xii FOREWORD 



by a too credulous public as authoritative and for the 

 time being final, of which the literature of angling with 

 the fly is full. To do so would be but to add to confusion 

 already more than sufficiently confounded. 



I have, however, thought it might be of service to collect 

 in book form my reflections on a number of considerations 

 leading up to an understanding of the true theory of trout- 

 fly dressing in the hope that at some not too distant date 

 some scientific angler and fly dresser of a younger genera- 

 tion may be induced to take up and solve the at present 

 unsolved problem, and to give his solution to the world, 

 not in the difficult language of science, but in such clear and 

 simple words as may be understanded of the people, and 

 thus provide a sound basis for the ascertainment of the 

 principles and considerations constituting the true theory 

 of dressing the artificial trout-fly. 



For some time after the publication of " Minor Tactics of 

 the Chalk Stream," I not infrequently had occasion to regret 

 that I had not delayed publication for a year or two so that 

 I might have incorporated in that volume matter on which 

 further experience and further observation had given me 

 more light. I take this opportunity of collecting and 

 giving to the fly-fishing public in the second division of 

 this book such of the supplemental matter to which I refer 

 as I have embodied in articles in the press. 



Much of my matter has already appeared in The Field, 

 The Fishing Gazette, and The Journal of the Fly-Fishers* 

 Club, to the editors of which I record my acknow- 

 ledgments. 



Plates II. and III. are reproduced from exquisite coloured 

 drawings made from my handiwork by Captain S. Barbe 

 Goldsmith. 



To my friend H. T. Sheringham I tender grateful 

 thanks for his encouragement and for his help in seeing this 

 work through the press. 



G. E. M. SKUES. 



