214 FLIES. 



from any resemblance they bear in shape or 

 colour to living or natural prey, and I am, there- 

 fore, not prepared to say that we have any reason 

 to employ particular feathers or other material in 

 a fly on account of their colours. I cannot, at 

 present, admit it as proved, that colour has any- 

 thing to do with the " takingness" of a fly. I do 

 not really think that a salmon looking upwards 

 from his depth below, can distinguish more than 

 that an opaque object is passing by him, and 

 provided he is inclined to stir, my idea is, he will 

 do so, whether the suit be red, or blue, or green, 

 or yellow. 



Herb. — Do not you then prefer one kind and 

 colour of fly before others? What is your secret 

 charm 1 



Theoph. — Aye, " there's the rub." I have found 

 three or four flies pre-eminently successful, and, 

 in consequence, I persevere more with them than 

 with others. With trout you must be exact 

 (more or less), as to colour ; but, in making sal- 

 mon-flies everything, in my opinion, depends on 

 the mode in which the materials are worked up; 

 the appearance of life which, from the mode in 

 which the wings in particular are put on, is given 

 in the motion we communicate by the play of the 

 rod. That, I think, is the whole secret of salmon 

 fly-making. But, at the same time, I am not so 

 over-confident of its correctness, that I would 



