HOW TO PREPAKE A FUR BODY. 473 



two turns of the silk, then take one or two turns of the 

 herl or chenille and tie it off. 



If the fly be well and properly tied there should be yet 

 a slight fragment of the hook left unoccupied between the 

 head and the eye or loop. Take one or two turns of the 

 silk round this and fasten off strongly, touch with varnish, 

 and hang up your fly to dry thoroughly : it is now com- 

 plete. In all processes where you touch with varnish 

 allow it to dry thoroughly before you go on with the next 

 process. Fig. 8 shows the head, &c. all complete. 



This is the way which I employ in tying a salmon fly, 

 and I think it is the best and simplest. I puzzled this 

 plan out for myself, never having taken a lesson of a fly- 

 tyer in my life, though after I was able to tie a fly I have 

 watched many professors at work. There are other ways, 

 most of which, I think, are more complicated and difficult. 

 There is one plan already mentioned, and which is some- 

 times advantageous, and that is, when beginning the fly, 

 to use a good long piece of silk, and to commence in the 

 middle of the silk, allowing one end of it to hang down at 

 the shoulder. This comes well in, if a fur body be used, 

 for tying off the hackles, tinsel, wing, Ac. 



If a fur body be used instead of a floss one, select your 

 fur, pig's wool, mohair, seal's fur, or whatever the sub- 

 stance may be, pull it into short lengths, particularly pig's 

 wool or mohair, pick out the coarse fibres, and then lay 

 a sufficient quantity along in the palm of your hand and 

 roll it over and over by the fingers, as already directed 

 in trout flies. The body will most probably be too thick, 

 and you must pull off or pick out as much with your dub- 

 bing needle as you may think desirable, until the body 

 is reduced to the proper size. If there be not enough 

 dubbing on the silk for the whole body, you must feed the 

 silk with a fresh supply. If a hackle needs to be tied in, 



