APPENDIX 343 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OF ARTIFICIAL FLIES 



THE SECOND PLATE shows six artificial representations of the flies 

 in the first plate. The spectator will recognise a likeness in all of 

 them, except in the second, the wings of which are too upright. 

 In the water, however, those wings will lie flat. As artificial flies 

 they are good models. In the palmer, No. 6, there is a slight defect 

 near the bend of the hook. The fibres of the hackle-feather are 

 not there divided with sufficient regularity. The palmer is made 

 just as the fly No. 3 on the third plate is made, except that there is 

 neither tail nor wings. E. 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OF FLY-MAKING 



WE have here diagrams representing the artificial-fly in its several 

 stages of fabrication. 



No. 1. Is what is called tfie hook " armed," that is to say, the 

 hook and gut-link tied or whipped together, preparatory to putting 

 on the wings of the fly. Hook and gut are whipped together thus : 

 You wax a piece of fine tying silk, about a foot or eighteen inches 

 in length ; then take your hook by the bend between the thumb and 

 forefinger of your left hand ; make a whip or two of the waxed silk 

 round the bare shank of the hook nearly opposite to the barb, and 

 having done so, place your gut under the shank up to the whipping, 

 which whipping or winding of the silk you must continue over gut 

 and shank of hook up almost to the end. Make a slip-knot, and 

 allow the silk to depend. Now for the wings, see 



No. 2. The wings here are partly set on. To do so, you must strip 

 from the wing-feather of some small bird, using the longest fibres, 

 a smallish bunch. You place them on the back of the shank of the 

 hook, near its end, with their butts towards the bend of the hook ; 

 you tie them down with three or four whips or laps of the silk ; you 

 then cut away the fibres of the butt, and you wind your silk down 

 the shank to the spot at which you began the arming, and leave the 

 silk depending. 



No. 3. You here see the whisks or tail set on, and the hackle- 

 feather tied by the point and ready to be wound up to the wings. 

 The whisks and hackle-feather are whipped on after you have finished 

 the operations necessary for No. 2, as already described. The back 

 of tie feather must be towards you. Take it by the bared stem, and 

 wind regularly up the hook to the wings ; wind so that the fibres 

 will project like those of No. 4 or No. 5. When you have wound the 

 hackle-feather up the wings, fasten it down by two or three whips of 



