Flies and Fly-fishing. 381 



trout remains to be considered. To the angler it is a 

 question second in importance to none, since upon its 

 answer depends a more or less perfect solution of the 

 problem how may the necessary connection between 

 his line and his fly be best disguised ? 



Every angler has heard, or taken part in, discussion of 

 the best color for leaders; and if it be permissible to judge 

 of the experience of others from my own, the result has 

 been an expression of doubt by one as to whether the 

 color makes much difference, and a more or less ready 

 assent to this on the part of the others. Never has the 

 writer met any definite opinion on this subject based 

 upon anything more solid than a guess. 



As in past years, so every evening of September, 1883, 

 a band of anglers from many distant cities and States 

 gathered around the camp-fire at Parmacheene Lake, in 

 Maine, several of them artists in the use of the fly-rod, 

 and true sportsmen all ; and when the power of vision of 

 trout and the best color for leaders came up again and 

 again for discussion, and always with the same negative 

 result, I determined that before the next season I would 

 devise some method, if not to settle, at least to throw 

 some light on this question. 



In what manner and with what apparatus my experi- 

 ments should be conducted, was the subject of grave 

 consideration. It would certainly appear at the first 

 blush that to immerse the eye beneath the water and 

 then to look upwards was the surest and most direct way 

 to determine how a leader would appear to the trout, for 

 thus the natural conditions would seem to be exactly re- 

 produced. But a moment's reflection shakes this opin- 

 ion. We all know how sensitive is the human eye to 

 any foreign body, and how instantly the slightest irrita- 



