194 THE COLOUR-SENSE IN FISHES 



results being satisfactory, they were content. 

 The increase in the ranks of fishermen, con- 

 sequent on increased travelling facilities, changed 

 all that, and much else. New men brought new 

 ideas, new materials, new experiments. 



A fisherman, however, is not necessarily a 

 logician. He fishes, we will say, with a certain 

 fly without success ; changes it for something 

 different in colour, and lo ! fish after fish suc- 

 cumbs to its attractions. What more can he 

 wish? Of course the fly has done it. It does 

 not seem to occur to him that had he continued 

 to fish with No. i the result might, very possibly 

 at least, have been the same. In fact we have 

 here simply the old problem of post hoc or 

 propter hoc. 



As a rule gillies and boatmen are very opin- 

 ionative as to the patterns that alone, according 

 to them, are of any use in their particular 

 waters, and for the sake of peace it is as well, 

 perhaps, to give in to their prejudices. Should 

 the angler, however, persist in the use of some 

 unorthodox lure and achieve success, he must 

 by no means assume that he has thereby con- 

 verted his attendant, who will believe, and 

 probably assert, that had his advice been followed 

 the bag would doubtless have been doubled. 



It is not always so, however ; there are some 



