 holds good when a man elects to kill trout on a salmon 

 rod ; there is absolutely no sport, for the fish are done 

 far too speedily, and their play and fight, the very 

 thing which so enhances the sport to a sportsman, 

 is neutralized. A sea-trout can afford just as much 

 sport, if an ordinary light, springy, twelve-foot rod is 



