IV. TO FLYFISHERS. 



angler in easy exercise, amidst shifting'scenes and vary- 

 ing prospects ; and it trains him in science to accom- 

 plish his art. Like some other pursuits it has its 

 " glorious certainty of the uncertainty," which eternally 

 varies the success of the flyfisher ; but the cards are 

 in his hands, which is the best that can be done to fol- 

 low suits, and win the game while the lucky moments 

 offer. 



All the Flies and Insects in the List have been ta- 

 ken in the neighbourhood of Ripon, and described and 

 copied from life. The Aquatic Flies were taken from 

 the river Ure and its two smaller tributaries the Laver 

 and Skell,* and it is very probable they are common 

 more or less to the streamy trunks of all the rivers in 

 England ; which gives the List of Flies a wider range 

 than its title may import. How high the aquatic 

 leaders, the green drake, stone fly, etc., may ascend 

 the Upland branches is best known to the local anglers, 

 but wherever these flies are all the others in the list 

 may be found. The river Ure is the streamy or upper 

 trunk of the Ouse and the Humber. It rises near 

 fifty miles west of Ripon, and takes the name of Ouse 

 about ten miles to the east. Its spring head is on the 

 south-side of Ladies' Pillar, in Swaledale ; and the 

 head of the Swale is on the north-side, a mile or two 

 distant. The Ure runs by Aysgarth to Wensley, 

 which has named that beautiful and picturesque dale, 



* The little rivulet Skell comes warbling- from the West, and after 

 passing through the lakes at Grantley, meanders down a woody dell and 

 runs beneath the sublime Ruins of Fountains Abbey. Slow and silent it 

 takes its departure, until broke by the cascades and falls of the swan- 

 crowned waters that beautify the pleasure grounds of celebrated Studley. 



