do? I will tell you, he anneals his tubing, and then with the furnisher adapts it to its fellow. For all practical uses its strength is then gone.

'My own impression is that mandrel-drawn tube not tampered with, is (cæteris paribus) denser and harder than hammered tubing is, and no hammered tube could be so uniform.

'I hope you will forgive this criticism of a work with which I am really charmed, but I shall be only glad to find that you accept it as it is meant, in all courtesy.'

Who shall decide when doctors disagree?

There will be no disagreement, however, as to the fact that all joints of trolling-rods should be 'double-brazed '—i.e., covered with brass-not only round the thick part of the joint, where it fits the ferrule, but also round the thinner end or wooden plug below it. In all sorts of pike-fishing, and notably in spinning, this is of particular importance, as the rapid passing of the wet line through the rings tends to cause a perpetual dripping and trickling of water downwards towards the butt. The natural result is that the water does its best to get into the joints, and, if it succeeds and the precaution of double-brazing be not adopted, the joint has a special aptitude for swelling and sticking fast. When joints are only half-brazed, or not brazed at all, the best plan is to grease or soap them before use. Joints which have become hopelessly 'stuck' may generally be easily separated by being turned slowly round and round at the 'sticking point' over the flame of a candle for some seconds, or until it is found that the joint will come apart. This process does no damage to anything but the varnish on the ferrule.

After the subject of ferrules naturally comes that of joint fastenings. I have already gone into this matter so thoroughly in the first volume that I do not propose here to repeat the account of the various new joint fastenings therein described in detail with illustrative diagrams. Any one of them will be found a great improvement on the old-fashioned fastening, which, though it has become venerable by time, possesses,

it must be admitted, nearly every drawback that 'joint is

heir to.'

What holds true in regard to the joints of fly-rods holds true in regard also to the joints of trolling-rods, and especially of spinning-rods, where the constant swaying to and fro in the action of casting is apt to induce those sudden separations between top, middle, and lower joints which entail waste of time and loss of temper, if nothing more. If anglers would continue to refuse to purchase any more rods with the oldfashioned fastenings they would soon become obsolete. It is monstrous that with such well-known improvements within their reach tackle-makers should go on manufacturing trollingrods with the old, faulty, and unmechanical joint fastenings.

As a good varnish for rods, and generally for varnishing lappings of hooks, &c., the following, used and commonly supplied for the purpose by one of the best known tackle manufacturers, will be found useful :

Gum Benjamin, a small piece, about

Allow the mixture a fortnight to dissolve before using. A varnish of some sort over the lapping is exceedingly valuable in all tackle, as it protects the silk from the effects of the water. In gimp tackle it is especially important, owing to the corrosion otherwise produced by wet brass and steel coming in contact. This varnish dries almost immediately.

Trollers will find a great comfort, and perhaps escape. serious inconvenience, by having the butt-ends of their trollingrods fitted with an india-rubber knob, which is supplied at most of the larger tackle shops in London. The constant pressure of the hard end of the brass or wood against the groin (this being the position the end of the rod generally occupies in pike-fishing) becomes after a short time the cause of considerable irritation in the part pressed against.

With regard to the reel for spinning and trolling, any of the

reels referred to in the first volume as suitable for salmon-fishing would, in smaller sizes, be also suited to spinning, if it were not for the question of weight. In spinning, a reel that will carry sixty or eighty yards of jack-line is practically all that is required, and such an endless assortment of these can now be obtained at the tackle shops that the only difficulty lies in making a selection. For the reasons elsewhere mentioned I should recommend a check winch with narrow grooves and deep side plates-one of the greatest improvements which has been introduced into reels in modern times-and a check which should be rather weaker than stronger,' to paraphrase the Admiralty instructions to their recruiting officers, 'to prefer recruits having hands rather larger than smaller.' The advantages gained by this sort of reel over the old-fashioned shallow-plate broad-grooved winch are increased speed-inasmuch as the diameter of the axle upon which the line is wound is enlarged— and increased power, because the handle by which it is worked being further from the axis proportionably greater leverage is obtained.

The handles of all reels should either be directly attached to the side plate or so adjusted as to amount to the same thing. The only drawback to the solid side plate is the additional weight it gives the reel, but the advantages of the handle. thus attached are so numerous as to make other considerations of comparatively little importance. Amongst these advantages are the obviating of the constant entanglement of the line. round the old-fashioned detached projecting handle-or rather more correctly speaking, the crank to which the handle is attached-and the greatly increased strength, and improbability of being broken or bent by the many little accidents that take place during the actual business of fishing.

Of the solid reels suitable for spinning-and what I here say of reels for spinning applies equally to reels for every description of pike-fishing-Mr. Chas. Farlow's 'patent lever winch,' or perhaps, where fish run unusually large, Malloch's 'Sun and Planet,' described in Vol. I., will be found the best,

as they undoubtedly are for salmon-fishing. No doubt they might both easily be made lighter than they are at present. The weight is considerable; a Malloch reel with a plate 4 inches in diameter weighing 1 lb. 14 oz., and this where one of the side plates is of ebonite. The 3-inch plate reel (Mr. Malloch's) of the same make weighs 1 lb. 1 oz.

I am very much inclined, however, the next time I go a-spinning' to give Slater's very clever and admirable 'combination reel' (see p. 55, Vol. I.) a trial. It has all the merits of an ordinary check reel (besides being much lighter) and in addition it combines the advantages of the Nottingham reel, by which under special circumstances, such as wading, spinning from rough stubbly banks, and so forth, the necessity of coiling up the line on the ground, &c., is avoided.

This reel, four and finest dressed-silk On the whole

a half inches in diameter, with fifty yards of running-line on it, only weighs ten ounces. Slater's reel is the most original, and I am disposed to think, from the spinner's point of view, also the most practically useful of all the inventions in the way of reels to which the late Fisheries Exhibition gave birth.

One serious drawback, however, so far as my experience goes-and, so far as my experience goes, one only-is common to every reel hitherto made, viz., that the line is apt to get caught under the back part of the reel itself, thus causing a constant irritating annoyance, and, in the case of the pike-fisher—and especially of the spinner-a serious danger. In order to obviate this I designed some years ago a small spring so adjusted that when the reel is fixed to the rod, it—the spring -presses closely on the butt or winch-fittings behind the reel. The spring (see diagram p. 20, c,) can be attached with perfect ease to any well-made reel at a nominal cost, and I venture to think that no spinner who has once experienced the practical convenience of this antidote to hitching' will ever use a reel without it.

·

It remains to consider the reel used in what is known as the Nottingham Style of fishing. This is a reel, without 'check'

of any kind, and generally made of wood, on which the line is 'wound in' by the troller instead of being drawn in by hand, and from which the spinning or other bait is cast, without any reserve of loose line, on the assumption that between the skill of the caster and the unchecked 'running' of the reel itself the latter will give out sufficient line, and with sufficient rapidity and accuracy, to meet all practical requirements. Indeed, as to spinning, I have often heard Nottingham fishers, or, at any rate, fishers who use the Nottingham style, assert that they can throw more accurately and to longer distances with the reel described than with the method practised on the Thames

and most other rivers of letting the line lie in loose coils on the ground before making the cast. When, however, I have had opportunities of bringing this assumption to the actual test of practice I find it more or less break down. With the same weight of bait and trace I am quite satisfied that both a longer and more accurate cast can be made by the ordinary method, whilst with a really light bait and trace- the whole thing, lead included, weighing, let us say, I oz. 2 scruples- (such as I frequently use myself) I am of opinion that the Nottingham style would be found in practice an entire failure.