ARTIFICIAL FISH. 53 



fly. Flies like these were successful in the year 

 1846, and I saw a trout weighing upwards of 

 lOlbs. that had been taken with a large brown 

 palmer at Sunbury. My gaudy flies were of no 

 use. I had my faith slightly shaken one day by 

 seeing a Thames trout taken with a bad imitation 

 of the May-fly late in July. That fly was a non- 

 descript then. A day or two afterwards I saw 

 several natural flies on the Thames ; they were 

 large, in shape like the May-fly, but the body 

 was of a lighter colour, and the wings not so 

 transparent as those of that insect. In fact, the 

 bad imitation of the May-fly that had been taken 

 by the Thames trout was not unlike the living 

 fly that was then out upon the waters of that 

 river. 



If fish preferred nondescript artificial flies, we 

 might reasonably conclude they would prefer non- 

 descript natural fish, mice, frogs, beetles, grass- 

 hoppers, and so forth. They do not, however; 

 and artificial fish-baits are made as like as possible 

 to natural minnows, bleak, gudgeons, dace, roach, 

 and small trout. Perhaps the philosophers would 

 contend that an artificial imitation of the red 

 mullet, or of some other fish that would be a non- 

 descript to salmonidae or pike, would be taken by 

 them with greater avidity than the bad imitation 

 of the fish they feed upon, because and that is 

 the philosophers' reason they can distinguish 



