330 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



a translucent color of a faint, dull, greenish tinge. The 

 next in order of merit seemed to be the pea-green. 



The question is often asked from how far below the 

 surface can a trout see a fly. 



To this question I sought an answer from Mr. John W. 

 Chittenden, one of the most intelligent of that very intel- 

 ligent class of men, the submarine divers. 



I showed him a "tin-fly" (white wing and crimson 

 body), tied on a hook about a quarter of an inch across 

 the bend. He said that in clear salt water such a fly 

 could be seen on the surface from a depth of tifty feet, 

 and that it would then look larger than it did as he held 

 it in his hand. He instanced a case where he was work- 

 ing on a wreck in sixty-five feet of water, when he easily 

 .read the name on the stern of the wrecking- schooner 

 floating overhead, as well as the marks on the packing- 

 cases as they were hoisted over its side, when they were 

 five feet above the surface of the water. These marks 

 and letters were about three inches long. He remem- 

 bered seeing the end of a rope half an inch in diameter 

 attached to one of those cases as it was hoisted aboard 

 the wrecking-schooner. 



At these depths the surface took its color from the sky, 

 uninfluenced by the bottom, looking white with a white 

 sky, and dark inky-blue with a blue sky. A surface wind 

 made no difference in the visibility of objects in the water 

 or on its surface, but with a heavy ground-swell the water 

 was sometimes so turbid that objects but a few feet dis- 

 tant were obscured. 



Fresh water was not generally as clear as sea water, 

 particularly in rivers where there was a current. The 

 surface, he said, looked very near, so that when he was 

 at a depth of fifty feet it seemed almost within reach of 



