56 AN APOLOGY FOR FISHING 



ferior appearance. The loose wool and feather 

 strands, which form the body of the fly, get matted 

 together and the whole mass of them much reduced 

 in size ; the wings cease to stand out away from 

 the body and from each other, and the hook, owing 

 to the reduction of the size of the fly generally, 

 which is effected by the tightening influence of the 

 water, is left much too bare and prominent. The 

 best way to obviate these difficulties is to make the 

 body of the fly somewhat fuller and more fluffy 

 than it is intended to be, and to dress it as far 

 down towards the bend of the hook as is com- 

 patible with symmetry of structure. The hook is 

 sure to be conspicuous enough at best, but every 

 pains should be taken to make it as little so as 

 possible. We are particular about all sorts of 

 minute considerations of colour and form ; we 

 refuse to allow of the deviation of the sixteenth of 

 an inch from the right standard in the length of a 

 tail, or of the faintest false shade in the colouring of 

 a wing — in all these matters we are exact and 

 scrupulous, and rightly so ; but is it quite con- 

 sistent with such close attention to detail that we 

 should be indifferent to so remarkable a deviation 

 from the right model as is found in the immense 

 and conspicuous hook which protrudes beyond the 

 body of our counterfeit insect, and which seems 



