76 FISHING GOSSIP. 



The natural fly is used for dibbing or daping, as 

 I have already described in my observations on the 

 May-fly. And it should be observed that among 

 Scottish fishermen the stone-fly is almost invariably 

 termed the May-fly. Stewart, in his well-named 

 work, The Practical Angler, falls into a curious error, 

 contending that the cadis-worm is not the larva of 

 the stone-fly, as he has observed the cadis in rivers 

 as late as the month of August, long after the last 

 stone-fly has disappeared. And so he might, for be- 

 sides the stone-fly, the Phryganidse afford many other 

 lures for the use of the fisherman ; the grannam or 

 green-tail, the cinnamon-fly, the alder-fly, the oak-fly, 

 the large fetid light brown, the silver horn, and 

 several others, all belong to this interesting class of 

 insects. 



The creeper is a favourite bait in the north of 

 England and Scotland. The author of a work called 

 The North Country Angler endeavours to make us 

 believe that he first discovered the insect, though it 

 was correctly described by Cotton, under the local 

 name of a jack, in the Complete Angler. It is by no 

 means a fascinating creature ; Stewart says that it is 

 " the most venomous-looking insect that the angler 

 in pursuit of his vocation has to encounter." It runs 

 fast, moving with alternate inflexions of the body, 

 that give it almost a kind of serpentine character, 

 and when taken up for the first time into tender 



