204 GOLDEN DAYS 



finds me interested only in that great 

 trout's individual tastes and peculiarities. 

 He had eaten six flies made of Harris 

 tweed, strips cut from an old rubber 

 tobacco-pouch, and various feathers ex- 

 tracted from the wayside corpse of an 

 ancient hen. Was our trout an epicure ? 

 Did he after each morsel cough and lay it 

 surreptitiously on the side of his plate ? or 

 would a post-mortem have revealed those 

 six quaint flies if fate had not cruelly inter- 

 vened ? These questionings are futile. 



The discussion of method with regard 

 to the tying of flies lies outside the 

 province of this chapter, and can, more- 

 over, be safely left in the hands of 

 competent authorities. I would, however, 

 strongly commend to the amateur the 

 advantages of experiment, suggesting 

 that he not only make use of accepted 

 dressings, but test any new material which 

 may help him to carry out his own ideas. 

 He will find that many of the materials 

 now in use lose all colour and sparkle 

 when once they cease to be dry, while 

 others are rendered more brilliant by 

 immersion. This is an important point 



