Concluding Eemabks. 435 



in case no one has stepped on your rod (which. I have 

 seen done more than once), hold the rod perpendicularly, 

 and settle the joints by tamping the butt-end on a stone, or 

 piece of wood. The reel is yet to be adjusted ; to do which 

 you may either rest the tip on the ground in front (using 

 it as a boring instrument in this instance), or hold the rod 

 horizontally with the butt against the pit of the stomach, 

 to the great danger of some one stumbling over your rod, 

 or of your striking it against a tree or rock while endeavor- 

 ing to ship your reel; and yet I have seen this very scene 

 played over and over again by those who called themselves 

 anglers. To hold the rod across the body, sitting or stand- 

 ing, or perpendicularly, while adjusting the reel, is just 

 as awkward and unsafe. 



Eemember, then, to remove the plugs and put them in 

 the pocket ; you will have them then whenever you un joint 

 your rod, for the separated joints should never be left a 

 moment without the plugs in the female ferrules; in this 

 way you will preserve the proper shape of the ferrules, and 

 your rod will always go together and come apart easily, 

 provided you keep them clean and smooth. Then, ship 

 the reel ; then put the smaller joints together first, and the 

 butt piece last. 



The right way to "unjoint," or take apart, the rod (I 

 will spare the reader the infliction of a description of the 

 wrong way) is first to remove the leader, or swivel and 

 hook, reel the line on the spool slowly — I say slowly, for 

 I have seen the tip of a rod snapped off while the wet 

 line was being reeled rapidly, or in a hurry, by its catch- 

 ing in one of the rings, or clinging in a coil around the 

 tip. The reel may next be unshipped, and the rod wiped 

 perfectly dry; all sand, dirt, or fish-scales must be care- 

 fully rubbed off, and especially must the ferrules be ren- 



