EVOLUTION OF THE TROUT FLY. 189 



But the point to realise is that in cases where 

 we still rely on home products, we use the same 

 materials as did Dame Juliana : and therefore 

 her flies have stood the test of four centuries 

 and the competition of five continents. The 

 February Red, made of partridge hackle and 

 orange wool or silk, will be fished next March 

 as it was fished four centuries and a quarter 

 ago : the Red Spinner is dressed almost identi- 

 cally by Dame Juliana in the fifteenth century 

 and by Francis in the nineteenth. For both we 

 still use home-grown materials. But compare 

 these two flies with the Mayfly, where we do 

 not. Your Tudor ancestor made it of brown 

 wool plucked from a heifer or a red deer, with 

 wings from the common wild duck. You, when 

 you set out next June, may take with you one 

 whose wings are of the Summer Duck which 

 comes from America, or of a goose which comes 

 from Egypt, dyed with chemical dye whose 

 ingredients come I know not whence : whose 

 hackle is of Golden Pheasant which comes from 

 China, and whose body is of maize straw which 

 comes from Italy, or of indiarubber which 

 comes from Africa. It is in these flies that 

 there have been the greatest changes : in the 

 others there have been few. No stronger proof 

 could be given of the merits of the Treatise. 

 Lastly, I find it impossible to believe that the 

 author of the Treatise originated all the 

 dressings described in it. When I think of the 

 difficulties of imitation, of the many trials and 



