THE SYSTEM OF ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 69 



instead of on the surface ; wet instead of dry ; and in 

 brisk motion up, down, or across stream, instead of pas- 

 sively floating. No doubt if the flies could always be 

 kept dry and passively floating — that is, as they are 

 seen in nature — the exact imitation theory would (though 

 only up to a certain point) be sound enough ; but as in 

 practice this is impossible, we are perforce driven to arti- 

 ficial expedients to extricate us from the "unnatural" 

 dilemma. Thus at the very outset we find ourselves 

 compelled to simulate life instead of death in our flies ; 

 and for this purpose impart to them a wholly unnatural 

 motion whilst swimming : again, because " flufly" mate- 

 rials when wetted lose much of their strength of colour, 

 fly bodies are constantly made of hard silk instead of soft 

 dubbings ; and as it is found that a naturally propor- 

 tioned insect is deficient in " movement," an unnatural 

 quantity of legs (hackles) are added to it — in the 

 smaller species the wings being often omitted en- 

 tirely. In short, we are launched upon an altogether 

 artificial system, in which experience must to a great 

 extent supersede nature as a pilot. 



The colourists take advantage of this undeniable 

 position to assail the whole system of " form" as a 

 blunder, and in doing so themselves make a blunder still 

 greater ; they not only draw from correct premises an 

 erroneous conclusion, but they draw a conclusion the 

 very opposite of the logical one. For if it be admitted 

 {a)y that Trout do take the artificial for the natural fly, 



