CHAP. V.] THE SECOND DAT. 389 



every twig or bent they meet with, but moreover the hook, 

 in falling upon the water, will very often rebound, and fly 

 back betwixt the hairs, and there stick (which, in a rough 

 water especially, is not presently to be discerned by the 

 angler), so as the point of the hook shall stand reversed ; 

 by which means your fly swims backwards, makes a much 

 greater circle in the water, and, till taken home to you and 

 set right, will never raise any fish ; or, if it should, I am sure, 

 but by a very extraordinary chance, can hit none. 1 



Having done with both these ways of fishing at the top, 

 the- length of your rod, and line and all, I am next to teach 

 you how to make a fly; and afterwards, of what dubbing 

 you are to make the several flies I shall hereafter . name 

 to you. 



In making a fly then, which is not a hackle, or palmer-fly, 

 (for of those, and their several kinds, we shall have occasion 

 to speak every month in the year), you are first to hold your 

 hook fast betwixt the fore-finger and thumb of your left 

 hand, with the back of the shank upwards, and the point 

 towards your finger's ends : Then take a strong small silk 

 of the colour of the fly you intend to make, wax it well with 

 wax of the same colour too : to which end you are always, 

 by the way, to have wax of all colours about you ; and 

 draw it betwixt your finger and thumb, to the head of the 

 shank, and then whip it twice or thrice about the bare hook, 

 which you must know is done, both to prevent slipping, and 

 also that the shank of the hook may not cut the hairs of 

 your towght, 2 which sometimes it will otherwise do. Which 

 being done, take your line and draw it likewise betwixt 

 your finger and thumb, holding the hook so fast, as only to 

 suffer it to pass by, until you have the knot of your towght 

 almost to the middle of the shank of your hook, on the 

 inside of it ; then whip your silk twice or thrice about both 

 hook and line, as hard as the strength of the silk will 

 permit. Which being done, strip the leather for the wings 

 proportionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that side 



1 This, and the other inconveniences mentioned in this paragraph, are 

 now effectually avoided by the use of gut, of about half a yard long, next 

 the hook. H. 



2 A term for what is whipped first about the bare hook to arm it. 

 BROWNE. 



