Fishing Eods. 133 



an authority on such fish, would be best equipped to furnish • 

 specifications for the most desirable rods." 



Split-Bamboo Eods. 



A first-class split-bamboo rod is the ultima thule of rod 

 making. In its construction great care and skill are exer- 

 cised. The material is carefully selected by an expert, as 

 the several sections for a joint must be perfect and of the 

 same weight and bend, in order to secure homogeneity and 

 perfect action. This requires technical skill and intelli- 

 gence of a high order. But the cheap and shoddy kind 

 sold in department stores is made of refuse cane by un- 

 skilled labor, and is sold at a small advance on the cost of 

 production. A hard wood rod at thrice the price is in- 

 finitely better. 



I consider the split-bambocrod to be the greatest inven- 

 tion ever made pertaining to the art of angling, equaling 

 the invention of the breech-loading rifle and shot-gun for 

 field sports. 



The history of the "split-bamboo," "section-bamboo," 

 or, as it is sometimes called, the " rent and glued bamboo " 

 rod, although of comparatively recent origin, dating back 

 only some sixty years, is somewhat obscure. Several per- 

 sons have laid claim to the^ invention, though with what 

 justice it has, heretofore, never been clearly determined. 



There is, perhaps, no important mechanical invention 

 that has, in its inception and principle, sprung entirely 

 and spontaneously from the brain of any single individual ; 

 and this will apply to the split-bamboo rod as well, for 

 though purely an American invention, as now constructed, 

 the idea, or principle, is really of English origin. Eods 

 formed of several pieces of hard wood, that is, from two to 

 three longitudinal sections mitred and glued together, were 



