458 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
line may be compared, in all respects, to a trout-rod mag- 
nified with a slight power of the microscope. 
The salmon-rod should be from 14 to 20 feet in length, 
and should be made of three or four lengths, at the discre- 
tion of the fisher. The butt is always of ash, the middle 
piece or pieces of hickory, perfectly free from flaw, and 
the top-piece of the best bamboo, either rent and glued up 
or spliced in lengths, which of course only extend from 
joint to joint; this is better than lance-wood, which is apt 
to make the rod top-heavy. Anglers of note differ as to 
the nature of the joints, which are sometimes made to 
screw together ; at others, with the bare wood of one joint 
dropping into the brazed ferule terminating its next neigh- 
bor; and at others again, by having both ends brazed so 
as to oppose brass to brass. In both the latter cases the 
double pin, or bent wire and silk fastening are used, 
in order to prevent their becoming loose and unat- 
tached in the ardor of fishing. The rod should bal- 
ance pretty evenly at the part where the upper hand 
grasps it above the reel, which is usually fixed at 18 or 
20 inches from the butt-end. These essential character- 
istics will sufiice for the description of the salmon-rod. The 
reel-line has also been there described, and is of 80 to 100 
yards in length, with the last 20 only tapered down to 
little more than half its regular size. To this is appended 
a casting-line made on the same plan as the trout-line, but 
one third longer in all its parts, and entirely of gut, which 
should be of the size called salmon-gut. The flies for sal- 
mon are described at page 402. When a dropper is used, 
it is generally appended at about four feet from the end. 
