108 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



times about the shank of the hook, and then view the pro- 

 portion, and if all be neat, and to your liking, fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a dull 

 capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know this, with a 

 little practice, will help an ingenious angler in a good degree. 

 But to see a fly made by an artist in that kind is the best 

 teaching to make it. And, then, an ingenious angler may 

 walk by the river, and mark what flies fall on the water that 

 day, and catch one of them, if he see the Trouts leap at a fly 

 of that kind ; and then having always hooks ready hung with 

 him, and having a bag also always with him, with bear's hair, 

 or the hair of a brown or sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a cock 

 or a capon, several coloured silk and crewel to make the body of 

 the fly, the feathers of a drake's head, black or brown sheep's 

 wool, or hog's wool or hair, thread of gold and of silver silk of 

 several colours, (especially sad-coloured, to make the fly's head ;) 

 and there be also other coloured feathers,* both of little birds and 



* The author not having particularly enumerated the materials necessary 

 for fly-making, it will not be improper, once for all, to do it here. And, 

 first, you must be provided with bear's hair of divers colours ; as gray, 

 dun, light and dark coloured, bright brown and that which shines ; also 

 camel's hair, dark, light, and of a colour between both ; badger's hair, or 

 fur ; spaniel's hair from behind the ear, light and dark brown, blackish 

 and black; hog's down, wh ch may be had about Christmas, of butchers, 

 or rather of those that make brawn ; it should be plucked from under the 

 throat, and other soft places of the hog, and must be of the following 

 colours, namely, black, red, whitish, and sandy ; and for other colours, 

 you may get them dyed at a dyer's : seal's fur is to be had at the trunk- 

 makers ; get this also dyed of the colours of cow's and calf's hair, in all the 

 different shades, from the light to the darkest brown ; you will then never 

 need cow's or calf's hair, both which are harsh, and will never work 

 kindly, nor lie handsomely : get also mohairs, black, blue, purple, white, 

 violet ; Isabella, which colour is described in a note on Cotton's Flies for 

 March; Philompt, from feuille mort, a dead leaf; yellow, and orange; 

 camlets, both hair and worsted, blue, yellow, dun, light and dark brown, 

 red, violet, purple, black, horse-flesh, pink, and orange colours. Some 

 recommend the hair of abortive colts and calves ; but seal's fur, dyed as 

 above, is much better. 



A piece of an old Turkey carpet will furnish excellent dubbing : untwist 

 the yarn, and pick out the wool, carefully separating the different colours, 

 and lay it by. 



Some use for dubbing, barge-sail, concerning which the reader is to 

 know, that the sails of west-country and other ban-es, when old, are 

 usually converted into tilts, under which there is almost a continual smoke 

 arising from the fire and the steam of the beef-kettle, which all such barges 

 carry, and which in time dyes the tilt of a fine brown ; this would be 

 excellent dubbing, but that the materials of these sails is sheep's wool, 

 which soaks in the water, and soon becomes very heavy : however, get of 

 this as many different shades as you can, and have seal's fur and hog- wool 

 dyed to match them ; which, by reason they are more turgid, stiff, and 

 light, and so float better, are, in most cases, to be preferred to worsted, 

 crewels, and, indeed, to every other kind of wool ; and observe, that the 

 hog-wool is best for large, and the seal's fur for small flies. 



Get also furs of the following animals, namely, the squirrel, particularly 

 from its tail ; fox-cub, from the tail, where it is downy, and of an ash 

 colour j an old fox ; an old otter ; otter cub ; badger ; f ulimart, or 



