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A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



plaything of the current and the wind ; its image, except 

 when the angler is fishing straight up stream, exhibits 

 an inherent power of locomotion which should challenge 

 the attention of the least observant 

 trout, and lead to its immediate re- 

 jection. It is possible that, as sug- 

 gested, the sunken fly drifting in- 

 ertly with the stream, is taken for a 

 " drowned fly," but the possibility 

 appears remote, since a body so 

 light and buoyant rarely fails to 

 maintain its position on the surface ; 

 only in turbulent water is it likely 

 to become submerged, and then but temporarily. 

 Be that as it may, however, the suggestion does not 

 help us much ; it affords no explanation whatever of 

 the success of a lure crossing the stream, or cleaving 

 its way against it, or actively traversing the still waters 

 of the loch. The ingenious angler must devise a more 

 comprehensive theory ; one which embraces all the con- 

 ditions under which the trout accepts a particular fly. 

 The statement that in a situation in which it appears 

 inert and dead he takes it for a fly which has succumbed 

 to the water, does not explain what it represents to him 

 when he finds it displaying all the activity of life. 



