70 SALMON FLIES 



and much finer Seal's fur, which can be obtained 

 in all colours. The most useful colours will 

 be found to be bright orange, lemon, fiery 

 brown, scarlet, claret, purple, green, golden 

 olive, dark and light blue, and black. Various 

 pleasing shades can be obtained by an artistic 

 blending of two or more of these " base " 

 colours. 



Floss silks are best obtained on reels, and 

 can be procured in some hundreds of different 

 shades from Messrs. Pearsall, who sell about 

 the best on the market. The following are the 

 numbers which, on looking in my box, I find I 

 have been using for the last four years for all 

 manner of flies: TA, 156A, 160, 4lE, 153A, 99, 

 181, 178, 182, 83. 



Floss silk is a most unsatisfactory material 

 in practice and a tiresome substance to work 

 w r ith, as it loses brilliance when wet, gets easily 

 soiled, and has a disgusting habit of discovering 

 the most minute unevenness of surface on the 

 fingers, and becoming in consequence an un- 

 sightly and rumpled mess. But so far no good 

 substitute has as yet been discovered. Messrs. 

 Pearsall have recently brought out a vegetable 

 fibre which in brilliance and dye-fast properties 



