ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 119 



brown and stripped the stem on both sides, to the few fibres 

 he intended to remain, which he closed together with his 

 lips, and then laid it aside. He waxed the ends of the silk, 

 hair, and shank of the hook, whipping three or four open 

 rounds of the waxed silk tightly up the bare hook to the top 

 and turned near half way back. He then laid the waxed 

 end of the hair within the hook and whipped them close 

 and tightly together to the top, and formed the head. Wax- 

 ing the silk at the lap, he plied to it a few hairs from a 

 hare's ear, then laid the thicker part of the stern of the 

 feather at the fibres, close to the silk at the lap, and whipped 

 over it ; then cutting off the surplus stem, whipped tightly 

 down the length of the shoulders and fastened. He next 

 took the feather in his pliers by the small end and wound 

 it twice over the shoulders, tight as it would bear, keeping 

 the stem straight by the twirl of the pliers ; and the fibres 

 pointing over the head, whipped it to, at the low shoulder ; 

 and, after cutting off the surplus, whipped tightly down to 

 the bend and carefully back again, to form the body ; then 

 fastened, and cut the silk close off. He finished with a pin, 

 separating and straightening the fibres of the feather, pinch- 

 ing the upper ones together for the wings, and trimming 

 and adjusting the under parts, for the legs ; then cast his 

 fiy on the water. 



Absent or ill-made and ill-matched flies are bad to depend 

 on ; also flies of our own design or fancy ; for we cannot 

 design or finish equal to Nature. The best we can do is to 

 copy her designs and finish after her in the best way we 

 can. The first business of the small flyfisher is with the 

 aquatic flies of the day, which, if he cannot see out or on 

 the water, he may oft on spider's webs, or he may find them 

 with their creepers at their times of hatching, at the edges 

 of the streams, the same as the creeper and stone fly. An 

 hour or two spent in research and observation at intervals 

 through a season, will give a truer and more correct know- 



