THE WILLOW FLY. ' 13? 



food that fishes have, both at top and bottom, 

 makes them very nice, and more difficult to be 

 taken, than in the spring or in the autumn ; the 

 great number of flies and insects which are on 

 the water all the summer months, totally disap- 

 pear about the middle of August, so that your 

 diversion is as certain with the three autumnal 

 ^jfties, viz. the Little Whirling Blue, the Pale 

 Blue, and the Willow-fly, as with the three spring 

 flies, which are the Red-fly, the Blue Dun, and 

 the Brown. In these two seasons of the year, 

 if the weather is favourable, and the water in, 

 order, you will find your sport more certain and 

 regular than in the hotter months. This last list 

 of flies may be deemed the standard of artificial 

 fly -fahing ; they are the ingenious Bowlker's, of 

 Ludlow in Shropshire. For their excellency they 

 are not to be equalled. They will kill fish in 

 any county of England and Wales, and are what 

 I call the angler's treasure. Their names are uni- 

 versally known : as for the flies called Lochaber's 

 Golden Sooty's, 8cc. &c. which are to be met with 

 in a late publication, they are not sufficiently 

 known to be of general use. 



Not only those flies that are most useful in, 

 the recreation of angling, but myriads more 

 come under the angler's observation, when in 

 pursuit of his pastime, which will not only fill 

 his mind with wonder and admiration, at the in- 

 comprehensible works of Nature, but like- 

 wise make him praise that Almighty Power, 

 from whom both himself and them derive their 

 being. \ 



There is so beautiful a passage a-propas to this 

 subject, in Mr. Thomson's bummer, that I think 

 the insertion of some part ofr it, must prove ac- 

 ceptable to the informed and pious niind : 

 N 3 



