278 SALMON AND TROUT. 



— of every size, build, and colour. Indeed, as I ranged from 

 case to case trying to form my own estimate of comparative 

 merits, I felt tempted to exclaim with Diogenes at the fair, 

 * What a multitude of things are here of which I have no need/ 

 Still the beauty, the delicacy, and in many cases the imitative 

 skill of the work rendered the show very attractive. 



Another source of interest in a well-tied fly, and notably in 

 the very smallest, is its extraordinary strength and durability 

 considering the materials employed. An angler must no doubt 

 have tied many a score of flies for himself ere he can fully 

 appreciate this excellence. In a case of flies set up for show it 

 is assumed rather than proved to exist ; but we may be sure 

 that the exhibitor did not attain his reputation for such * marvel- 

 lous delicate ware ' — as Queen Bess said of her first silk stock- 

 ings — without producing an article capable of resisting both the 

 strain of a good fish fighting for his life, and the repeated 

 grinding and chewing of tiny teeth. 



To build a salmon fly strongly is comparatively easy. There 

 is ample room and verge enough for the firmest lapping of the 

 hook to the gut, and for the tying-on in due succession of the 

 various materials which form the body, legs, and wings of the 

 highly composite insect, while the loop at the head, which was 

 almost unknown in my boyhood, gives the needful strength at 

 the point where the friction is greatest. But when we look at a 

 liny olive-dun or quill-gnat, such as often plays havoc among 

 the heavy trout of our best chalk streams, we may well marvel 

 at the skill which has made a few turns of fine silk not only 

 join hook to gut indissolubly, but bind minute portions of 

 various material together in a firm and shapely whole. 



A trout fly, be it remembered, needs above all things to be 

 strong. Neatness and finish may often be dispensed with, if 

 the colours be only right, but strength is indispensable. With- 

 out it, the more attractive the lure, the more grievous will be 

 the angler's disappointment. The points which are naturally 

 weakest in the fly ought to be especially looked to. Judging 

 from my own experience, I should say that four fish are lost from 



