PRACTICE RECOMMENDED. 475 



be used, a turn or two is to be taken ; it is to be fastened 

 off under the wings ; but the hackle must of course go on 

 over the body, and how on earth is a hackle to be tied off 

 over dubbing ? 



I never read such extraordinary directions, and if I 

 had not known Blacker to have been an artist of the very 

 first rank, I should, judging from these directions, have 

 thought him no tyer at all. His directions, however, for 

 tying the gaudy salmon fly, though of the briefest, show 

 that his rtiodus operandi is very similar to the one I have 

 already given, so we will eschew his easy method and stick 

 to his difficult one. 



To explain the full method of tying the jointed flies 

 with manes, mid hackles, and herls, of Erris and elsewhere, 

 would be a work of supererogation, as no tyer will venture 

 to begin with such patterns ; and when he is able to tie 

 according to the directions I have furnished him with, 

 quickly and well, he will hit off the method of tying any 

 other pattern which may be possible or desirable without 

 difficulty. Practice is the great thing, and a cessation of 

 even a few months throws one back in the art more than 

 would be believed by the uninitiated. 



