14 BOTTOM OR FLOAT-FISHING. 



manner that must produce no little astonishment 

 among the fish, and which would probably equally 

 astonish the angler himself could he obtain a 

 bird's-eye, or rather fish's-eye, view of his line. 



In this cardinal point, however, the ordinary 

 stains used by the tackle makers generally fail ; 

 the tints of colour produced being moreover by no 

 means the best obtainable. It is to be remem- 

 bered that the fish sees the gut usually from 

 below, and that therefore, especially in fly-fishing, 

 the colour of the water hardly affects the question. 

 A colour which without being glossy will assimilate 

 best with the sky-tint for the time being is that 

 which would be theoretically perfect if obtainable, 

 but as the sky-tints change perpetually, dark 

 alternating with light, and sun with shade, so as to 

 make it impossible in practice to keep the colours 

 actually matched, the next best thing is to employ 

 a colour which harmonizes best with the largest 

 number of the most commonly prevailing cloud- 

 tints. This colour appears to be a sort of greyish- 

 green, but I have never met with any single stain 

 which will produce it. It seems to require the 

 blending of several separate tints, and thcit may 



