16 FLOATING FLIES 



his trout flies. The larger part of our so-called 

 American trout fly patterns are actually of Eng- 

 lish origin, and were introduced to the waters 

 of this country through the medium of our first 

 professional fly-tiers, Englishmen and Scotch- 

 men, who, as a matter of course, after coming 

 to this country, continued to dress the patterns 

 with which they were familiar. A certain few 

 of our most famous artificial flies are, indeed, 

 of American invention flies such as the Seth 

 Green, Reuben Wood, Parmachenee Belle, Im- 

 brie, Harrington, and a few others. Other pat- 

 terns, so familiar to the fly-fishermen of this 

 country that the fact that they are not of Amer- 

 ican origin seems very strange, are the coach- 

 man, grizzly king, Montreal (Canadian), Ca- 

 hill, governor, cowdung, silver doctor, Beaver- 

 kill in fact, nearly all of our most killing and 

 widely known patterns. 



Regarding the Beaverkill, the name of which 

 is so suggestively American to one at all famil- 

 iar with the trout streams of the East, it might 

 be well to amplify to some extent, as I am sure 

 many anglers would otherwise take exception 

 to the statement that this fly is of English ori- 

 gin. In " Familiar Flies," by Mary Orvis 

 Marbury an invaluable book for the fly-fish- 

 erman it is related that an American angler, 



