110 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [parti. 



towards the bent of the hook ; and then work three 

 or four times about the shank of the hook ; and then 

 view the proportion, and if all be neat and to your 

 liking, fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a 

 man of a dull capacity able to make a fly well : and 

 yet I know this, with a little practice, will help an 

 ingenious Angler in a good degree : but to see a fly 

 made by an artist in that kind, is the best teaching 

 to make it. And, then, an ingenious Angler may 

 walk by the river and mark what flies fall on the 

 water that day, and catch one of them, if he see 

 the Trouts leap at a fly of that kind : and then hav- 

 ing always hooks ready-hung with him, and having 

 a bag also always with him, with bear's hair, or the 

 hair of a brown or sad-coloured heifer, hackles of 

 a cock or a capon, several coloured silk and crewel 

 to make the body of the fly, the feathers of a 

 drake's head, black or brown sheep's wool, or 

 hog's wool, or hair, thread of gold and of silver, 

 silk of several colours, especially sad-coloured, to 

 make the fly's head ; and there be also other co- 

 loured feathers both of little birds and of speckled 

 fowl : — I say, having those with him in a bag, and 

 trying to make a fly, though he miss at first, yet 

 shall he at last hit it better, even to such a perfec- 

 tion, as none can web 1 teach him. And if he hit to 

 make his fly right, and have the luck to hit also 

 where there is store of Trouts, a dark day, and a 

 right wind, he will catch such store of them, as will 



