SEA-RODS, REELS, AND VARIOUS TACKLES. 43 
preferable in nine cases out of ten, but there is 
a tenth case for the discarded hand-line. It 
was, I think, during my fishing experiences in 
Australia that the few but insuperable limitations 
of the rod were brought home to me ina Seas 
way that admitted of no further doubt. fishing 
The Pacific Ocean does not always act upto in the 
- ‘ Pacific 
its name, and the ground swell is frequently 
appalling. In pursuit of that handsome red 
bream, the schnapper, a grand fish that should 
find a place in the arms of the colonies, we used 
to drift three or four knots an hour over the 
roughest of ground, a four or five pound lead on 
the line, and the gunwale of the little steam-tug 
dipping now and again to the very edge of the 
green water that hid huge sharks, ever ready to 
wrench a good fish from the hook. Amid such 
surroundings, the rod would have been no more 
than a farce. Insular prejudice is a hardy weed, 
and I took my rod out on the first occasion, but 
had not the folly to put it together, preferring to 
accustom myself to the use of the hand-line which 
I had unreservedly condemned in the old country. 
Sharks, however, and other southern eccentricities 
apart, there are cases even here on our own coasts 
in which a great depth of water, or a spell of extra 
and breezy weather—the necessity, in short, for 
using heavy leads of four or five pounds—may 
render the rod, if not a useless, at least a very 
tiring and unmanageable weapon. This was well 
expressed by “ President,” in the Frshing Gazette 
(April roth, 1897). 
Those who prefer adapting themselves to the 
requirements of the moment, instead of adhering 
blindly, like the most rabid among the dry-fly 
or wet-fly trout fishermen, to one principle under 
