FLY-DRESSING : THE BODY. 77 



Here are hook and gut with a body on without 

 wing and tail. That body 

 is made of what is called 

 dubbing/ and dubbing is 

 made of fur, hair, mohair, 

 silk, and a few other sub- 

 stances. You spin a little of either, the quan- 

 tity to be determined by the size of the hook you 

 use, the size of the fly determining the size of 

 the hook, on your silk, by twirling both dubbing 

 and silk between the fore-finger and thumb of 

 your right hand, and you wind the whole on your 

 hook, beginning at the tail, and working up to the 

 setting on of the wings. The^dubbing must be 

 wound more sparingly on the silk near the tail, 

 and increase upwards, being most plentiful close 

 under^Ae^wings. You will easily perceive that 

 you begin winding on the dubbing after you have 

 tied on the tail, just where you see the silk 

 hanging from the hook in Fig. 3., and you cease 

 winding on when you come to the wings. It 

 may be here necessary to warn you that in some 

 instances you place the tail and dubbing on first, 

 and before you whip on the wing fibres. These 

 instances are, when you are dressing very small 

 flies with perfectly upright wings. Then you 

 place on the wings last, with the butts of the 

 fibres pointing towards the end of the shank, and 

 the top ends towards the bend of the hook. In 



