74 TROUT FISHING 



hold it in the division between the thumb and 

 fiager ; keep the shining surface of the feather 

 uppermost, having the thumb closely pressed 

 against the fore-finger; take the apex of the 

 hackle between your left fore-finger and thumb, 

 and bend the feather and pull it between the 

 thumb and fore-finger, held as before closely to- 

 gether, so as to subject the fibres to pressure, 

 and on drawing the whole length of the feather 

 through, you will find you have turned all the 

 fibres to one side of the midrib. Now take your 

 gut let it be good strong round gut, not very 

 large in circumference, but everywhere perfectly 

 round and transparent; bite off the length you 

 require, and you will find the bitten end flattened ; 

 put this between your teeth and impress it in 

 three or four places, of a distance of half the 

 length of your hook, from the extreme end ; now 

 your gut is jagged as it were and flattened, the 

 silk will fit into the pits made, and will not allow 

 the gut to slip ; now take some strong fly-making 

 silk, which is only a finer description of common 

 silk, of yellow colour, wax this well, and cut off as 

 much as you want, say ten inches. Your tweezers 

 are by your side, and a pair of fine-pointed, well- 

 cutting scissors ; and first you take the hook in 

 your left hand, between your fore-finger and 

 thumb, with the bend of the hook pointing to- 

 wards the hand which holds it, with the barbed 

 point downwards, and the free extremity of the 

 shank, on which will be formed the head of the 

 fly, pointing to your opposite or right hand ; now 



