ON 1JAPID STREAMS. 81 



lower ones the legs. Whether this is of any 

 practical advantage, I leave the reader to judge,, 

 merely stating that I do not believe that it is, so 

 far as the representation of the natural fly is con- 

 cerned ; but by placing the fibres so as to main- 

 tain only two directions, I think it gives them 

 greater firmness to resist the action of rapid cur- 

 rent washing upon them, than when they are 

 permitted to stand out in a circle around the 

 hook. 



We have now tied a brown fly (an excellent 

 one in January or February), but perhaps it will 

 be as well to state how I make another brown fly 

 for the early season. The body consists of the 

 fur pulled out of the tails of the brown sable 

 which ladies wear ; it must have a decided brown 

 shade at the roots, and the tips dark or nearly 

 black ; to tjiis I put a brown hackle, on which a 

 silvery speckled shade is observable ; here the 

 hackle is rather lighter than the body, as the 

 body is of itself of a very sober tone ; sometimes 

 this fly may be ribbed with gold twist, which is 

 very simply done by splicing on the gold twist 

 with the gut to the hook, as in the first step for 

 tying a plain fly; we leave the twist hanging 

 from the tail of the fly till we have spliced on the 

 hackle, and formed the body, when we wind it 

 down over the body at regular intervals, and 

 evenly ; and then before winding around the hackle 

 to form the wings and legs, we must secure the 

 gold twist by some turns of the silk, then cut off 

 the twist, and place the silk, as before directed, 



