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CHAPTER XIII. 



SALMON FLIES. 



I RECOLLECT, several years ago, meeting with a well- 

 known landed proprietor in the north of Scotland, and 

 the possessor on both sides of a noted salmon-river, who, 

 being an angler in his own time and way, took it into 

 his head to use no flies in salmon-fishing but such as 

 were made up with materials of a white colour. This 

 he did upon the advice, or in approval of the theory of 

 a celebrated optician, who affirms that the position of 

 the fish underneath, with regard to a fly traversing the 

 surface, prevents it altogether from distinguishing the 

 colour of the insect, its visual organs in this respect 

 being acted upon by the superincumbent light of day, 

 and so contracted in power as to be able merely to re- 

 cognise the shape of its prey. That this theory is cor- 

 rect, I am very much inclined to doubt, and so I think 

 would most anglers be, whether on Tweedside or else- 

 where. Still, the individual alluded-to, notwithstanding 

 his whimsical assortment of flies, one and all, though 

 varying in respect of magnitude, being composed of 

 snow-white dubbing and hackles, silver twist, and por- 

 tions of the pencilled wing feather taken from the silver 

 pheasant, was no unsuccessful angler; and although 

 occasionally competed with by one of the ablest crafts- 

 men in the district, whose notions regarding the visual 

 perceptions of fish were perfectly different, and who 

 actually took pleasure in using flies of the opposite 

 colour, managed generally to bear off* the palm. 



