124 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



of several different kinds of water-bred flies which 

 are common on chalk streams. After having 

 spent the major portion of its life in dull obscurity 

 as a larva at the bottom of the river among weeds 

 or gravel, it has swum up to the surface, discarded 

 its skin, acquired wings, and become a fly. 

 Presently, if it survives the many dangers awaiting 

 it, it will shed its present skin and assume its bridal 

 dress, and then it will be known to anglers as a 

 " spinner." The evolution of \vater flies is a 

 complicated thing, and the young angler need not 

 at first trouble himself about its processes. What 

 he has to do is to watch the water, find out what 

 the flies on it look like, and put on the artificial 

 which seems most like them in colour and size. 

 And even that is not necessary, I think, at first. 



Before long the fly is followed by others just like 

 it, and presently twenty yards above where the 

 novice is standing and about two feet out from 

 the bank, a widening ring on the surface of the 

 water shows that a trout has begun to feed. Rod 

 and line are ready, twenty yards of the latter 

 having been rubbed lightly with the greasy flannel. 

 A well-soaked cast, to which two undrawn points 

 have been added, has been attached, and all that 

 remains is to put on a fly. This had better be a 

 Wickham, for two reasons, one that it is easy to 



