SALMON-FLIES NOT DRAGON-FLIES. 



until the month of June. If they bear no resem- 

 blance to each other in form or colour, how much 

 more unlike must they seem, when, instead of being 

 swept like lightning down the current, as a real 

 one would be, the artificial fly is seen crossing and re- 

 crossing every stream and torrent, with the agility of 

 an otter, and the strength of an alligator ? Or dart- 

 ing with regular jerks, and often many inches under 

 water, up smooth continuous flows, where all the 

 dragonflies on earth with St. George to boot 

 could not maintain their place a single second! 

 Now, as it is demonstrable that the artificial fly gene- 

 rally used for salmon, bears no resemblance, except in 

 size, to any living one ; that the only tribe which, 

 from their respective dimensions, it may be sup- 

 posed to represent, does not exist in the winged 

 state during the period when the imitation is most 

 generally and most successfully practised ; and if 

 they did, that their habits and natural powers 

 totally disenable them from being at any time seen 

 under such circumstances as would give a colour 

 to the supposition of the one being ever mistaken 

 for the other ; may we not fairly conclude that, in 

 this instance at least, the fish proceed upon other 

 grounds, and are deceived by an appearance of life 

 and motion, rather than by a specific resemblance 

 to any thing which they had previously been in the 

 habit of capturing ? What natural insect do the 

 large flies, at which sea-trout rise so readily, re- 

 semble? These, as well as gilse and salmon, fre- 

 quently take the lure far within the bounds of the 

 salt-water mark ; and yet naturalists know that 



