42 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



The whole fly was very indefinite in outline. The con- 

 spicuous feature and the surprise was the appearance of 

 the brown mallard wing. This feature, so sedate and 

 sombre in the air, had a softly luminous silvery lustre 

 of the most seductive character when under water. So 

 wholly unexpected was this appearance that it was at 

 first attributed to reflection from air immeshed among 

 the fibres of the feather. It seemed altogether too good 

 to be true. So, holding the flies under water, the water 

 was rubbed into the wings until they were completely 

 saturated, and all air that might originally have been 

 there was necessarily expelled. No change in appear- 

 ance resulted, the wing still glowing as before with 

 much the effect of polished silver seen through fine 

 ground-glass. The shape of the wing, closely embrac- 

 ing the upper half of the body and extending beyond it 

 towards the end of the tail, had the form of the upper 

 half of a fish, and I felt sure that were I a fish I should 

 have taken the fly for the sweetest and tenderest of 

 minnows. 



These experiments required an assistant, the observer 

 standing below, while the assistant manipulated the flies 

 from an upper story quite out of sight and hearing. My 

 assistant on this occasion was an angler of great skill 

 and experience, very prompt to perceive the relation 

 between cause and effect. I told him nothing of what 

 I had seen, nor why I rejoined him after my first obser- 

 vation and wetted the wings of the flies with such care. 

 When I had finished, I asked him to go down and 

 look at the flies while I manipulated them, and tell me 

 what he saw, giving no intimation of what I had seen. 

 He returned to me quite as surprised and delighted as I 

 was. 



