THE ART OF FLY-MAKING. 593 



and laying the wrapping silk along the shank, tuck it in between 

 the gut and the head of the hook, and throw a few loose coils 

 around the gut to keep it out of the way. Now wind on your floss 

 as far as C, figure 3, increasing the bulk of the body somewhat as 

 you proceed ; then tlirow the loose coils of wrapping silk free from 

 the gut, and take three turns over the floss and clip off the end. 

 You next take your ginger hackle, about the length figured, and 

 stroking back a few fibres at the point and clipping off the end, 

 lay it against the hook and fasten in with four or five turns and 

 wrapping up to within a sixteenth of an inch or so of the head, 

 throw a few loose coils around the gut as before. Now wrap on 

 your hackle closely, pressing back the fibres as you go to avoid 

 overlapping them. On getting as near the head of the hook as 

 shown in the illustration, fasten the hackle with two or three 

 turns, clip off the ends and throwing the wrapping into coil D F 

 D, seize it at F and take as many turns as will come to the very 

 end of the shank. Now reversing the turns, with the gut through 

 the coil, you draw on the end D until the wrapping forming the 

 coil is drawn tight. Your fly now, after clipping off the surplus, 

 is complete, needing only a touch of copal varnish, with a small 

 camel's hair brush, at the head to make it secure. 



" Let me tell you, scholar," as Father Izaac so frequently re- 

 marked to his pupil Venator, the tying of this simple hackle is the 

 all-important rudiment of the art. If you learn to make it neatly 

 all else will become "just as natural as falling off a log." But let 

 us tie another hackle and beautify the lower part of the body with 

 a little tinsel. So we go back to figure 2 and suppose A B a strip 

 of flat gold tinsel which we have fastened with three turns of the 

 wrapping and thrown the latter in a few loose coils around the 

 gut. We take three turns of the tinsel, perhaps four, or even five 

 if the hook is large, down .the shank closely, so as to hide the hook, 

 and then as many turns back, and after fastening with two or 

 three turns of the wrapping cut off the end of the tinsel. We will 

 vary the body of this hackle by having it of peacock's herl. We 

 accordingly take four or five herls between the thumb and finger 

 of the left hand and clipping them off evenly, lay them on where 

 you have just clipped off the tinsel, and take two or three turns over 

 the ends which project toward the head of the hook. Now laying 



