THE MODERN FLY-STOCK. 235 



as a kind of bug-bear to the fish, scaring them from their 

 accustomed haunts and resting spots. And indeed:, it 

 is only gradually that in the lower part of the district I 

 allude to, a complete change has been effected in the 

 matter of flies. Not absolutely discarding the old 

 standard and local lures, modern anglers have intro- 

 duced into their stock at least a thousand and one other 

 varieties, all dignified with the name of killers, yet no 

 single fly-hook resembling any known insect, bird or 

 other animal. For every season and month, for all 

 hours of the day, for all changes of weather, for waters 

 low, flooded, or in mid state, sunned or clouded, deep or 

 shallow, streamy, wind-ruffled or still, icy-cold or at 

 blood-heat, black or clear, leaf-strewn or otherwise, they 

 have a peculiar and favourite lure ; nay, were it possible, 

 by some adaptation of phosphorus, to cause hooks to re- 

 veal their trimmings in the dark, no doubt a nocturnal 

 assortment would become added, possessed as became 

 it, of all the powers of diablerie and witchcraft. 



I go back to ask, what are the deductions to be drawn 

 from all I have instanced ? Was the by-gone school of 

 salmon-fishers a humbug ? Is the modern one less so ? 

 Can the disciples of either unfold anything which was 

 not as well known in the days of Agricola, as it is now ? 

 Seriously speaking, are the tastes and habits of the 

 salmon, as some assert, of a revolving nature ? Is the 

 fish too so capricious, that a single fibre wanting in the 

 lure, a misplaced wing, a wrongly assorted hue, will 

 discompose and annoy it ? Such questions I leave to 

 be answered by wiser anglers than myself. They search 

 too deeply into the philosophy of the art to obtain their 

 reply from one so imperfectly versed in it, nor does it 

 render the task less arduous were I to comprehend 

 them all under the single query can the principle 

 upon which salmon in certain waters, accommodate 



