THE ABERDEEXSHIRE DEE. 351 



bondu, blue jay at shoulder ; silver tinsel ; wing mixed 

 pintail and teal, tippet (dyed red) a gold pheasant sword 

 feather, slips of claret and orange swan, with a good deal 

 of golden pheasant tail over all. Hook No. 5. No heads 

 to these flies. 



I had further a note from Mr. Maxwell with respect to 

 the Annan and Nith, from which I extract the following : 



' Captain Stewart tells me that he always uses the dif- 

 ferent varieties of dun and white tip turkey and brown mal- 

 lard as dressed by Jamie Wright of Sprouston (see Tweed 

 flies), that prince of dressers for Scottish waters. Also the 

 Butcher (p. 338), and a fly dressed as follows : Tag, silver 

 tinsel ; tail, one topping and red Indian crow, or tuft of 

 floss silk ; body, half lemon yellow, half black mohair or 

 pig's wool, according to size of fly ; coch-y-bondu hackle, 

 with black at shoulder ; mixed wing, of mallard, teal, 

 yellow and lavender swan, and plenty of red macaw, with 

 or without small tippet under, and topping over wing ; 

 head, black herl. 



' But the speciality of both these waters is the dun 

 wing, size from 6 to 12, according to the season.' 



THE ABERDEENSIIIRE DEK. 



There are many Dees in the kingdom, two noted ones 

 in Scotland and one famous river in England and Wales. 

 That which I here refer to is the chief one, or the Aber- 

 deenshire Dee. It is almost a pattern river for the skilful 

 salmon-fisher, but will not admit of being fished by a 

 muff; in fact it is by no means an easy river to fish. The 

 lower reaches, as on the Conon, are not good rising ground, 

 as the salmon run through and rise badly while resting 

 the Aboyne water perhaps being the cream of the Dee. 

 The casts are rapid rough streams and often heavy, but it 

 is perhaps one of the clearest streams in Scotland. The 



