FLIES 43 



both media of water and air. The other 

 illustration we like to repeat, viz. the 

 'man of cubits and the pole/ whose 

 common colour is black ! A ' black hackle ' 

 is equally a killer on a bright summer day 

 and on a dark moonless night. It is the 

 most killing fly. for instance, on Loch Earn, 

 for both trout and char, when it is too 

 dark for the angler to see his line or flies. 

 This proves they can see as we can not. But 

 a white fly a ' coachman ' also kills well on a 

 dark night. Hence arises another phase of 

 the inquiry : Do trout rise best because they 

 see too well, or because they only see move- 

 ment under differently coloured waters or 

 skies ? Stewart criticises anglers who are 

 too ' scrupulously exact ' about a shade of 

 colour (p. 78), but finds fault with their 

 drawing their flies ' up or across the stream.' 

 There is, as we have been trying to show, 

 fault and inconsistency here. But, as an 

 experienced angler friend points out, one 

 inconsistency does not militate against the 

 other group of facts or theories, we are 

 drifting, however, from facts. 



Did Stewart ever see a 'Green well's Glory'? 



