20 SALMON FLIES. 



his chosen weapon of destruction will be the skilfully- 

 fashioned fly. In his use of it will be shown his dex- 

 terity, his patience, his readiness of resource, his know- 

 ledge of the habits and character of the fish. In his 

 making of it will be shown his ingenuity, his profound 

 lore, his accomplished manipulation. We cannot enume- 

 rate here the various devices to which the fertile mind 

 and hand may have recourse. Different rivers and dif- 

 ferent seasons need different treatment. The fly that 

 kills in a shallow of the Tweed will fail in a pool of the 

 Spey or Ness. So there are Tweed flies, and Spey flies, 

 and Forth and Teith flies, and flies for the Urchay and 

 the Awe. And there are also flies of special renown, 

 such as the Childers, the General, the Dundas, the But- 

 cher, the Doctor, the Parson, the Fail-me-never, and the 

 Black Dog. For the benefit of the inexperienced reader, 

 we will describe the wonderful composition of the Fail- 

 me-never : 



The body is made of black mohair, black hackle, and 

 silver twist ; the wing, of mottled feather from the tail 

 of the Argus pheasant ; the shoulders, of a twitch of 

 orange mohair ; the tail is yellow. 



Here is a recipe for a fly of extraordinary killing 

 powers : 



Tie with well -waxed silk a portion of silkworms' intes- 

 tines on a highly-tempered and finished Limerick-made 

 hook. ISTow for the tail : First come two turns of gold 

 thread, then a tenth part of an inch of red floss silk. 

 Next comes the tail, consisting of a bright gold feather 

 from the crest of the golden pheasant. The body is now 

 to be made of, alternately, a stripe of green, a stripe of 

 blue, and the remainder of orange-coloured floss silk, 



