228 FISHING GOSSIP. 



Looking merely to the high qualifications of the in- 

 ventors, the most prudent course would be, perhaps, 

 to bow at once to their infallibility, and ask no ques- 

 tions. Yet, mixed up with empiricism as the question 

 is, it is one well worthy of the investigations of the 

 scientific angler. It would surely be worth knowing 

 how it happens that salmon rise to artificial flies of 

 which there are confessedly no natural originals ; how 

 far the allegation is true or false that fish take certain 

 flies, and in particular rivers only ; and lastly, by 

 what intuitive guidance the fly-milliner invents these 

 nondescript products of his brain. The models to 

 which they bear the most distant resemblance are 

 few indeed, being confined to the limited family of 

 the dragon-flies, and an inconsiderable number of the 

 larger Ephemeridas found on British waters. But it 

 would appear that, just in proportion as nature has 

 been sparing of her originals,, art has stepped in with 

 spurious creations to supply the deficiency. To such 

 an extent has this practice been carried that it would 

 be impossible to form a collection upon any rational 

 principle of selection. As fancy or caprice alone pre- 

 sides at the mint, there can of course be no limit to 

 the issue of the counterfeit coinage. Most readers of 

 current angling literature will doubtless have met one 

 of these ingenious artificers who can strike off any 

 number of these pseudo-imitations at a heat. Most of 

 the class would seem to have taken Tom Moore's 



