192 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



Fine gold twist, blue jay hackle at shoulder mixed, wing fibres of gold 

 pheasant tail and tippet, bustard teal blue, yellow, and claret, dyed swan 

 and a topping over all; peacock herl head. 



The Britannia. Tag, gold twist ; tail, a good sized topping, a bit of 

 scarlet ibis and fibres of Floriken ; body, two or three turns of bright 

 golden floss and then bright orange pig's wool ; gold tinsel and silver 

 twist, bright red claret hackle, bustard or wood-duck hackle over that, 

 and dark blue or green hackle on shoulder, or rather as a ruff over the 

 tiny underwing, a couple of shovel duck feathers, with from three to five 

 toppings over it ; two short purple cock feathers on either shoulder, and 

 two shorter still kingfisher just below and over them at cheek. Size 4, 5, 

 or 6. 



The Goldfinch. Tag, gold tinsel and black floss ; tail, a topping ; 

 body, gold-coloured floss ; hackle, pale yellow, blue jay at shoulder, gold 

 tinsel, wing composed entirely of toppings, red macaw ribs, and black 

 head. 



I have thus given the chief of what I consider to be the most general 

 effective flies after Mr. Francis's pattern of tying. There is, however, one 

 other fly which I must not pass over, viz., The Shannon, which, if dressed 

 after Fitz-Gibbons's method, is, according to my thinking, a much more 

 beautiful fly than that dressed after Francis's. These are the directions 

 of the former : Body, half light orange, half blue silk, to be ribbed with 

 broad silver tinsel and gold twist, a lightish blue hackle stripped on one 

 side over body, blue jay under shoulder; head, seal's fur dyed yellow, 

 tag orange silk, above it another tag of fur of deeper orange hue ; tail, 

 large topping ; wings, ten or twelve largish sized toppings, sprigs of the 

 leading tail-feather of the golden pheasant, and four long feelers of the 

 blue and yellow macaw. Hook, size No. 2. 



Equipped with these flies the tyro may feel certain of sport in almost any 

 salmon river. The total number used by salmon fishers on the various 

 rivers defies enumeration. Each stream has its own flies, and to attempt 

 a further list, therefore, as I have before intimated, would be to exhaust 

 the reader's patience as well as my own, and in the end produce little 

 result of a useful nature for those to whom this work is addressed. 



The revolutionary ideas of Mr. Pennell on the subject of fly fishing will 

 receive critical consideration when I come to talk of trout, for it is to 

 that fish that his system especially applies. If the fanciful "arrange- 

 ments " and " symphonies " in all the colours of the rainbow are numerous 

 for salmon, they are increased tenfold in relation to trout. The difficulty 

 which confronts the tyro in the selection of flies is consequently enormously 

 added to. To imagine a system of fly making and selection which should 

 reduce this number to specimens of a few in which " should meet the 



