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it is no doubt a great advantage to have a chance of 

 clearing them out of the water by legitimate means, 

 and getting sport in the process. But such giants are 

 so uncommon in the Lambourne that I should be quite 

 willing to dispense with the May-fly altogether if only I 

 might be provided with a few more duns and spinners. 

 I have hardly seen a real good rise this season, and 

 although the cold and gloomy weather may partly be 

 responsible for this, there must be some other cause 

 not yet discovered. I think there is a much better 

 show of fly on the higher reaches of the water, and 

 this leads me to suspect some source of pollution, 

 causing a film through which the insect cannot rise 

 to the surface; but I am unable to trace anything 

 of the kind. 



I sometimes doubt whether the elaborate investi- 

 gation and imitation of the precise shape and colour of 

 the natural fly for the time being on the water, is 

 justified by the results, or whether one would not 

 succeed nearly as well with two or three shades and 

 sizes only ; one of these, to my fancy, should be always 

 the Wickham, which is nob a precise imitation of any 

 existing insect. But this doubt certainly does not 

 dispose of the question. I have frequently the oppor- 

 tunity of watching one who derives half his pleasure 

 from studying and copying the natural fly, a member 

 of that committee of the Flyfishers Club which is 

 making an exhaustive collection of the different 

 ephemera which frequent our English trout-streams, 

 preserved in formalin and acid in test-tubes, and 

 catalogued and arranged. Like every hobby, it well 

 repays its possessor, and gives an interest to his every 

 moment by the water-side. When the fish are not 



