ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 73 



CHAPTER IV. 



FLY-DRESSING. 



THERE are hundreds of things that cannot be 

 taught easily by means of pen and ink, but which 

 the tongue and hand, reciprocally illustrating 

 each other, can inculcate with very little difficulty. 

 Fly-dressing or fly-making is one of those things. 

 I can scarcely teach it by writing ; in half an 

 hour I could explain the whole matter with 

 tongue and hand. However, I must on paper do 

 the best I can, and the artist in wood having 

 lent me some assistance, I fancy I can make a 

 short lecture on fly-making practically compre- 

 hensible. 



The wood-cut on the right-hand side of this 

 page, and marked 1., re- 

 presents what fly- dressers 

 term " the gut armed," that 

 is, plainly speaking, the gut 

 and hook whipped on, or 

 tied together. It is the 

 first step in fly-dressing, and is thus performed. 

 You take the hook by the bent part, or bend, 

 between the tips of the fore finger and thumb of 

 the left hand, the back part of the hook being 



