ELY-MAKING. 107 



and for neatness and simplicity will bear com- 

 parison with the best. A test of twenty years in 

 the manufacture of many hundred dozens of flies 

 of all descriptions, and a careful comparison with 

 other methods, enable us to speak with con- 

 fidence. But it must not be presumed that we 

 pretend the art can be learned without con- 

 siderable practice and attention. To make a fly 

 in a neat and truly artistic way, by however 

 simple a method, demands the practice of months, 

 or, in some cases, perhaps, of years; but a person 

 determined to succeed, and willing to pay implicit 

 regard to good instructions, will find a few weeks, 

 or even a few days, sufficient to enable him to 

 make a passable and "killing" fly. 



What w r e require as indispensable to the mas- 

 tery of our instructions is, the strictest compliance 

 with every direction, however minute; constant 

 practice of each separate stage from the first and 

 simplest, and the proceeding to a new stage only 

 after the preceding one is completely mastered; 

 and, lastly, patient perseverance under any diffi- 

 culties which may present themselves, but which 

 will thus really soon disappear; Before com- 

 mencing a fly, it is necessary that all the materials 

 required for the process of making it should be 

 selected and arranged by the artist on a table 



