22 SALMONIA. 



with moralists, that the standard of virtue 

 should be placed higher than any one can 

 reach ; for in trying to rise, man will attain a 

 more excellent state of being than if no effort 

 were made. But to our business. As far as 

 the perfection of the material for the angler is 

 concerned, the flies you find on this table are 

 as good as can be made, and for this season 

 of the year, there is no great variety on this 

 river. We have had lately some warm days, 

 and though it is but the 1 8th of May, yet I 

 know the May-fly has been out for three or 

 four days, and this is the best period of this 

 destructive season for the fisherman. There 

 are, I observe, many male flies on the high 

 trees, and some females on the alders. 



Phys. — But I see flies already on the 

 water, which seem of various colours, — 

 brown and grey, and some very pale, — and 

 the trout appear to rise at them eagerly. 



Hal. — The fly you see is called by fisher- 

 men the alder-fly, and appears generally in 

 large quantities before the May-fly. Imita- 

 tions of this fly, and of the green and the grey 

 drake of different shades, are the only ones 



