A Question of Heredity 141 



dun — exactly resembling the natural fly on 

 the water — * dragged ' unnaturally over his 

 nose, how much more likely are you to 

 offend these fastidious and highly educated 

 fellows by tackle and lures such as the 

 colonel was wont to brandish ? Nor are 

 the Test trout the only fish which have 

 grown so mightily particular within, say, 

 the last score of years. The trout of the 

 Derbyshire Wye — of, that is to say, the 

 lower and most constantly fished stretches 

 of the stream — have, within the experience 

 of even youthful anglers, developed the same 

 characteristics ; and those of certain fishful 

 portions of the Kennet are, if anything, even 

 worse from a creel-filling point of view. 

 Colonel Hawker scarcely imitated nature at 

 all, and yet he usually filled his creel when- 

 ever he chose : we imitate nature closely — so 

 closely that even an experienced hand has 

 occasional difficulty in distinguishing his own 

 fly from the natural insect on the water — 

 and yet we generally fail to half fill our creel. 

 Dry-fly fishing was resorted to on the Test, 



