ON RAPID STREAMS. 73 



ception of stillness. The wind is not boisterous 

 and we expect a calm day, and now we turn out 

 our box of materials and are going to tie some 

 flies, for we have few in our book. Well then, 

 we will, if you please, make a brown fly, a blue, 

 and a red fly and first the brown ; turn to your 

 fox's fur and pull out some from the back, turn 

 to your darkest squirrel fur and pull out an equal 

 quantity from the back also, and mix them with 

 your fingers well together. Now take your 

 hackles and find one that precisely coincides in 

 colour with the mixture you have made, see that 

 it be not too dark or too light, let it be rich in 

 shades and bright in lustre, but not differing from 

 the fur before you. 



Now select your hook, which may be of the 

 size corresponding to (if you have none of them) 

 No. 6 or 7 Hutchinson ; if the water is high and 

 the wind boisterous, let it be 7 ; if quiet and 

 calm, as we supposed, No. 6 will be best; but 

 either will do, provided the hackle you have 

 chosen is of the proper size for it, which you judge 

 by measuring the fibres on one side of the hackle 

 with the hook, and they should be just a slight 

 degree longer than the hook from the end of the 

 shank to the bend. Pluck off all the ragged- 

 looking down from the larger end, or base of the 

 hackle, till the fibres from the smaller to the 

 larger end form by their margin or extreme points 

 a triangle ; now place the stem or midrib by which 

 it grows in the fowl, between the fore-finger and 

 thumb of your right hand, as low down as you can 



