A KILLING FLY. 335 



or rush headlong to the surface after the dainty and 

 fragile ephemera. 



A lady, who formed one of our party frequently 

 of an evening, without moving from the bridge, took 

 $i dozen fish in an hour or so, plainly proving that even 

 the uninitiated can here be successful, for Madame 

 previously had never seen a trout captured in her life. 

 The flies which we should recommend for this stream 

 are about the same in size as those in use on Scotch 

 and Irish rivers, and of the same colouring, black and 

 red hackles being preferable. We also found a fly 

 constructed as follows most killing: the wings from 

 the tail of the ruffed grouse, with a few strands of 

 scarlet ibis, brown cock's hackle under wings, body of 

 ground hog's fur, plucked off the stomach, with a 

 couple of strands of guinea-fowl feather for tail. If 

 the water should have been discoloured with rain, 

 substitute a little of the golden-pheasant topknot for 

 the termination, instead of the guinea-fowl. By coming 

 here early in the season, as above advised, you will 

 moreover escape the attacks of those confounded pests, 

 the black flies, which generally make their appearance 

 the second week of June, when woe betide you ; for if 

 you are compelled to submit to their persecutions, 

 your tortures from the results might turn your hair 

 grey in a night, or drive you crazy for the remainder 

 of life. No one can sympathise with the unfortunate 

 Egj^ptians so well as he who has visited the Maine 

 fishing-regions in the fly season. 



Before leaving Upton for the Wilds, as by this name 

 your future resting-places may well be called, we would 

 revert to the practice of throwing sawdust that comes 

 from mills into the water. Now, although some may 



