r I saw more game in the ten days than I ever
saw before or since in a season; and I am told that the whole region is
now a thrifty farming country, with the deer nearly all gone. They were
plenty enough thirty-nine years ago this very month.

I feel more diffidence in speaking of rods than of any other matter
connected with outdoor sports. The number and variety of rods and
makers; the enthusiasm of trout and fly "cranks"; the fact that angling
does not take precedence of all other sports with me, with the
humiliating confession that I am not above bucktail spinners, worms and
sinkers, minnow tails and white grubs--this and these constrain me to
be brief.

But, as I have been a fisher all my life, from my pinhook days to the
present time; as I have run the list pretty well up, from brook minnows
to 100 pound albacores, I may be pardoned for a few remarks on the rod
and the use thereof.

A rod may be a very high-toned, high-priced aesthetic plaything,
costing $50 to $75, or it may be a rod. A serviceable and splendidly
balanced rod can be obtained from first class makers for less money. By
all means let the man of money indulge his fancy for the most costly
rod that can be procured. He might do worse. A practical every day
sportsman whose income is limited will find that a more modest product
will drop his flies on the water quite as attractively to Salmo
fontinalis. My little 8 1/2 foot, 4 1/2 ounce split bamboo which the
editor of Forest and Stream had made for me cost $10.00. I have given
it hard usage and at times large trout have tested it severely, but it
has never failed me. The dimensions of my second rod are 9 1/2 feet
long and 5 ounces in weight. This rod will handle the bucktail spinners
which I use for trout and bass, when other things have failed. I used a
rod of this description for several summers both in Adirondack and
western waters. It had a hand-made reel seat, agate first guide, was
satisfactory in every respect and I could see in balance, action and
appearance no superiority in a rod costing $25.00, which one of my
friends sported. Charles Dudley Warner, who writes charmingly of woods
life, has the following in regard to trout fishing, which is so neatly
humorous that it will bear repeating:

"It is well known that no person who regards his reputation will ever
kill a trout with anything but a fly. It requires some training on the
part of the trout to take to this method. The uncultivated trout