40 FLY-FISHING. 



fingers of the tyer should also be quite 

 clean."" 



For the body-silk of the brown fly the colour- 

 less wax over brown silk does not answer entirely, 

 as the tint given by the brown silk is rather dead 

 and " unfly-like." I find, however, that by waxing 

 very dark orange silk with ordinary cobbler's wax 

 an excellent rich colour is obtained. The silk 

 whilst fresh waxed should be drawn tightly between 

 the finger and thumb ; by this means the wax is 

 almost removed from two sides of the silk, and 

 massed on the other two sides, producing a mottled 

 yellowy-brown appearance in the fly somewhat 

 like that seen in the March brown and other 

 principal brown varieties, as the stone-fly, great 

 and lesser red spinner, dark mackerel, &c., which 

 are mottled with yellow or orange ribbings. The 

 yellow and orange flies, on the contrary, as the 

 cinnamon, yellow sally, fern, sand, and cow-dung 

 fly, are all either plain yellows or oranges, or if 

 ribbed at all are ribbed with different tints of the 

 same colours. The oak- fly is an exception. 



With regard to the heads of flies, these can, on 



* The composition kept by chemists for making diachylon 

 plaister might very likely answer well, either simply, or 

 mixed with the above preparation : but I cannot say positively 

 that it will do so. 



