THE FLY 55 



weave into a sound coherent fabric of belief In the 

 very diversity of our opinions is evidence enough of 

 the fragmentary character of the information on which 

 they rest. 



It is, with the angler, an article of faith that for 

 every water there is a specific fly without which he 

 fishes it in vain. Eager and hungry trout may be 

 springing all around him, but his efforts to entice them 

 are of no avail if among the treasures of his wallet he 

 has failed to include the sole object of their desire. 

 Though the belief is universal, it rests on a basis of 

 very uncertain stability ; or, to be accurate, of very 

 certain instability. It has been handed down to us, 

 and we accept it, as we accept many more important 

 things in life, without question. It is so much easier 

 to acquiesce in opinions already formed than to form 

 opinions of our own. Man is by nature indolent, and 

 the angler, being human, pursues the path of least re- 

 sistance ; he fares along the beaten track. He follows, 

 undoubting, the tradition which bids him employ a 

 particular fly for a particular water, and, following it, 

 finds it justified by his success. His experience con- 

 firms and assists in perpetuating, it. It is to be re- 

 gretted that he so rarely puts it to the proof ; the occa- 

 sional employment of a lure other than that to which 



