90 PLY FISHING. 



ticularly the case with the caperer or alder fly, which is a killing 

 fly to dap with on the top, but which soon acquires a drowned and 

 untempting appearance if allowed to sink beneath. The oak fly is 

 also a good surface fly ; and last but not least the common blue 

 bottle, which is one of the most attractive we have : and thus an 

 insect we find a great nuisance may be turned to some advantage, 

 as the fish will take them when dead equally as if alive, if they 

 are preserved in the proper manner. To do this, take a bottle 

 with rather a wide mouth, and put in the bottom of it a small 

 portion of strong smelling salts, and some camphor. Have this 

 bottle always at hand, and every blue bottle who intrudes upon 

 your domains, catch if you can, pop into it, and cork him down 

 tight, when the strong salts and foul air will suffocate him in a very 

 few seconds, and by this means you will always have some ready 

 for use. 



" How abominably cruel !" exclaims Simon Pure. What, smo- 

 ther the poor flies by corking them down in a bottle, as if they 

 were so many green gooseberries ? We answer thee aye Simon, 

 but if in this we are guilty, who we ask thee can eat honey and 

 be blameless ? For unless the bees are smothered, or starved, we 

 can never enjoy the fruits of their labour. And yet men more 

 merciful than thee Simon have partaken of this sweet food without 

 any scruples of conscience for the fate of the industrious insects 

 who toiled so hard to procure it.* 



To insure success in dapping, it will always be advisable to 

 provide yourself with a stock of baits before you set out, other- 

 wise you may consume much of the time that you might have em- 

 ployed profitably in fishing, in the act of looking for them ; indeed 

 it not unfrequently occurs that the baits are the most difficult to 

 procure in those very parts of the stream they may be the most 

 successfully employed upon. The best contrivance for carrying 

 May flies, is a small wicker pannier, which may be purchased at 

 all the principal fishing tackle shops, and being strapped round 

 the body may be carried along with little inconvenience. These 

 flies ought also if possible to be caught on the same day they are 

 designed to be used ; as they usually become weak or die in a state 



* " And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and an honey-comb ; and 

 he took it and did eat before them." Luke xxiv. 42, 43. 



