128 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



dwell on the water too long, for many a fish will 

 take it the second time, if you do not give him 

 too long to look at it the first time.' And you 

 must float it right over his head. 



During the fifties, therefore, the dry fly slowly 

 won its way : but by 1860 it had extended its 

 range only over a limited area. Throughout the 

 voluminous letters and writings of Charles 

 Kingsley, who fished the Test and other chalk 

 streams, it is not so much as mentioned. When 

 he wrote Chalk Stream Studies in 1858 he 

 clearly had never heard of it, for he insists not 

 only on two flies, but on sunk flies too. He tells 

 his pupil that a trout is more likely to take 

 under water than on the top. His eager and 

 enquiring mind was interested in the deeper 

 problems of fishing : his letters are full of 

 references : he fished until near his death in 

 1875, and knew the south country rivers well; 

 his knowledge of natural insects was far in 

 advance of his time, and he is the first fisherman 

 to mention the work of the famous Swiss 

 entomologist Pictet. Yet, though of all men he 

 would appear to be the one most open to the 

 new idea, he never mentions the dry fly. It is 

 difficult to avoid the conclusion that he never 

 saw it. Nor is this intrinsically unlikely. 

 Froude writing as late as 1879 evidently knew 

 little of it, and what is even more odd, Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell states that the Chronicles of 

 the Houghton Fishing Club on the Test from 

 1822 to 1908 make no mention of it. Which is 



