TACKLE AND OUTFIT. 
121 
Now you can spin either by trolling your bait 
behind a boat, or by casting it. You will not 
get much by trolling, for the reason that you 
cannot take a boat over the best water. There¬ 
fore you must cast: and, since you are fishing 
on mighty rivers, the further you can throw the 
better. 
Choose, therefore, a rod which suits you; but 
it must be very strong. If cost is no objection, 
probably split cane is best, but greenheart is 
nearly as good. As to length, ten feet, or ten 
and a half, is enough : and a short rod has great 
advantages in travelling. A three jointed rod 
of ten feet and a half has each joint three and 
a half feet long 1 : and this you will find if you 
measure it exactly, and providentially, the 
length of your old uniform case. You can find 
nothing better than that old battered tin box 
to hold your sporting outfit. It will take your 
rods, and save the intolerable nuisance of a rod 
box : it will hold the few clothes you want: ants 
and other animals cannot get through it: and 
it will take also a rifle and shot gun. (It is 
often a good thing to have a rifle with you in 
the boat when fishing.) As to the number 
1 That is without measuring stoppers or the indiarubber 
knob on the butt. Therefore get your rod with stoppers 
countersunk on the American plan, and see that the knob 
is measured in to the length of the butt. Otherwise the rod 
will be just too long for the uniform case, unless you take 
out the stoppers and unscrew the knob, when you will 
probably lose them. 
