The Green Drake. 143 



weeks. Its development, habits, and home have 

 already been described in the list of flies given 

 in a previous chapter. What I have to do here 

 is to note its value as a lure, and the method of 

 its use. 



I am again obliged to dissent from the remarks 

 of Mr Stewart. He states that this fly " is almost 

 as difficult to catch as the trout; so that, as far 

 as angling at least in Scotland is concerned, it 

 hardly deserves attention."- Why it should be more 

 difficult of capture in Scotland than elsewhere, is 

 left to the imagination of the reader to discover : 

 and the only reason that is likely to suggest itself 

 to him is, that the yellow fly of the North shares 

 the characteristic shrewdness of the inhabitants, 

 and has more nimbleness and cunning than its 

 English appellation of "green drake" would lead 

 one to suppose. But the truth is not so flatter- 

 ing. The green drake is certainly more com- 

 monly met with in England than in Scotland, 

 because the more sluggish streams of the South, 

 flanked by muddy banks, and bordered by rushes, 

 are better suited to its habits than gravelly 

 beds or pebbly channels. It is not the greater 

 difficulty of its capture here, but the less favour- 

 able character of our more rapid rivers, that ex- 

 plains why it may be of more account elsewhere 

 than in Scotland. But even in Scotland it is to 



