FACTS AND FANCIES IN FLY FISHING. 263 



of the Green-king, deadly as any fly on Speyside dressed in such able hands. Could 

 it be possible after fifty years of close research and experiment with all sorts of 

 ways and means of hitting off the features of this extraordinary Highland fly, and 

 making its picture consistently faithful, that a celebrated judge yet remains in 

 utter ignorance of a pursuit from which he annually derives practical benefit 1 In 

 watching him one day, I remarked how very careful he was with his trimmings. 



" ' Ah, sir,' he answered, ' but it pays, and I find they won't have it overdone. 

 Please to look at those long red prongs in the tail of that grub." 



I pointed out that the pattern was a combination of the grub and fly 

 together, and that he had matched the prongs with the red sword feather of the 

 Golden Pheasant. 



" ' But a little of it goes a long way whatiffer,' he replied. 



"And with his Berlin wools would ' Cruiky ' select and mix two or three 

 shades so as to get the exact colour of the body before he would rest and be 

 satisfied. The reader will draw his own conclusions from the constant practice of 

 one who is bent on supplying his employers with the most effectual patterns of the 

 day. 



" Let me next refer to an instance connected with the Grub mentioned in the 

 Badminton Library. Well do I remember the invention and introduction of this 

 favourite apterous pattern on the Usk. At the top of the ' Withe Bed,' two miles 

 above the town of Usk, there was one hold that required a very long cast. The 

 ' Spey ' was the only method by which it could be covered, and often enough in 

 those days the catch was undisturbed. William Acteson, the bailiff, being under 

 orders to inform my family when the water was in ply, we were advised accord- 

 ingly. On arriving, we found the river lower than we expected, and until we 

 came to the spot, had seen no Salmon breaking the water. After my Father had 

 neatly commanded the catch, he said the fish had, for some cause or other, ' struck 

 work.' Then I took my turn, with the result that neither of us got the least 

 recognition. We then left the fish (we had seen it rise) like a parcel, "to be called 

 for later on." I would incidently remark that these fish strikes should be settled 

 by competent arbitration. They do not occur by chance, but each is the result of 

 some definite cause, which, if ever repeated under the same conditions, would pro- 

 duce the same results. It is the interesting business of the Angler to trace the 

 conditions and proceed accordingly. Well, we tried other resorts along the Withe 

 Bed and found them all untenanted. Making for shadier places below, pater- 

 familias, in advance of me, spotted several fish in "Garcoid" rising and sucking 

 in caterpillars falling from overhanging trees. Acteson was sent for the Trout 

 tackle. My Father never liked to go home without sport of some kind, and said, 

 with one of those rapid changes of manner, from grave to gay, which was one of 

 his peculiar charms : 



" Take the field glasses and just tell me what size these fish are." 



"Once on the high ground over the pool, peeping through the trees, I saw, as 



