METROPOLITAN FLIES 129 



identical Charlie Purdie so repeatedly mentioned in 

 them. 



A great deal of mystery is made on every river 

 as to the flies you should fish with. Thus when 

 a novice arrives at his fishing station, he sends for 

 the oracle of the river ; pulls out his book, crammed 

 as closely as a pot of pemmican, and displays before 

 him the various devices of an Eaton, an Ustonson, 

 or a Chevalier. Nothing dazzled, Donald much 

 admires what one may be, and what the other ; 

 this he rejects as useless, that he laughs to scorn. 

 At length, after having grinned extensively at those 

 tinselled animals called kill devils, he examines some 

 twenty dozen of your best flies; and, pulling out 

 one from the number, tells you that might serve 

 well enough if it had different wings, a different 

 body, and a yellow tail. Now all this is overdone ; 

 but I would advise you to acquiesce in the pre- 

 dictions of the said oracle, simply to save the 

 trouble of argument. One thing you may be sure of ; 

 namely, that you may as well attempt to make 

 the Tweed run back to its source as to shake his 

 opinions. 



Now, as there is no month in the year when 

 salmon flies are made by nature, so no distinction 

 of species need be observed. My rule has been to 

 adapt my fly, both as to colour and size, to the 

 state of the water : a large fly with sober colours for 

 deep and clear water, and a smaller one, equally 

 unassuming, where it is shallower ; in the throat 

 of the cast, and as long as it continues rough, a 

 large fly also ; at the tail of it, where the water 



