n8 Fly-fishing for Mahseer. CHAP. vu. 



But it was very nearly being a worse disappointment. In ordering 

 flies, therefore, be sure to quote, not only the number, but also the 

 author of the number. If you take Francis Francis' number, say so ; 

 if mine, say so, and your tackle-maker will know what you want. If 

 you do not he is not to blame if you suffer a like disappointment 

 to my own. 



But why have I given you a different scale from Francis Francis' ? 

 It is very annoying, doubtless, and I am very sorry to do anything to 

 annoy you. Still less had I any silly fancy for setting up a standard of 

 my own. I would very much rather have followed Francis Francis' 

 or any recognized scale, but unfortunately his scale did not go as far 

 as was necessary for Indian fishing ; it did not give the larger sizes or 

 the smaller ones ; it only gave medium sizes, such as he wanted for his 

 own reference only. I saw no way of adapting his numbering to that 

 of any hook maker that I knew of because, as he says, he had started a 

 numbering of his own. 



I have, therefore, been at much renewed pains to discover a 

 generally recognized standard of size that I could give you as the 

 standard. But there is no such thing in existence in this planet, and 

 nothing but an Act of Parliament can command it for you, and I am 

 afraid we cannot run to that in time for this edition. In reviewing the 

 second edition of this volume in 1881 the Field remarked on this 

 subject, and the Fishing Gazette also took it up, and urged it on 

 manufacturers ; but to no purpose ; the confusing multiplicity of sizings 

 and numberings still remains. Pretty nearly every wholesale hook- 

 maker has a standard of his own, in thickness of wire as well as in 

 bend, and if a tackle-maker wants any particular hook he frequently 

 finds it safer to send a specimen hook than to quote size. Especially 

 is this the case with Mahseer trebles, in which the thickness of the 

 wire used varies much. 



And yet, perhaps, it is not so very unreasonable of hook-makers as 

 might at first sight appear. In the case of any large firm that has been 

 making hooks for a generation or two there is probably a large stock 

 of dies round which the wire is bent, and a heavy outlay has also 

 probably been made on illustrated catalogues, and it would be un- 

 reasonable to expect them to throw all this away and to start afresh. 

 It is for the newer manufacturers to follow their scales and they do so 

 to a great extent. 



