140 TWO DAYS FLY-FISHING IN THE TEST. 



on the ground, and is therefore more readily taken 

 with ground-bait than with a fly. An old angler 

 states that he has seen half a dozen of them at a 

 time ploughing the ground, as hogs do, for food. 



There are very few fresh-water fish that will not 

 take a well-dressed artificial fly of some sort or 

 other; even the shad has been known to do so. 

 The gudgeon is perhaps an exception. I have no 

 doubi also but that many of the sea-fish would take 

 a fly. The following proof of this was lately com- 

 municated to me. To the eastward of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, Captain Wilson, in the ship Vit- 

 toria, of Bristol, one afternoon caught a large sized 

 shark. The following morning a pilot-fish was ob- 

 served following the stern of the vessel. The chief 

 mate, an inveterate fisherman, dressed a small fly 

 with coloured worsted and white leather wings on 

 a No. 7 hook, and watching his opportunity, 

 dropped the fly over the fish, which immediately 

 took it and was hauled on board. Its colour was a 

 brilliant deep blue, shaded oft* to orange in bars. 



From fish, our conversation turned to the nu- 

 merous swallows we had that day seen skimming the 

 surface of the river. These indefatigable birds are 

 on the wing from 14 to 16 hours at this time of the 

 year. In the autumn they congregate in a manner 

 which is truly surprizing ; every bird seems to Ix? 

 actuated by the same impulse to assemble at the 

 same moment in some particular place. This mi- 



