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CHAPTER XII. 



ILIES : NATUBAZ AND AETIFICIAZ. 



This item of tackle is generally considered of primary 

 importance, and perhaps rightly so, inasmuch as the 

 angler's first object is to lure his fish; and as each 

 individual's ideas as to the best killing fancy flies or 

 dressings of imitations have probably been formed by 

 success, he has a certain amount of method in his 

 madness. 



The majority of the patterns of artificial flies used in 

 trout-fishing being imitations of the natural insect, the 

 dresser's task is clearly defined, so beyond the me- 

 chanical process he is, as compared to the designer of 

 a pattern of salmon-fly, what the engraver is to the 

 painter of a picture, and in both instances the close 

 copy of the original is the gauge of merit. But in 

 reproducing the natural fly in artificial form there is 

 much room for discretion and ingenuity in the selection 

 of materials, and it is in this respect, rather than in the 

 actual fixing, that excellence is desirable. 



To describe as a work of art a well-dressed trout-fly 

 is no exaggeration, and a vast amount of practice is 



