TROUT-FLIES. 5 5 



fishing, a serious danger. To obviate it I have 

 had a small spring attached to the last of the 

 lateral girders or supports, and so arranged that 

 when the reel is in its place the spring presses 



closely on the wood or fittings behind. This 

 spring, of which a diagram is annexed, is very 

 inexpensive, and can be attached with ease to any 

 properly made reel, and I venture to think that 

 no troller or fly-fisher who has once found the 

 practical convenience of such an antidote to 

 " hitching" will ever use a reel without it. 



FISHING WITH THE DRY-FLY (ARTIFICIAL). 



The object of the dry-fly is evident from its 

 name it is made to float dry on the water like 

 the natural insect, thus affording the solitary 

 instance of the " formalist" or entomological theory 

 being carried to its legitimate result. The pecu- 

 liarities in the construction of the fly to enable it 

 to fulfil this r6le, are first its wings, which gene- 

 rally consist of the whole tops of feathers (mallard, 



