318 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



harl ; legs, sometimes a furnace hackle, at others a pure 

 black one. Hooks, 10 and 11. 



No. 5. Wings, a mixture of starling's wing, and brown 

 mottled mallard feather ; body, olive-green mohair ; 

 legs, hackle of same colour, and gold tip. Hook, as before. 



Reader, I have now added to Cotton's monthly lists 

 of trout and grayling flies, the very best modern patterns. 

 I have fished, in my time, with the great majority of 

 them. I know by experience their captivating qualities, 

 and I recommend them confidently to all fly-fishers for 

 fresh water salmonidae. E.] 



DECEMBER 



Few men angle with the fly this month, no more than 

 they do in January ; but yet, if the weather be warm (as 

 I have known it sometimes in my life to be, even in this 

 cold country, where it is least expected) then a BROWN, 

 that looks red in the hand, and yellowish betwixt your 

 eye and the sun, will both raise and kill in a clear water 

 and free from snow-broth ; but, at the best, it is hardly 

 worth a man's labour. 



And now, Sir, I have done with fly-fishing, or angling 

 at the top, excepting, once more, to tell you, that of all 

 these (and I have named you a great many very killing 

 flies) none are fit to be compared with the DRAKE and 

 STONE-FLY, both for many and for very great fish ; and 

 yet there are some days that are by no means proper for 

 the sport. And in a calm you shall not have near so 

 much sport, even with daping, as in a whistling gale of 

 wind, for two reasons, both because you are not then so- 

 easily discovered by the fish, and also because there are 

 then but few flies that can lie upon the water ; for where 

 they have so much choice, you may easily imagine they will 

 not be so eager and forward to rise at a bait, that both 

 the shadow of your body, and that of your rod, nay of your 

 very line, in a hot calm day, will, in spite of your best 

 caution, render suspected to them ; but even then, in 

 swift streams, or by sitting down patiently behind a willow 



