122 FLY FISHING 



method or the other. It is the habit nowadays 

 for nations to divide maps into what they call 

 spheres of influence ; a division which sometimes 

 accords with geographical and natural conditions, 

 and at other times is arbitrary. Something of 

 the same kind is possible between the wet fly 

 and the dry fly, but with this advantage as 

 applied to angling, that the division of spheres 

 of influence is not arbitrary, but prescribed by% 

 natural conditions, and likely to be maintained 

 by them. Roughly it may be said that the dry 

 fly method possesses the South of England, while 

 the wet fly is superior in the West and North 

 of England, and in Scotland. In the Midlands 

 and in part of Yorkshire there is a disputed 

 territory where both are used, and where there 

 may be a real competition between them. 



In late years the literature of wet fly fishing 

 has not kept pace with that of the dry fly. 

 There is nothing known to me in angling 

 literature which for scientific information com- 

 pares with the books of Mr. Halford and some 

 other authors on dry fly fishing, but that is 

 partly because no such uninterrupted and ac- 

 curate study of the life of a river is possible 



