128 ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 



pliers ; and the fibres pointing over the head whipt it 

 to, at the low shoulder ; and, after cutting off the sur- 

 plus, whipt tight down to the bend and carefully back 

 again, to form the body ; then fastened, and cut the 

 silk close off. He finished with a pin, separating and 

 straightening the fibres of the feather, pinching the up- 

 per ones together for the wings, and trim'ming and 

 adjusting the under parts, for the legs ; then cast his 

 fly on the water. 



Absent or ill-made and ill-matched flies are bad to 

 depend on ; also flies of our own design or fancy ; for 

 we cannot design or finish equal to Nature. The best 

 we can do is to copy her designs and finish after her 

 in the best way we can. The first business of the 

 small flyfisher is with the aquatic flies of the day, 

 which, if he cannot see out or on the water he may oft 

 on spider webs, or he may find them with their creep- 

 ers at their times of hatching, at the edges of the 

 streams, the same as the creeper and stone fly. An 

 hour or two spent in research and observation at inter- 

 vals through a season, will give a truer and more cor- 

 rect knowledge of the flies and nature and system of the 

 art, than many years of angling, and is often the short- 

 est way to the favorite. The wheelings of the black 

 and blue gnats, in sunny calms and clear waters the 

 trotting of the stone fly, and the majestic floating of 

 the green drake overmatch the craftsman's art. Na- 

 ture reigns there supreme, when her own works only 

 can avail the flyfisher. The first cast of his artificials 

 comes the nearest ; they float for an instant and oft 

 flatter him with a rise or by chance a fish, but in a 

 cast or two more they are disfigured, dishevelled, and 



