anglers' OIITATIVE DEVICES. 43 



I have used the phrase " pretended imitation/' as 

 strictlv appHcable to by far the greater number of 

 what are called by anglers artificial flies, because these 

 very rarely indeed bear the most distant resemblance 

 to any living fly or insect whatever^ though, if exact 

 imitation were an object, there can be little doubt that 

 it could be accomplished much more perfectly than is 

 ever done in any of the num.erous artificial flies made 

 by the best artists in that line of work. The fish, 

 indeed, appear to seize upon an artificial fly, because, 

 when drawn by the angler along the water, it has the 

 appearance of being a Uving insect, whose species is 

 quite unimportant, as all insects are equally welcome, 

 though the larger they are, as in the case of grasshoppers, 

 so much the better, because they then furnish a better 

 mouthful. The aim of the angler, accordingly, ought 

 to be to have his artificial fly calculated, by its form 

 and colours, to attract the notice of the fish, in which 

 case he has a much greater chance of success than by 

 making the greatest efforts to imitate any particular 

 species of fly. As this doctrine will, I am aware, be 

 accounted heretical and erroneous by all routine anglers, 

 I shall show that I am not singular in its adoption, by 

 quoting what appear to me the unanswerable remarks 

 of a clever writer on angling, in the new edition of the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica. 



