30 The American Salmon-Jisherman. 



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 ten 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 



