CHAPTER X. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE TROUT FLY 



(Continued). 



II. THE CONSTRUCTION. 



Now for the shapes and proportions of these 

 flies, it is impossible to describe them without 

 painting, therefore you shall take of these several 

 flies alive, and laying them before you, try how 

 neere your Art can come unto Nature by an 

 equall shape, and mixture of colours. 



A Discourse of the Generall Art of Fishing, 



Gervase Markham. 1614. 



ITHERTO the road has been easy. 

 It has not been difficult to show 

 that from the materials used 

 even in earliest times flies as 

 good as those we use to-day 

 could be constructed. It is 

 much harder to prove that they were. And, 

 without that, nothing is proved. You cannot 

 judge the excellence of a painter from his 

 colours and canvas alone, and fine marble does 



