118 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 



SALMON ANGLING. 



The very perfection of the fly fishing art is to feel 

 enabled to say, that you will take a salmon with fly, 

 when, from the low clear state of the summer river, 

 the regular fishermen, as well as the amateurs, 

 have all given up the case as hopeless. To effect 

 this you should take the smallest salmon fly, 

 neatly dressed on a fine round thread of blue- 

 clear, not white, gut. I dislike dyed gut ; its 

 natural colour, which I call blue-clear, is the colour 

 of water, as may be seen by putting it into a white 

 basin of water. The dark or blue colour of a river 

 is the reflection of the sky, as seen on the surface 

 from above. Such gut gives the same reflection 

 when in the river. And what is still a better argu- 

 ment, the fish seem of my opinion, as they always 

 take best with it.* 



* When stating that gut in its natural colour is the colour of water, 

 John was safe to add " as may be seen by putting it into a white 

 basin of water." If the white back-ground of John's basin could 

 conveniently be held between the fish and the firmament, the gu t 



