HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 



Now for Flies, which are the third bait wherewith Trouts 

 are usually taken. You are to know, that there are so many 

 sorts of flies as there be of fruits : I will name you but some 

 of them, as the Dun- fly, the Stone-fly, the Red-fly, the Moor- 

 fly, the Tawny-fly, the Shell-fly, the Cloudy or Blackish-fly, 

 the Flag-fly, the Vine-fly : there be of flies, Caterpillars, and 

 Canker- flies, and Bear-flies, and indeed too many either for me 

 to name or for you to remember : and their breeding is so various 

 and wonderful, that I might easily amaze myself, and tire you 

 in a relation of them. 



And yet I will exercise your promised patience by saying 

 a little of the Caterpillar, or the Palmer-fly or worm, that by 

 them you may guess, what a work it were in a discourse but 

 to run over those very many flies, worms, and little living 

 creatures with which the Sun and Summer adorn and beautify 

 the river banks and meadows, both for the recreation and con- 

 templation of us Anglers ; pleasures which, I think, myself enjoy 

 more than any other man that is not of my profession. 



Pliny holds an opinion, that many have their birth or being 

 from a dew, that in the Spring falls upon the leaves of trees ; 

 and that some kinds of them are from a dew left upon herbs 

 or flowers ; and others from a dew left upon coleworts or 

 cabbages : all which kinds of dews being thickened and con- 

 densed, are by the Sun's generative heat most of them hatched, 

 and in three days made living creatures ; and these of several 

 shapes and colours ; some being hard and tough, some smooth 

 and soft ; some are horned in their head, some in their tail, 

 some have none : some have hair, some none : some have six- 

 teen feet, some less, and some have none; but, as inhis' History 

 our Topsel hath, with great diligence, observed, of serpents.' 

 those which have none, move upon the earth, or upon broad 

 leaves, their motion being not unlike to the waves of the sea. 

 Some of them he also observes to be bred of the eggs of other 

 caterpillars, and that those in their time, turn to be butterflies : 

 and again, that their eggs turn the following year to be cater- 

 pillars. And some affirm, that every plant has his particular fly 

 or caterpillar, which it breeds and feeds. I have seen, and may 

 therefore affirm it, a green caterpillar, or worm, as big as a 

 small peascod, which had fourteen legs, eight on the belly, four 



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