8 FLY-FISHING ACQUIREMENTS. 



fur, mohair, wool, silk, and tinsel. They are 

 affixed upon hooks of various sizes, and by a 

 process requiring the most skilful and delicate 

 manipulation. The fly-dresser is a modeller of 

 no mean attributes. He has to represent, by 

 means of the most delicate substances of varied 

 tissue and colour, insects, often complete atomies, 

 and of changeable shapes and hues. Extreme 

 neatness characterises all the paraphernalia of the 

 fly-fisher. His sport requires the handling of 

 nothing that will soil the best-bred hand. The 

 composition of his bait extracts pain from no 

 living thing. To know positively that his baits 

 are good, he must to a certain extent be a 

 naturalist. He must be acquainted with the 

 outward appearance of several sorts of insects ; 

 he must know the divisions of the seasons in 

 which they live and cease to be ; he must know 

 the climates and localities peculiar or otherwise 

 to each species ; he must know their names, and 

 be able to classify them, if not scientifically, at 

 least piscatorially ; he must know those that 

 prove the most attractive food for each kind of 

 fish he angles for : in fact, he must possess a fund 

 of knowledge that will cause him to be considered 

 an accomplished man by the .members of every 

 rational society. 



To render the pleasures attendant on his pur- 

 suit complete, he is invited, if he seeks for super- 



