THE DRY FLY. 121 



Boyle, though not a dry fly man, was a good 

 fisherman. He describes himself as a great 

 lover of angling, and says that his discourses 

 are based on actual experience. It is to be 

 regretted that so learned and so observant a 

 man did not write on fishing for its own sake. 



The desirability of keeping your fly on the 

 top runs through angling history. As late 

 as 1847, when the dry fly was appearing, 

 Wallwork in the Modern Angler, an interesting 

 and scarce book, says that in running water 

 your fly must always swim on the top, under 

 the continual inspection of your eye. But this 

 also is not the floating fly. 



The fly that floats, and kills fish because it 

 floats, is first mentioned in a little book, 

 Scotcher's Fly-Fisher's Legacy, published 

 locally at Chepstow in 1800, and now excessively 

 rare. It is known chiefly as the first to give 

 coloured pictures of natural flies. Scotcher 

 says that when trout are rising at black gnats 

 in still water on hot evenings, you can catch 

 them if you have a long rod, light line, fine 

 point, small hook and neat fly, and keep off the 

 water and throw with nicety into the ripple 

 caused by the fish's rising, placing your fly in 

 the direction in which he is swimming. He 

 tied his fly, he says, on fine round glass-coloured 

 hair, and used a casting line of single hair, 

 which falls lightly and lies on the water, and 

 the fly is frequently so taken. Unless you are 

 careful, however, you will snap your fly off in 



