THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 69 



CHAPTER VI. 



PiscATOR. Boy, come, give me my dubbing-bag here presently ; 

 and now, Sir, since I find you so honest a man, 1 will make no 

 scruple to lay open my treasure before you. 



ViAT. Did ever any one see the like ! what a heap of trum- 

 pery is here ! certainly never an angler in Europe has his shop 

 half so well furnished as you have.* 



* Ronald curtly says of the materials for fly-making : " The dubbing- 

 bag should contain everything in the world " Gay, in his Rural Sports, 

 is more poetically explicit : 



•' To frame the little animal, provide 

 All the gay hues that wait on female pride ; 

 Let nature guide thee. Sometimes golden wire 

 The shining bellies of the fly require ; 

 The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not fail, 

 Nor the dear purchase of the sable's tail. 

 Each gaudy bird some slender tribute brings. 

 And lends the growing insect proper wings : 

 Silks of all colors must their aid impart, 

 And every fur promote the fisher's art," 



Bowlker's list is as follows : " The fur of seals, moles, and water-rats ; 

 black, blue, purple, white, and violet goat's hair, commonly called mohair; 

 camlets of every color ; furs from the neck and ears of hares ; also, hackle 

 feathers from the neck and ears of cocks, red, dun, yellowish, white, and 

 black. For the wings of flies, feathers from the neck, breast, and wings 

 of the wild mallard, partridge, and pheasant ; also the wings of the black- 

 bird, brown hen, starling, jay, land-rail, swallow, thrush, field-fare, and 

 water-coot; with peacock's and ostrich's herl. Provide, also, marking- 

 silk of all colors ; gold and silver platted wire or twist, a sharp knife, 

 hooks of every size, a needle, and a pair of sharp-pointed sci.ssors." 



Monkey's fur, because of its resistance of water, should have been added 

 to the above list, and that of the green Demerara monkey is particularly 

 prized. The dubbing (the body of the fly) should never, when it is possi- 

 ble to avoid it, be made of wool, which becomes heavy when wet, but of 



