The Outfit — Bods. 37 



This, it seems to me, is the philosophy of the splice. 

 If so, then it is a delusion. The rod must be stiifer, and 

 must be more elastic at the solid, than at the spliced parts. 



I have seen many spliced rods in use. The foregoing 

 is, in great part, not the result of abstract reasoning upon 

 an abstract proposition, but rather of an effort to assign 

 a cause for results which obtruded themselves upon my 

 notice. 



Unless some adhesive — like glue, for example — is inter- 

 posed between the spliced surfaces, I believe a spliced 

 rod is just as defective as a rod joined with very long 

 ferrules. The defect, it is true, is in the opposite direc- 

 tion, but I am by no means sure it is not practically far 

 more objectionable. 



I have seen many a spliced rod, which, when it was 

 joined, was perfectly straight. But I cannot recall one 

 which did not show the " softness" of the splice when 

 bent, nor have I ever seen one which after a heavy and 

 protracted strain, such as that of fighting a salmon, did 

 not show a droop at each splice until straightened by ex- 

 trinsic aid. On the other hand, I have seen many and 

 many a ferruled rod in the bend of which the eye failed 

 to detect the slightest departure from a true curve, and 

 which recovered promptly and completely from every 

 strain. I will go still further: I believe and maintain 

 that, given two rods, — the one the ideal rod of a single 

 piece, and the second properly ferruled, both otherwise 

 precisely alike, — the most skilled, if blindfolded, cannot 

 distinguish the action of one from the other. 



I therefore recommend the American angler to set his 

 face as a flint against the propaganda of the splice. 



