CHAPTER III 

 WHAT THE FISH SEES 



IN recent years many descriptions have been 

 published of the appearance of flies looked at from 

 under the water. I do not, therefore, claim any 

 particular novelty in the descriptions which follow. 

 The accounts which I have seen, however, are all 

 in English publications, and are not widely known 

 among American anglers, and the illustrations 

 are confined to a few photographs. I wanted to 

 see for myself how flies really looked to the fish, 

 as I never like to accept any scientific fact as really 

 so if I can possibly repeat the experiment for my- 

 self. In scientific work I have often been misled 

 by statements in books which were made with 

 great assurance and which on investigation often 

 proved not to be correct. The observer had either 

 been misled by his experiments or had written 

 down more than he had seen or had drawn faulty 

 conclusions. In this case it was so very easy to 

 get at the real facts that I decided to make all 

 the necessary observations personally. 



Experimenting with a photographic lens under 

 the water, with the water in contact with the lens 



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