A PISCATORIAL PUZZLE. 67 



CHAPTER lY. 



ON SALMON FLIES : MATERIALS OF WHICH THEY ARE MADE. 

 — SPECIAL AND GENERAL LISTS OF THEM. — THOSE THAT 

 ARE MERELY LOCAL, AND THOSE THAT ARE GENERAL, 

 KILLERS. 



If I were even to contemplate telling my readers 

 that I knew why and wherefore salmon rose 

 from the depths of the water and seized upon 

 what are called salmon-flies, I should consider 

 myself meditating an arch-deception. This why 

 and wherefore (I make an unity of the two) 

 puzzles me as much as ever were puzzled those 

 learned writers of the Lower Empire and early 

 mediseval times, who confused themselves and the 

 world by lucubrations as to how many angels, 

 or spirits floating between earth and heaven, could 

 dance on the point of a needle. A dissertation 

 to prove why salmon took one artificial fly, and 

 rejected another, which other salmon afterwards 

 very willingly take, would just be as sensible 

 and profitable as that referring to the angels — 

 fairies if you will — and the needle's point. Many 

 and many an hour do I pass in speculative sur- 

 prise and open-mouthed wonderment, for there 



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