458 AMERICAN FISHES. 



No. 4 is a country-made bottom, with an old Edmundson salmon- 

 top ; it is an extraordinary performer ; very heavy and stiff; most 

 inconvenient to carry about ; consequently such a rod is not fit foi 

 other than those living on the river banks. I would never advise the 

 Construction of one except in that case. For most men twenty feet if 

 too long and heavy ; if so, eighteen is the size for a salmon-rod foi 

 them. Fifteen is only a double-handed trout-rod, but will kill a salmon 

 if need be. For a moderate fisherman Nos. 1 and 3 will be quite 

 sufficient. For an occasional one, No. 3 may serve. For your inde 

 fatigable man, twenty or twenty-one, three pieces spliced, is all he 

 requires ; for your salmon-fisher seldom bothers the poor trout. 



Every rod ought to have a spare top, and any one going on any 

 fishing expedition of more than three or four days' duration, should 

 provide himself with a spare rod in case of accidents to the one 

 he generally uses. Thus, for instance, a No. 1 and No. 2 rod, and 

 Nos. 3 and 4, or Nos. 2 and 3, would render a person indifferent to 

 a breakage. 



We next come to consider the best wood to be used in the manufacture. 

 Many makers use ebony or rosewood for the butt, to get the weight at 

 the bottom. It is, to my mind, not necessary. The best rods I have 

 ever seen were those made by country fishermen. They beat the best 

 London rods to eternal smash. These rods were all of English ash 

 butts and middle pieces, and lancewood tops. The*greatest secret it 

 the making of a rod, is to get perfectly clean, straight-grained wood, 

 seasoned for two or three years, and in the six-feet tops to make two 

 splices glued and whipped over with fine, well-waxed silk. Another 

 plan, also a very good one, for tops, is to glue four pieces of lance- 

 wood together, and work the top out of the centre of the mass. Tops 

 so made always spring back after using. They also have generally 

 three splices in the top piece. 



In a succeeding page I shall have to describe a method of throwing 

 a salmon-line, adopted on the wooded banks of the Spey, for which a 

 different kind of rod is required, so that I may as well'describe it in 

 this place. About half-way up the middle piece it fines off rather 

 suddenly, that is to say, out of the proportion salmon-rods are built 

 on ; and again, half-way up the top piece, that is, thence to the point' 

 it does not fall off in the regular proportion ; this gives a great spring 

 in the centre, and causes the top to appear too heavy, which, however 



