424 THE COMPLETE ANGLEE. PART II, 



MARCH. 



For this month you are to use all the same hackles, 

 arid flies with the other : but you are to make them less. 



as low as the bent ; and whip four or five times round : then singe- 

 ing the other end of the bristle to a fit length, turn it over to the back 

 of the shank, and, pinching it into a proper form, whip down and fasten 

 off, as before directed; which will bring both ends of the silk into 

 the bent. After you have waxed your silk again, take three or four 

 strands of an ostrich feather ; and holding them, and the bent of 

 the hook as at first directed, the feathers to your left hand, and the 

 roots in the bent of your hook with that end of the silk which you just 

 now waxed, whip them three or four times round, and fasten off: then 

 turning the feathers to the right, and, twisting them and the silk with 

 your fore-finger and thumb, wind them round the shank of the hook ; 

 still supplying the short strands, with new ones, as they fail, till you 

 come to the end and fasten off. When you have so done, clip off the 

 ends of the feathers; and trim the body of the palmer, small at the ex- 

 tremities, and full in the middle ; and wax both ends of your silk, which 

 are now divided and lie at either end of the hook. 



Lay your work by you ; And taking a strong bold hackle with 

 fibres about half an inch long, straiten the stem very carefully ; and 

 holding the small end between the fore-finger and thumb of your left 

 hand, with those of the right, stroak the fibres the contrary way 

 to that which they naturally lie : and taking the hook, and holding it 

 as before, lay the point of the hackle into the bent of the hook, with 

 the hollow (which is the palest) side upwards; and whip it very fast 

 to its place ; in doing whereof, be careful not to tie in many of the 

 fibres, or if you should chance to do so, pick them out with the point 

 of a very large needle. 



When the hackle is thus made fast, the utmost care and nicety is neces- 

 sary in winding it on; for if you fail in this, your fly is spoiled, and you 

 must begin all again : to prevent which keeping the hollow, or pale, side 

 to your left hand ; and, as much as possible, the side of the stem down 

 on the dubbing wind the hackle twice round ; and holding fast what 

 you have so wound, pick out the loose fibres, which you may have taken 

 in, and make another turn ; then lay hold of the hackle with the third 

 and fourth fingers of your left hand, with which you may extend it 

 while you disengage the loose fibres as before. 



In this manner proceed, till you come to within an eighth of an inch of the 

 end of the shank, where you will find an end of silk hanging ; and, by 

 which time, you will find the fibres at the great end of the hackle some- 

 what discomposed ; clip these off close to the stem, and with the end 

 of your middle finger, press the stem close to the hook : while, with 

 the fore-finger of your right hand, you turn the silk into a loop ; which 

 ivhen you have twice put over the end of the shank of the hook, loop 

 and all, your work is safe. 



Then wax that end of the silk which you now used ; and turn it over as 

 before, till you have taken up nearly all that remained of the hook, ob- 

 erving to lay the turns, neatly, side by side. And lastly, clip off the 



