14 FLY-FISHING. 



an altogether artificial system, in which experience 

 to a great extent supersedes nature as a pilot. 



The colourists take advantage of this undeniable 

 position to assail the whole system of " form" as a 

 blunder, and in doing so themselves make a 

 blunder still greater ; they not only draw from 

 correct premises an erroneous conclusion, but they 

 draw a conclusion the very opposite of the logical 

 one. For if it be admitted (a), that Trout do take 

 the artificial for the natural fly, and (b\ that from 

 the way in which the fly must be presented to 

 them it is difficult to be recognised ; the logical 

 deduction is, not that form is of no consequence, 

 but on the contrary that it is of the utmost con- 

 sequence, and that the fly should be as " fly-like" 

 and characteristic as possible, so that, notwith- 

 standing its rapid and unnatural movements, it 

 may be at once and unmistakably identified as a 



fly. 



I do not see any escape from this position, 

 which if accepted, puts the colourists as entirely 

 " out of court" as by the previous argument are 

 the formalists. 



The superadded theory of the latter, that the 

 imitation of the natural fly on the water at any 

 given time is that which the fish will take best, 



