ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 603 



plus but-end of the herl and fasten with the invisible knot. With 

 a small sharp stick dipped into copal, varnish the last wrapping of 

 the silk, being careful not to let it touch the herl. 



When mallard is scarce the under ply of the wing may be of 

 turkey, making it more solid than if it was all mallard. As a rule 

 salmon flies are wrapped palmer fashion, that is, the hackle over 

 the whole length of the body. The bodies, as will be observed, 

 are very slender in proportion to the size of the fly. 



ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 



Constant inquiries are made for works on Angling. Such 

 works (exclusively as such), have never been published in Amer- 

 ica. Proficient anglers well know how difficult it is to utter 

 opinions and instructions which the fraternity will unanimously 

 accept as ex cathedra, and are ever chary of the captious criticisms 

 of those who keep silent and assume to be the only Solons. To 

 prepare a work upon patterns for flies, and to determine precisely 

 what flies are suitable for different waters, at the same or at 

 different seasons, is even more difficult still. There are a number 

 of excellent English books of this character, but they are of little 

 service on this side of the Atlantic, because the water and the 

 larvae that inhabit the waters there are widely different from ours. 

 The same flies that obtain in England will not serve us here, 

 ■where they are not known either to entomologists, or to the fishes 

 themselves. To write intelligently on this subject, one has to 

 begin at the &gg. Nothing but a correct knowledge of the insects 

 that inhabit the waters, or places contiguous, will enable the 

 student to make an intelligent selection of subjects for artificial 

 flies for specified times and places. To enable us to impart this 

 information correctly and properly, we have taken by permission 

 the following article from the columns of Forest and Stream. 

 It was prepared by Miss Sara J. McBride, of Mumford, N. Y., and 

 constitutes a valuable contribution to the angling literature of 

 America. 



" Insects are the scavengers of nature. They seek fetid, un- 

 wholesome matter, the germ cells are left, and the corrupt mass is 

 the birth place, home and sepulchre of myriads of animate Hfe. 

 Noxious miasmatic gases are consumed, purity takes the place of 



