140 Book of the Black Bass. 



" In his first experiments Phillippe made tips and second joints 

 of two, and then three sections of split-bamboo, enamel outside, 

 with butts of solid cane or ash. But these rods would not cast the 

 fly true. He then made the joints of four sections, and found that 

 they would cast perfectly in any direction. He then made com- 

 plete rods of four sections, including the butt, and later of six 

 sections or strips; the enamel was always on the outside. These 

 rods were for his o^vn use, but afterward he made some for his 

 friends, one of the first being for Colonel T. R. Sitgreaves, with 

 ash butt and joints of four-section split-bamboo. 



" His books show that the first split-bamboo rod sold was in 

 1848. This was a four-section rod in three pieces, all split-bamboo, 

 including the butt. His first rods were made certainly as early as 



1845. Solon Phillippe learned rod making, in addition to the 

 trade of gunsmith, from his father. In 1859 Solon made a com- 

 plete rod of six sections; the handpiece,. 18 inches long, was 

 made of twelve sections of hard wood. In 1876 he made a three- 

 piece rod, with handpiece of red-wood, and balance of rod of eight 

 sections or strips, four of split-bamboo, and four of snakewood, 

 alternating." 



Following are extracts from letters relating to this sub- 

 ject from some of my correspondents, as evidence to cor- 

 roborate my opinion that Samuel Phillippe was the first 

 maker of the split-bamboo rod: 



From Mr. Geo. W. Stout, of Easton, Pa. : 



" I came to this town in 1851. I made my first split-bamboo rod 

 in 1860, and got my idea from Phillippe's rods. I was an amateur 

 only, and never made more than a dozen in all. * ♦ * Ex- 

 Sheriff Thos. Heckman, now in his eighty-sixth year, was a life- 

 long acquaintance of Phillippe, and often went fishing with him. 

 He is well preserved, with an excellent memory, and is good 

 authority. He says he knows that Samuel Phillippe made split- 

 bamboo rods in 1846. Edward Innes, a man of repute, aged about 

 sixty-seven, remembers seeing him making one of these rods in 

 1847. You may rely implicitly on the evidence of Heckman and 

 Innes, who both fished with Sam before, and many years after, 



1846. Innes was much at Sam's shop before 1847, and fixes the 



