228 FISHING GOSSIP. 
Looking merely to the high qualifications of the in- 
ventors, the most prudent course would be, perhaps, 
to bow at once to their infallibility, and ask no ques- 
tions. Yet, mixed up with empiricism as the question 
is, it is one well worthy of the investigations of the 
scientific angler. It would surely be worth knowing 
how it happens that salmon rise to artificial flies of 
which there are confessedly no natural originals ; how 
far the allegation is true or false that fish take certain 
flies, and in particular rivers only; and lastly, by 
what intuitive guidance the fly-milliner invents these 
nondescript products of his brain. The models to 
which they bear the most distant resemblance are 
few indeed, being confined to the limited family of 
the dragon-flies, and an inconsiderable number of the 
larger Ephemeride found on British waters. But it 
would appear that, just in proportion as nature has 
been sparing of her originals, art has stepped in with 
spurious creations to supply the deficiency. To such 
an extent has this practice been carried that it would 
be impossible to form a collection upon any rational 
principle of selection. As fancy or caprice alone pre- 
sides at the mint, there can of course be no limit to 
the issue of the counterfeit coinage. Most readers of 
current angling literature will doubtless have met one 
of these ingenious artificers who can strike off any 
number of these pseudo-imitations at a heat. Most of 
the class would seem to have taken Tom Moore's 
