

Mr PenneWs Views criticised. 3 1 



dry fly usually floats passively down-stream, the 

 artificial wet should do the same." Well, why 

 shouldn't it ? If we are not able to make our art 

 compete successfully on all points with nature, let 

 us not on that account outrage nature. The fallacy 

 lies with Mr Pennell ; for as we imitate a fly in 

 the stream and helplessly carried along by it, the 

 analogy is not between a dry fly and a wet one, 

 but between a natural fly wet and an artificial 

 fly wet. Let both be placed on the water, and let 

 us see which floats "briskly up." 



Mr Pennell is as indifferent to the size of his 

 flies as flies, as he is to their form and colour. For 

 he says, " Size is a matter of no moment as regards 

 the flies themselves, though of the utmost conse- 

 quence in another point of view. For nothing is 

 more certain than that some waters usually large 

 ones, whether rivers or lakes require large flies ; 

 whilst small ones, almost equally universally, have 

 to be fished with small flies. This necessity cannot 

 be ignored by the ' formalists ' any more than by 

 the 'colourists'; and the result, as regards the 

 former, is that they are obliged frequently to use 

 a fly professing to be an exact imitation of the 

 March brown, for example, and having no other 

 advantages but such supposed resemblance, which 

 is only about half, or a third even, of the natural 

 size ! This one fact, which is undeniable, is of 



