224 NOTES ON THE MONTHS FOR FLY-FISHING. 



that when fish are inclined to feed, one fly is as good 

 as another, so long as the size is somewhere near the 

 mark, adding that when fish were not inclined for 

 feeding " every conceivable object in the fly -book 

 would fail to tempt them." 



Finding verbal arguments ineffective, we had 

 adjourned to the river's brim to try the effect of 

 practical ones. The day opened bright and clear, 

 with no flies on the water, and no fish on the rise, 

 in which circumstances our Scotch friends wisely, in 

 their own opinion, declined to fish. The remainder 

 of the party, upon the other hand, rigged up with 

 double-hooked Palmers, and commenced. These are 

 cast on the water the same as the fly, and are then 

 allowed to sink and move with the current, see page 

 243. After a few fish had been allured from unseen 

 haunts in this manner, to the amazement of the 

 north countrymen, they protested that alluring oint- 

 ment must have been used, which imputation was 

 indignantly resented by several of the company, who 

 affirmed that the sense of sight in fish was all they 

 attempted to deceive ; that no modern fisherman 

 believed in the efficiency of obnoxious ointments, and 

 other pigments, and that the whole reason that 

 Walton and Cotton shone above their numerous 

 contemporaries so conspicuously was owing to the 

 fact of their having proved themselves to be half-a- 

 century ahead of their times, by ignoring such like 

 trash. About noon a smart breeze sprang up, the 

 sun being occasionally obscured by drifting clouds, 

 and an odd fish or two now began to rise. The 



