174 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



fly : how to put on tails or horns : and how to 

 make a herl body. Imitate the underpart of 

 the natural fly, for that is the part of your 

 artificial which trout see : if you copy the back, 

 you will have a too 'Orient colour.' Wet your 

 body material before matching the fly, for 

 water alters its tint. The directions are 

 detailed and good, and the impression left on 

 the mind is one of skilled fly dressing. 



Cotton's directions, a few years later, are 

 not very different. He too started by tying on 

 the wings, reverse way. You should not carry 

 the body beyond the bend of the hook, as you 

 do in London, says he slyly to his pupil. In 

 London, answers the pupil, we make the body 

 bigger than you do and also longer, almost to 

 the barb. I know you do, Cotton retorts : an 

 honest gentleman who came with my father 

 Walton gave me a fly like that, which, to tell 

 the truth, I hung in my parlour window to 

 laugh at. So here again is evidence that 

 Cotton's flies at any rate were slender and short 

 in the body. And here too is proof that 

 southern flies were fatter than northern, as they 

 are to this day. 



Barker, Venables, and Cotton between them 

 give a fairly complete code. Their flies are, it 

 is true, of two types only, either hackled, or 

 with reverse wings, set on the top of the shank. 

 The feather too was a single strip tied on first 

 and then divided, for they did not make their 

 wings as they are made now, from two slips 



