30 Trouting-Flies. 



events, does it not seem impossible that the one 

 defect can cover the other? To "simulate life" 

 in a fly is a very worthy aim indeed; only it is 

 not to be attained by making it unnatural in its 

 movements, but first, by constructing a lifelike 

 imitation of the natural insect down to minute 

 particulars of form and colour and secondly, by a 

 skilful cast up-stream presenting this imitation in 

 the most natural manner possible. If life is to be 

 " simulated " at all, let it be for any sake the life 

 of a fly, not of a monstrosity. Certain natural 

 movements the angler may imitate ; unnatural ones 

 he had better not devise. The hovering and flitting 

 of the insect over the surface of the water is a 

 natural movement he cannot copy; to attempt it 

 by a jerking motion of the wrist will only result in 

 exciting the suspicions of the trout, if not in filling 

 them with alarm. But what natural motions are 

 within reach of the angler's imitative art the 

 alighting of the fly on the water, and its floating 

 gently down as if carried by the stream these let 

 him attempt by fishing up-stream, and he will dis- 

 cover that his imitation insect will be " unmistak- 

 ably identified as a fly." 



Mr Pennell, in his criticism of Mr Stewart's 

 argument for fishing up-stream and allowing the 

 fly to come gently down, says that it is founded on 

 "the analogical fallacy that because the natural 



