76 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



made by Mr. Val Conson, author of " Wet Fly Methods on 

 Dry Fly Streams," in a letter to this paper (29.11.13) which, 

 in my opinion, embodied the soundest advice. He said : 



" Mature consideration, however, convinced me 

 that the tendencies of such collections would not 

 be beneficial to fly-fishing at large. Any system 

 which tempts amateurs to copy copies, instead of 

 to copy nature, is, in my opinion, bad for fly-dressing. 

 I am all for individuality in fly-dressing. Let each 

 man obtain a mastery over materials and their 

 handling and then dress his flies according to the light 

 of Nature, from Nature, rather than from books 

 or other artificial flies." 



I have pleasure in printing a letter from Mr. R. T. 

 Wickham, which my readers may find of great interest. The 

 conclusions so clearly stated by the writer of this letter 

 were the result of practical observation by the late Mr. David 

 Foster, and Mr. Wickham' s letter will no doubt assist the 

 fisherman in the selection of the most valuable flies to carry 

 with him when fishing. 



While not being able to acquiesce entirely in Mr. 

 Wickham' s theory that all the flies on our chalk streams 

 are the descendants of four different families, I think that 

 the proposition in itself should lead to a careful consideration 

 of this theory, and doubtless to further knowledge. Mr. 

 David Foster isolated in a floating tank the spinners of these 

 four families, and he found that as a result be obtained the 

 various kind of flies and water insects which are known on 

 our trout rivers. The correctness of this theory therefore 

 depends on whether or no the isolation was absolutely 

 perfect. 



" December igth, 1913. 



" DEAR MR. SHAW, The theory of the Duns or 



Fisherman's Ephemera, which I was telling you 



about the other day, is much more fully set out in the 



