256 THE SALMON FLY. 



taught to take flies of iridescent loveliness blazing forth in dazzling 

 colours of radiant beauty, such as, a century ago, would have frightened 

 all of them back to sea. Far from it. Enterprising men, imbued with 

 the "spirit of modernity," have gradually educated Salmon up to taking 

 patterns which have been imposed upon us by Necessity the nursing 

 mother of fishing in its higher forms ; and though, in choosing flies, 



"Fashion is a living law, whose sway 

 Men, more than all the written laws, obey," 



this supreme dictatress of taste often decides for us that the inartistic 

 finish of a plain " March Brown" (Salmon size) or a coch-a-bonddu hackle 

 with a plain Turkey wing, once considered by MX. Salmon a tasteful 

 rig, is undeniably uninteresting to him in these days of fashion and 

 competition. But put two fibres of red Toucan in the tail of a March- 

 Brown, and see how it answers ! 



As a link in the chain of evidence that takes us from the caprice of 

 these affectedly modest patterns, I perfectly remember the initial effect of 

 certain gaudy feathers upon, not one, but several rivers. In their progress 

 towards general use, the greatest care and judgment of the fly-tier pre- 

 vailed, and the mere suspicion of their presence was enough to begin with. 

 Early in the " fifties," for instance, Spey fish first saw " Jungle." For a 

 time brief, I admit the feathers there were simply branded with the 

 stigma of public opprobrium. But the fiat had gone forth. Nature knew 

 full well that Salmon, like herself, show a decided preference for finery. 

 She knew full well, too, that under certain pressure, fashions may, without 

 exaggeration of words, be said to change from day to day. The sombre 

 " trimmings " and " cut " which was de rigeur on a fly forty-eight hours 

 ago may be placed under the ban of Forrests or Wrights, Farlows or 

 Turnbulls, Mallochs or Redpaths, and so on. The Spey does not stand 

 alone in this respect, for, although the best Spey fly among the old hands 

 is a plain, flimsy, ragged-tailed " Riach " ; yet, among the students of the 

 " progressive " School, some have at length discovered with languid 

 surprise that not a few good Spey fish are often led to destruction by a 

 liberal use of Jungle and Summer Duck, Golden and Amherst Pheasant 

 feathers. 



Thus far, however, the reader is only reminded in my arguments (to 



