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forthwith, to teach you how to use those ma- 

 terials. In order to make our instructions 

 more lucid, we will lay down eight general rules 

 for dressing flies. Every fly, except two or 

 three, which we shall teach how to dress in the 

 proper place, when we come to speak of them 

 separately, is made according to some one of 

 the eight rules about to be laid down. We 

 begin with those flies which are most easily 

 made. 



RULE 1 . To make a Plain Hackle : Take 

 your hook between the points of the thumb 

 and fore-finger of your left hand. Hold it 

 firmly by the shank, with the tip of the shank 

 slightly projecting beyond your finger-ends, 

 towards the right. The back of the shank is 

 to be upwards. Take your waxed silk, holding 

 the left point of it, as you do the hook, and 

 whip it three times tightly round the shank of 

 the hook, towards the end that is, in a con- 

 trary direction to the bend. Hold down your 

 silk, out of your way, by placing it, and hold- 

 ing it, between the middle and third fingers of 

 your left hand. Then take your link of gut, 

 with a single knot on the end, and having 

 moistened it in your mouth, place the knotted- 

 end parallel with the shank, and between the 

 shank and your left fore-finger, and let the 

 gut pass down the shank a little more than half 



