60 Big Game Fishes 
essary, as a good line will last a season through 
if well used, but it illustrates the fact that some 
anglers take no chances. The reel most in 
vogue is made especially for the purpose; it 
is as well put together as a watch, and costs 
from thirty dollars upward. It is of rubber and 
silver, and is so perfectly adjusted that a whirl 
of the handle will cause it to run some time. 
It must have a capacity of eight hundred feet 
of number twenty-one line when wet. It should 
have a melodious click, and a drag to prevent 
over-running, and attached to the lower or upper 
cross-bar there should be a leather pad lined 
with moose hide. This is the brake par excel- 
dence, used by pressing it upon the line with 
the thumb, and it should never be used unless 
the line is wet, as the friction will burn the 
line. The reel should always be lashed to the 
rod. As to the line, there are several makes 
in use. What is known as twenty-one cutty- 
hunk and one or two others especially made 
have all been tested on the tuna grounds. One 
particularly good line is of Irish linen, hand 
laid; the twenty-one tested to pull forty-two 
pounds dead weight; the twenty-four, forty-eight 
pounds; the eighteen, thirty-six; the fifteen, 
