MR. RICHARDSON'S FLIES 101 



can but advise my readers to try them for them- 

 selves. They are rather more expensive than 

 the ordinary feather-winged artificials, but I con- 

 sider that they are well worth the price charged 

 for them. 



Mr. Richardson also dresses salmon-flies on the 

 same principle ; but though I have never tried 

 them, I do not for an instant suppose that they 

 would be found to answer, for inasmuch as a 

 salmon-fly is not supposed to represent any fly, 

 and is merely a lure in which the opening and 

 closing of the fibres of the feathers forms the 

 chief attraction, the use of natural wings cannot 

 be of the least advantage. In the case of trout- 

 flies, however, it is altogether different ; and with 

 the natural wings so prepared, and the bodies 

 carefully dressed, I do not think that imitation 

 could be more exact, and such should, in skilful 

 hands, prove well-nigh infallible. 



It is not my intention to treat of matters 

 entomological further than is absolutely necessary 

 to give the reader such information respecting 

 the water-flies taken by trout for food as may 

 be essential for him to possess and suffice to 

 interest him. 



The water-flies are divided into two classes, 

 viz., the Ephemera and the Trichoptera in 

 other words, ' those whose lives last but for a 

 day,' and ' those which are hairy-winged/ That 



