144 Book op the Black Bass. 



the surface enamel or outside siliceous coating, at the 

 angles, as in the formation of the round rod, and is there- 

 fore a stronger rod. 



While this looks plausible enough it has no foundation 

 in fact. The hexagonal rod is not a true six-sided figure, 

 but rather a round figure with six angles; for the face of 

 each section is of course slightly rounded, or convex, as it 

 originally existed in the cane, and the extremely small 

 amount of outside surface that is taken off at the angles to 

 make the rod round does not amount to much, or weaken 

 the rod a particle. In my opinion a round rod will cast 

 truer in every direction. 



Another plan has been advocated, to reverse the process 

 in sawing the strips, and place the enamel or outside coating 

 at the interior of the rod. And still another, and some- 

 what better plan, by the way, has been proposed, more 

 especially for tips, as follows : 



□ D 

 DiJ 



The shaded sides of the sections represent the outer coat- 

 ing. The sections are to be pressed together, and glued in 

 the position in which they are drawn in the figure, which 

 brings the enamel of each strip partly inside and partly out- 

 side ; the piece is then worked down to a round form, hav- 

 ing the center of enamel, and the circumference of alter- 

 nate strips of inside and a small portion of the siliceous or 

 outside layer. 



Then these rods have been made of eight and nine strips ; 

 but there is no real merit in anv of these last-mentioned 



