CHAPTEK Y. 



FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 



HE practice of using artificial flies has 

 undoubtedly had its origin in the 

 necessity for imitating insects which 

 cannot be used in their natural state. 

 From the first rude attempt at fly-mak- 

 ing of some ingenious angler, the art has 

 gone on progressing, the number of imita- 

 tions always increasing, and the prevalent 

 opinion always being that, in order to fish success- 

 fully, the angler must use an imitation of one or 

 other of the natural insects on the water at the 

 time. In spite of the exertions of Mr. Wilson and 

 Mr. Stoddart to inculcate an opposite theory, this 

 opinion is still held by the great majority of 

 anglers in Scotland, while in England it is all 

 but universal. 



Anglers holding these views rejoice in the pos- 

 session of as many different varieties of flies as 

 would stock a fishing-book, all of which they con- 

 sider imitations of so many real insects, and classify 

 under the heads of the different months when these 



