152 



CHAPTER VI. 



INSECT-BAIT FISHING. 

 The 



" More matter for a May morning." 



Twelfth Night. 



TTTE have seen that the vast majority of flies 

 which, in perfect though ephemeral beauty, 

 sport on the surface of the stream to the delight 

 of the fish, are merely the fully developed forms of 

 insects that have been bred underneath it. Many 

 of these creatures, notwithstanding their marvel- 

 lous adaptation to their surroundings, never attain 

 to the crown and perfection of their existence, but 

 in their immature and frequently helpless condi- 

 tions of larva and pupa, fall an easy prey to the 

 keen-eyed and rapacious fish. Possibly the prin- 

 ciple of the " survival of the fittest " obtains in 

 water as on land ; but if so, in this case they sur- 

 vive only to be the better fitted to minister ere 



