CHAP. VII.] THE SECOND DAT. 417 



other the biggest, the shortest of them being a full inch long, 

 or more, and for the execution they do, the trout and grayling 

 being much more greedy of them thaii of any others : and 

 indeed, the trout never feeds fat, nor comes into his perfect 

 season, till these flies come in. 



Of these, the Green-drake never discloses from his husk, 

 till he be first there grown to full maturity, body, wings, and 

 all : and then he creeps out of his cell, but with his wings 

 so crimped and ruffled, by being pressed together in that 

 narrow room, that they are, for some hours, totally useless 

 to him ; by which means he is compelled either to creep 

 upon the flags, sedges, and blades of grass, if his first rising 

 from the bottom of the water be near the banks of the river, 

 till the air and sun stiffen and smooth them : or, if his first 

 appearance above water happen to be in the middle, he then 

 lies upon the surface of the water like a ship at hull ; for 

 his feet are totally useless to him there, and he cannot creep 

 upon the water as the stone-fly can, until his wings have 

 got stiffness to fly with, if by some trout or grayling he be 

 not taken in the 'interim, which ten to one he is ; and then 

 his wings stand high, and closed exact upon his back, like 

 the butterfly, and his motion in flying is the same. His 

 body is, in some, of a paler, in others, of a darker yellow, 

 for they are not all exactly of a colour ; ribbed with rows of 

 green, long, slender, and growing sharp towards the tail, at 

 the end of which he has three long small whisks of a very 

 dark colour, almost black, and his tail turns up towards his 

 back like a mallard ; from whence, questionless, he has his 

 name of the green-drake. These, as I think I told you 

 before, we commonly dape or dipple with ; and, having 

 gathered great store of them into a long draw-box, with 

 holes in the cover to give them air, where also they will 

 continue fresh and vigorous a night or more, we take them 

 out thence by the wings, and bait them thus upon the hook. 

 We first take one, for we commonly fish with two of them 

 at a time, and, putting the point of the hook into the 

 thickest part of his body under one of his wings, run it 

 directly through, and out at the other side, leaving him 

 spitted cross upon the hook ; and then taking the other, put 

 him on after the same manner, but with his head the contrary 

 way ; in which posture they will live upon the hook, and 



E E 



