218 FISHKS AND FISHING. 



me with a high opinion of these flies, and to enhance 

 the price, so I cautiously selected half-a-dozen. She 

 divided them into two parcels, three being rather 

 larger than the other three, but all, as she assured me, 

 were the real Thames Jlies, The larger three, she 

 said, ** I shall only charge you one shilling each, and 

 the other three ninepence each." I suppose it was 

 intended I should consider my self /<:^t;owr^^; but I did 

 not, for I could have bought as good flies, on as sound 

 hooks, and with as much gold (?) on them, at any of 

 the tackle shops for one shilling and sixpence, whereas 

 these six real Thames flies, so improperly puffed, cost 

 me five shillings and threepence. But I have never 

 troubled this lady's shop with another visit. I con- 

 sider myself, and am thought by others, a good fly- 

 fisher, but I never caught one fish, even a chub, with 

 any of these flies. 



I must here remark that there is, in point of fact, no 

 such thing as real gold lace, or gold thread ; it is silver 

 gilt with such a fine film of gold, that it would take four- 

 teen millions of such films of gold to make the thickness 

 of one inch ; whereas if fourteen millions of leaves of 

 common printingpaper could be placed one on the other, 

 they would make a pillar three thousand nine hun- 

 dred and sixty feet high, (Dr. Black,) or above nine- 

 teen times as high as the Monument. And the 

 ductility of gold is such, that one ounce of it is suf- 



