J2O4 " Thirty T routs and Graylings" 



.ago were clumsy, large affairs should read 

 Cotton's descriptions carefully : for in- 

 stance, his dressing of " a very little bright 

 Dun Gnat " on page 55. His chapter on 

 the flies for May is particularly interesting 

 I mean, of course, to a fly-fisher. His 

 natural history of the stone fly and green 

 drake may not be quite correct in its 

 under-water part, but as an account of 

 what one sees of these insects after their 

 first appearance on the water it is admir- 

 able. With an artificial May-fly, Cotton 

 tells us that he once took, between five 

 and eight in the evening, " thirty great 

 Trouts and Graylings, and had no less than 

 five or six Flies with three good hairs 

 .apiece taken from me in despite of my 

 heart, besides." 



Creeper-fishing in the streamy parts of 

 rivers was first fully described by Cotton, 

 who was also the father of clear-water 

 worm-fishing. That now common ex- 

 pression " Snow Broth " I find first in his 

 book. He, like all the writers of his time, 

 complains bitterly of the poaching then 

 carried on with impunity. 



" I assure you, that with this very flie, 

 I have in this very River that runs by us 

 in three or four hours taken thirty, five 

 and thirty, and forty of the best Trouts in 

 the River. What shame and pity is it 



