184 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



is the best. His book went through four 

 editions, of which the last came out after two 

 editions of Ronalds' had been published. It 

 contains five plates of natural flies, fairly well 

 drawn, and coloured; it was a popular and 

 reliable handbook; and it would have had a 

 longer life had it not met a work of genius in 

 Ronalds. It is well worth looking at, even 

 to-day. 



Carroll's book is a curiosity. Though pub- 

 lished after Bainbridge, it is most inferior : it 

 contains the portentous number of one hundred 

 and ninety- four flies, none with scientific 

 names, very few with popular ones, and most 

 with quite inadequate descriptions, roughly 

 drawn and as roughly coloured by hand. I 

 suppose most collectors have a copy in their 

 library but that not many look at it twice. 

 I will only say this, that if you do take the 

 trouble to wade through the crudities of the 

 drawings, as I have had to do, it is just possible 

 to identify the flies. The pictures are not quite 

 so wild as they seem. Perhaps Carroll was the 

 victim of his illustrator. At any rate the book 

 was a failure; it was never reprinted, nor is it 

 likely to be. 



Ronalds is entirely original, and owes 

 nothing to Scotcher or Bainbridge or Carroll. 

 His book is both scientific and popular. He 

 took trouble to identify his insects and give 

 them their Latin names (not always correctly, 

 it is true, and of course according to the science 



