2O T routing-Flies. 



colour of a fly very distinctly." 1 I shall take only 

 another, and, so far as I know, the most recently 

 advanced theory that of Mr Pennell. The views 

 of this author on the character of the artificial flies 

 an angler should use are much more startling than 

 his conclusions, already given, in regard to their 

 number; and as some of his positions have been 

 maintained by others who are considered authori- 

 ties in angling, and all of them involve the errors 

 of the theories stated above, I may be excused if I 

 examine his propositions in some detail, and endeav- 

 our to bring them to the infallible touchstone of 

 experience ; for angling is necessarily a practical 

 art, and the evidence of experience must in this, as 

 in weightier matters, have precedence of plausible 

 theories and a priori arguments. 



After dividing trout fly-fishers into two classes, 

 which he names respectively the " colourists," or 

 those who consider " colour " everything and 

 " form " nothing, and the " formalists," who hold 

 " that the natural flies actually on the water at any 

 given time should be exactly imitated by the arti- 

 ficial fly used, down to the most minute particulars 

 of form and tinting," Mr Pennell proceeds to state 

 what, in his view, are the arguments by which the 

 opposing theories are maintained, and then to 

 show that he occupies a position quite distinct 



1 Stewart's Practical Angler, pp. 74, 75, and 80. 



