40 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



desirous of providing the trout with a captivating 

 novelty may be pleasing to the eye of its creator but 

 has no charm for the fish. Unfortunately for his con- 

 sistency, he publishes a list of what he believes to be 

 exact imitations. It would be interesting to learn what 

 they imitate. Some are certainly recognised efforts to 

 reproduce, in fur and feather, the beauties of known 

 insects ; for the majority we are indebted to the whim 

 or to the fancy of the maker. The author, to be sure, 

 affirms that each is representative of an object in nature, 

 but we must be forgiven if we refuse to accept the 

 affirmation. It does not appeal to our reason and it is 

 contradicted by our knowledge. Many, even of those 

 who maintain the general superiority of the English 

 system, admit that, at times, the trout reject the most 

 truthful simulacrum of the natural insect for a purely 

 "fancy fly." He is an exception. He asserts that the 

 trout are to be enticed only by means of a perfect imita- 

 tion of something with which they are familiar, and, 

 apparently in an effort to save the situation, he seeks 

 to persuade us that in the ready reception occasionally 

 given even to our most fanciful invention we have 

 evidence of its relation to a living prototype. The 

 angler may be all unconscious of the identity of the 

 insect on which his lure is modelled ; may, indeed, have 



