30 LIST OF FLIES. 



The stone fly brood commence hatching the beginning of 

 May, and continue for three or four weeks the time when 

 they may be got and by the middle of July the generation 

 is swept off for the year. Some few, which are generally 

 rather less in size, hatch this month in advance of the main 

 body which generally appear in these waters about the 

 eighth of May ; and the latest that have been seen were on 

 the fourteenth July when the flyfisher may wish her good 

 bye. She is the head of her own class, and the Imperial 

 Empress of all trout flies ; her size and nutritious qualities, 

 whereof the trout feeds to satiety, and it is said perfects 

 his condition, has no equal. Her name is famous among 

 anglers, but few arrive to the extent of her merits. She 

 comes out of the water during the day, and creeps to con- 

 cealment under stones by its side hence the origin of her 

 name, and where she may be found. Her grizzly brown 

 appearance is dull, and she is unseemly to the sight ; Nature's 

 brilliant touches are not there ; and, as if conscious of her 

 plainness, she shuns the light, and is seldom seen by day ; 

 after sunset she comes out, for her sports and enjoyments 

 are chiefly in the dusk and twilight of night and early morn, 

 the whole family are then in motion, flying about, running 

 among the stones, and paddling upon the w r aters. It is 

 then she feeds the trout, and gives the last finish of per- 

 fection to that beautiful fish. Her unpolished colors are 

 the same as his ; she feeds him from her infancy : the 

 creeper at the bottom and the fly at the top of the water 

 are both his favorite food, and she unconsciously meets him 

 in the height of her pleasures and greatest numbers, at the 

 very time and place of his murderous prowl. It might seem 

 that our great Creator, amidst his animated masses, threw 

 in the sequestered devoted stone fly a peck for the trout, as 

 the burnisher of his beauties and his chief nourisher in life's 

 feast. 



The stone fly is in general fished natural, for which her- 



