CHAP. vii. What Fly ? 113 



to know what fly to use for Mahseer. This is a question to which 

 there is no answer with a good reason for it, such as I should like to 

 have at the back of my beliefs. There are pretty nearly as many 

 opinions on the point as there are salmon-flies, and not one of them 

 is satisfactorily supportable, that is, be it added with becoming 

 modesty, in my humble opinion. As far as I can see, it is simply a 

 matter of fancy. I can recognize no principle underlying the colouring 

 of a salmon or Mahseer fly, nor can I conceive why a salmon should 

 care a button whether or not every one of all the variously hued 

 feathers that go to make up some of the more expensive salmon flies, 

 are duly inserted, or more than half of them are forgotten. Take any 

 one of the more elaborate instructions for tying a salmon fly; I should 

 very much like to see the salmon that could tell at a glance, as the fly 

 passed him in the water, whether or not the brown mallard, bustard, 

 peacock, and blue and yellow swan strips, and half a dozen more 

 feathers, were all duly in their place. I do not believe in such a 

 salmon ever having been hatched, no, not even " north of the Tweed." 

 Why, you could not tell yourself without taking the fly in your hand to 

 have a close look at it, nor could the very man that tied it ; no more 

 can the salmon without taking it in his hand to feel, if not to see. So 

 that is just what he does. He sees something passing him which he 

 cannot quite make out, it may be good for food, it may not ; he will 

 investigate ; so he takes it in his mouth, which is his only hand, with 

 which he is accustomed to feel and to taste doubtful objects passing 

 too rapidly to be quite made out by the eye, retaining those that are 

 approved, and ejecting the others. He takes your salmon fly in his 

 hand, meaning to throw it away if disapproved, but, before the spirit 

 of inquiry in him is satisfied, your hook is into him, and he is entering 

 on new experiences. 



This is doubtless a very heretical doctrine that I am propounding. 

 I know that the great majority of good salmon-fishers are of the 

 contrary opinion. To them the colours of their flies are as sacred as 

 the strands of their tartans ; they would not let you alter one feather ; 

 and they will say something about blending colours. I am afraid they 

 will be down on me heavily for this piece of heresy, and I should be 

 overwhelmed by their numbers and weight. There rises before me 

 the fate of poor Prometheus, who got making experiments with elec- 

 tricity. They called it stealing fire from heaven, and ran him in. But 



THE ROD IN INDIA. I 



