72 SALMON AND TROUT. 
Messrs. Hardy have now arranged the bottom clasp so as to 
completely embrace the circumference of the butt—see en- 
graving—thus adding both to its strength and ‘sightliness.’ 
Messrs. Farlow have also recently brought out a ‘ Universal 
Winch-fitting’—shown in the cut—which presents all the 
same merits as the ‘ Wedge-fast,’ the difference being that in 
‘ UNIVERSAL’ WINCH FITTING, 
the ‘Universal Winch-fitting’ the wedge is obtained by a 
graduated depression in the wood of the butt itself. 
RODS. 
With regard to fly rods I shall say but little. Quot homines 
tot sententie. Some fly fishers like hickory, others prefer green- 
heart, or lancewood. Some like a rod made all of one wood, 
others give the preference to a rod with the butt of one sort of 
wood and the top joints of another, and a great many of 
the modern school, especially those with whom price is not a 
matter of importance, have given in their adhesion to the 
spliced-cane rods, which are supposed to owe their origin to 
our enterprising cousins on the other side of the ‘ Herring 
Pond.’ 
In the ‘form’ of the rod again, as in regard to the wood 
of which it may be constructed, it is rare to find two fishermen 
of the same opinion. Many still hold to the old-fashioned 
straight-butted rod, which tapered away with almost mathemati- 
