246 THE SALMON FLY. 



then describe the flies which I have found to produce remarkable effects 

 under certain collateral circumstances and conditions. 



It is under circumstances, about to be mentioned, that experience 

 teaches us clearly how much we have yet to learn before we can confidently 

 rely upon any pattern as yet invented. Every Fisherman who knows his 

 business is, however, aware of the facility with which we can both choose 

 and use a fly for ordinary occasions. But the invention of flies, indeed, 

 presents an almost inexhaustible field for the solution of doubts ; and 

 there are certain occasions when an Angler of the greatest skill as a 

 wader and caster will scarcely secure a fish by aid of the best pattern. 



If the cause of these things lie in obscurity, the v fact remains. Ac- 

 cordingly, a note of warning is here sounded to this effect, that 

 the mere knowledge of any secret trick does not always enable the person 

 initiated to kill fish. Success largely depends, not only on covering 

 every inch of the water with a special fly, but also on the position and 

 manner the Fisherman assumes. In vain may he fish with an ordinary 

 pattern from the wrong spot. But of his " rn<mner " I have a word to 

 say by way of preface to this deep subject. 



How much cerebral power Salmon possess no one can determine ; 

 but we know for a fact that fish hear as well as see, or, at all events, are 

 capable of receiving impressions of sound. We also know that the 

 presence of an Angler need not necessarily alarm the fish which see him. 

 It would seem, too, that the hearing power of a Salmon is of small 

 portent so long as the conduct of the Fisherman does not excite si;s- 

 picion. The Angler must disarm all apprehension. His gait and mien 

 must be as unconcerned among Salmon as that of the plough boy 

 " trolling his song of the soil " among rooks. His unconscious presence 

 in (or out of) the water, on the occasions about to be mentioned, must be 

 where he can bring the fly over the catches, not sideways, but so that it 

 fishes straight on reaching the area of the hold itself. 



UNKNOWN AGENCIES AT WORK. As soon as the waters settle down, 

 success in Angling nowadays is mainly due to (1) the correct reading of 

 Nature ; (2) the understanding of certain technical matters. Sir John 

 Lubbock, in The Pleasures of Life, tells us that technical works bear the 

 same relation to science as dictionaries do to literature. And says, " that 



