THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 99 



thread, make these fast at the bent of the hook, that is to say, 

 below your arming ; then you must take the hackle, the silver 

 or gold thread, and work it up to the wings, shifting or still re- 

 moving your finger, as you turn the silk about the hook ; and 

 still looking at every stop or turn, that your gold, or what mate- 

 rials soever you make your fly of, do lie right and neatly ; and 

 if you find they do so, then, when you have made the head, make 

 all fast ; and then work your hackle up to the head, and make 

 that fast : and then with a needle or pin divide the wing into two, 

 and then with the arming silk whip it about crossways betwixt 

 the wings, and then with your thumb you must turn the point of 

 the feather towards the bent of the hook, and then work three or 

 four times about the shank of the hook, and then view the pro- 

 portion, 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, is the best teaching 

 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 see 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- 

 colored heifer, hackles of a cock or a capon, several colored 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 colors, especially sad- 

 colored, to make the fly's head ; and there be also other colored 

 feathers both of little birds and of speckled fowl : I say, having 

 those with him in a bag, and trying to make a fly, though he miss 

 at first, yet shall he at last hit it better, even to such a perfection, 

 as none can well teach him ; and if he hit to make his fly right, 

 and have the luck to hit also where there is store of trouts, a 

 dark day, and a right wind, he will catch such store of them, as 

 will encourage him to ijrow more and more in love with the art 

 of fly-making.* 



* Walton was no fly-fisher, and these directions are very imperfect. 

 Some further information will be given, especially in Cotton's part of the 



