CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 103 



the shank of the hook ; and then view the proportion ; and if all 

 be neat, and to your liking, fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a dull 

 capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know this, with a 

 little practice, will help an ingenious angler in a good degree. 

 But to see a fly made by an artist in that kind, 1 is the best teach- 

 ing to make it. And, then, an ingenious angler may walk by the 

 river, and mark what flies fall on the water that day ; and catch 

 one of them, if he sees the Trouts leap at a fly of that kind : and 

 then having always hooks ready-hung with him, and having a bag 

 also always with him, with bear's hair, or the hair of a brown or 

 sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a cock or capon, several coloured 

 silk and crewel to make the body of the fly, the feathers of a 

 drake's head, black or brown sheep's wool, or hog's wool, or hair, 

 thread of gold and of silver ; silk of several colours, especially 

 sad-coloured, to make the fly's head : and there be also other 

 coloured feathers, both of little birds and of speckled fowl : * I 



VARIATION.] * by another. ist edit. 



* The Author not having particularly enumerated the Materials necessary for Fly- 

 making, it will not be improper to do it here. For Dubbing, you must be provided with 

 bear's hair of divers colours ; as grey, dun, light and dark coloured, bright brown and 

 that which shines ; also camel's hair, dark, light, and of a colour between both : badger's 

 hair, or fur : spaniel's hair from behind the ear, light and dark brown, blackish, and 

 black : hog's down, plucked from under the throat, and other soft places, and of these 

 colours, black, red, whitish, and sandy ; other colours you may get dyed at a dyer's : 

 seal's fur is to be had at the trunkmaker's ; get this also dyed of the colours of cow's 

 and calf's hair, in all the different shades, from light to the darkest brown ; you will 

 then never need cow's or calf's hair, both which are harsh, and will never work kindly, 

 nor lie handsomely : get also mohairs, black, blue, purple, white, violet, yellow, and 

 orange : camlets, both hair and worsted, blue, yellow, dun, light and dark brown, red, 

 violet, purple, black, horse-flesh, pink, and orange colours. Some recommend the hair 

 of abortive colts and calves ; but seal's fur, dyed as above, is much better. 



Turkey carpet will furnish excellent dubbing : untwist the yarn, and pick out the 

 wool, separating the different colours. 



Some use for dubbing, barge-sail ; but these sails are made of sheep's wool, which 

 soaks in the water, and soon becomes very heavy : however, get of this as many different 

 shades as you can : and have seal's fur and hog-wool dyed to match them ; which, being 

 more turgid, stiff, and light, are in most cases to be preferred to worsted, crewels, and 

 other kinds of wool ; hog-wool is best for large, and seal's fur for small flies. 



Get also furs of the squirrel, particularly from his tail ; fox-cub, from the tail where 

 it is downy and of an ash-colour ; an old fox ; an old otter ; otter-cub ; badger ; fulimart 

 or filmert ; from the neck of a hare where it is of the colour of withered fern ; and, above 

 all, the yellow fur of the martern, from off the gills or spots under the jaws. These, and 

 almost every other kind of fur, are got at the farrier's. 



Hackles, the long slender feathers on the neck and near the tail of a cock, are very 

 useful in fly-making ; be careful that they are not too rank, which they are when the 

 fibres are more than half an inch long ; be provided with these of the following colours 

 red, dun, yellowish, white, orange, and black ; and whenever you meet with a cock of 

 the game breed, whose hackles are of a strong brown-red, never fail to procure some : 

 but, observe that the feathers of a cock chicken, and of the Bantam cock are too downy 

 and weak to stand erect after they are once wet. 



Feathers are absolutely necessary for the wings and other parts of flies : get therefore 

 feathers from the wild mallard, or drake ; from the partridge, especially those red ones 

 in the tail ; from a cock-pheasant's breast and tail ; from the wings of a blackbird, a 

 brown hen, a starling, a jay, a landrail, a throstle, a field-fare, and a water coot ; from 



