198 GOLDEN DAYS 



made pattern will ever quite meet our 

 needs. These are naturally tied to take 

 the eye of the public rather than that 

 of the fish, and are, as a rule, too heavily 

 dressed, too opaque, and altogether too 

 neat and spruce in appearance. After all, 

 the natural fly is often a very sorry object 

 when it floats down-stream to its last 

 home. From birth its short life has been 

 one continual round of alarms and excur- 

 sions. More than likely it was subjected 

 to a rough-and-tumble with a fly-catcher 

 on its passage from the " feeder " across 

 the meadow. It escaped by the skin of a 

 wing, only to be hurled into a clump 

 of dock-leaves by a passing swallow. 



Needless to say, fineness and neatness 

 are important factors in the fly-dresser's 

 art, but not at the expense of character, 

 transparency, and correct tone. We shall 

 find, too, that we can improve many a fly 

 by the river-side by pulling him about 

 and divesting him of much unnecessary 

 clothing, when a small thumb-vice, a pair 

 of scissors, and a few odds and ends of 

 silk and hackle, can work wonders with 

 the most gaudy and overdressed " standard 



