NATURE 



[September 2, 191 



other developments to give the angler a still more 

 earnest countenance, such as the discovery that a 

 fish's life-history is written on its scales, or that 

 you may capture a chalk-stream trout with a wet 

 fly, not as of old empirically, but with due regard 

 to all the laws of science, and in a manner to com- 

 mand the admiration of the impartial. 



(i) Dr. Mottram's little book is an excellent 

 sample of the newer fishing writing, in which 

 various old problems are approached in the spirit 

 of scientific inquiry, solutions being offered in a 

 way that inspires confidence. The author is evi- 

 dently a good and very zealous angler, he has had 

 a scientific training, and he does both experiment- 



FlG. I.— The tying of a new fancy fly. From "Fly-Fishing: Some New 

 Arts and Mysteries," by J. C. Mottram. 



ing and thinking for himself. He seems sin- 

 gularly free from the common angling tendency to 

 take other people's experience for ascertained 

 fact, which gives his conclusions, even in matters 

 on which others have written with authority, a 

 value of their own. He treats of a great diversity 

 of subjects, of water weeds and their merits as 

 food-producers (here, though generally sound and 

 useful, he is too sweeping; for instance, he con- 

 demns EZoira canadensis out of hand, which seems 

 strange ; it is horribly free in its growth, but it is 

 far from being a bad weed otherwise) ; of the 

 NO. 2392, VOL. 96] 



colour sense of fish, citing a very interesting and 

 careful experiment, which showed a roach to have 

 a sense of colour; of optical problems, which are 

 about the latest of the fly-fisher's studies, adding 

 something to our ideas ; of waterside fly-tying, the 

 treatment of mud, fish watching, difficult casts, 

 and so on. He gives several chapters on his own 

 sport, especially in New Zealand, where he seems 

 to have been about the first angler to study natural 

 flies and imitate them. 



This brings us to what is certainly the most 

 important part of Dr. Mottram's book, his theory 

 of imitation of flies, which is unfolded in a chapter 

 entitled "Flies of the Future." He breaks boldly 

 away from the exact imitation school with its tradi- 

 tion of stiff opaque wings for floating duns, and 

 substitutes what might be called a policy of im- 

 pressionism, in which he lays special stress on the 

 shape of a fly's body and on methods of obtaining 

 the transparent effect which is so defiant of imita- 

 tion in the natural dun. The idea that "one of the 

 best ways of indicating transparency is to omit 

 the transparent parts altogether," is extremely in- 

 genious, and it should work out well in practice. 

 Ingenuity is, indeed, a marked feature of the 

 whole book, which is a valuable addition to the 

 fishing library. 



(2) Mr. Shaw's book is a more ambitious 

 volume, as its rather formidable title would indi- 

 cate. The " complete science " — it is a big aim. In 

 one respect, however, Mr. Shaw seems to us to 

 justify his selection of the title. There is probably 

 no angler of the day who has so carefully studied 

 what may be called the dynamics of fishing, the 

 various ways of getting a fly or spinning bait to 

 a given point in the most effective manner. Mr. 

 Shaw's chapters on casting show a remarkable 

 grasp of principles, the exposition of which will 

 teach even the oldest hands a lot. Most anglers — 

 even very good — cast their fly or bait without any 

 very clear notion how they get the results they 

 aim at. They know these to be fairly satisfactory 

 and do not trouble further. Mr. Shaw shows 

 exactly what happens when you do certain things 

 with your rod, and proves conclusively why it must 

 happen. Also he suggests many other things 

 which you may do, things of which you have very 

 likely never thought, and which are bound to be 

 extremely useful to you. Wind casts. Wye casts, 

 steeple casts, Galway casts, loop, switch, and 

 Spey casts — there are many devices by which you 

 can get the better of difficulties. With excellent 

 photographs and diagrams Mr. Shaw expounds 

 them all, and If it is possible for a man to learn 

 technique from the printed page — and it certainly 

 Is possible for some — he should gain a great deal 

 from this book. 



In the other portion of the volume he deals 

 partly with the practice of fishing and partly with 

 various matters, more or less scientific, in which 

 the angler takes an interest. He is obviously a 

 good fisherman as well as a good caster (the two 

 are not necessarily complements of each other), 

 and he is full of useful hints and contrivances such 

 as an expert picks up in many years of fishing. 



