66 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



ing movements under water exactly resembled 

 those of a living shrimp or prawn, while the con- 

 tinuous play of the long soft hackles of the heron 

 or fowl so characteristic of the old Spey flies- 

 imitated still more closely the actions of those 

 small, but many-legged crustaceous animals, as I 

 had frequently observed them in the aquarium 

 of the Zoological Society. 



Notwithstanding the subdued tone and apparent 

 simplicity of all these Spey flies, and a certain 

 family resemblance, if I may use the expression, 

 that pervades them all, yet after a little practice 

 they may be easily distinguished from each other, 

 and however trifling and insignificant these mi- 

 nute differences may appear to the uninitiated, 

 yet in the eyes of the experienced native fisher- 

 man they are of considerable importance, and 

 when salmon are shy, success is frequently sup- 

 posed to depend upon their due appreciation. 



It may be hardly necessary to observe, that the 

 component parts of each sort of fly are unaffected 

 by its size. This varies considerably. Those 

 which are in vogue during the spring months in 

 the upper waters, when the river is exceedingly 

 high and rapid and the pools unusually deep, 

 being really enormous compared with their minute 

 representatives which are generally found most 



