232 THE SALMON FLY. 



the reader. Memory recalls most of them, at all events ; and yet it 

 would seem wiser for the Angler to take notes for himself (as I did at a 

 later period) than to trust to after-thought. It was, for instance, only 

 by comparing notes that I learned to understand the advantage of using 

 natural coloured feathers in fly- work as the season wears on. By the 

 same process I also arrived at the fact that marked effects can be 

 produced by certain distinctions in flites, especially as regards sulky 

 fish. But perhaps the most singular, if not, indeed, the most fortunate, 

 discovery I thus made, and upon which the utmost reliance may be 

 reposed, shows how the rule relating to proportion in a fly may be broken. 

 Although the reader's attention is elsewhere drawn to it, I here take 

 as an every day example, a rough stream in June, when, from lying 

 close behind a boulder, or better still, an upright ledge of rock, a fish, 

 game for rising, cannot get a glimpse of your fly till it goes well over him. 

 At such a juncture observe the constant effect of using small patterns 

 adorned with extra large " Jungle," or an unusually large strip of 

 Summer Duck for sides ! I am afraid to say how frequently I used to be 

 called upon to demonstrate these principles, and how seldom success of 

 some sort, even under the fevered stress of jostling competition, did not 

 attend the trials. Oh, the happier dreams of restfulness and amuse- 

 ment and peace on private waters ! 



But, of course, it needs some little experience, as well as the power 

 of reasoning by analogy, to determine which fly to mount, even at the best 

 of times. 



Pools, as I have said, are ever changing. They are affected by the 

 height, and consequent strength, of the water ; by objects washed into 

 them ; and by the constantly varying amount of light and shade thrown 

 directly or indirectly over them. For these reasons alone no definite 

 instructions can be offered for general acceptance. In fact, it would be 

 as foolish for a young Fisherman to place faith in any given set of rules 

 which exact undeviating adherence, as to anticipate constant results with 

 a fly that may have carried all before it on a former occasion. 



However, as far as I can do so, I intend giving examples of certain 

 measures and methods which are approved by my own experience. 

 Whether the information will be fruitful of result for the student must 



