VARIOUS KINDS OF REELS. 21 
-hand barrel was smooth, the left rifled. This was my first 
experience of such a weapon, and most probably will be my 
last. The game was found, the cover was close, and snap 
shooting necessary. It was of no use. The gun would 
not come up, or the game come down. The fact was, that 
the shot barrel was only half the weight of the rifled, conse- 
quently the whole fabric was without balance, and do what 
I would my aim was invariably disconcerted. 
Of the joints used in fiy-rods the plain sliding’ one is 
probably the most convenient. If properly fitted it should 
never jam or work loose; but if I lived on a river I should 
never make use of any other than the simple splice, for the 
lashing affects less the action of the spring; and if a few 
additional moments are lost in putting it together, the re- 
turn is ample recompense. But I fear the age is too fast 
for its adoption. 
Having given my opinions of what a rod should be, I 
will now go to the reel. Of late years, at least since I was 
a boy, all kinds of mechanical inventions and appliances 
have been used to produce a more perfect reel: and there 
are now to be obtained stop reels, multiplying reels, and 
reels with as many internal cog and other wheels as would 
start a clock-maker. Of these complicated apparatuses be- 
ware, for they are fraught with disappointment and vexa- 
tion of spirit; the old simple click reel is the only one that 
deserves the honor of being attached toa fly-rod. Still, too 
much care and attention can not be devoted to their con- 
struction. Every screw and joint should be as perfectly 
finished as those of a gun from a first-class manufacturer. 
The barrel of the reel ‘should be wide in proportion to its 
length, for you thus gain power or give line with greater 
freedom ; nothing is more unsightly or more awkward than 
a long, narrow - barreled reel. Brass is the metal usually 
employed for their construction, but the newly - invented 
