20 ANGLING 



the craft, is to get some friend who understands making 

 artiiioial flies to instruct him in the business. Anyone 

 may soon acquire the requisite degree of knowledge; 

 and a little patient practice will speedily render him an 

 adept. To those who have witnessed professional fly- 

 makers, nothing so strikingly shows the power gained 

 by having the mind and fingers confined to one set of 

 thoughts and actions. The rapidity of movement, the 

 facility of handling the small and delicate materials, and 

 the general winding up and polishing off the entire fly, 

 however small and complicated its shades and colours, 

 seem to uninitiated persons as the eff'ect of magic. 



But in conformity with the general practice observed 

 in constructing treatises on fishing, we shall here sub- 

 join a few directions in detail for making artificial flies. 

 We take the account from Captain Eichardson and 

 others, because anything like originality is quite out of 

 the question in an operation so purely imitative and 

 mechanical. 



The surest way to complete a number of flies is to 

 have every necessary material arranged immediately 

 under your eye; every article separate and distinct, 

 so as to be grasped in a moment ; and all the hooks, 

 and gut, or hair, wings, hackles, dubbing, silk, and 

 wax, neatly assorted, and jprepared for instant use. 

 The hooks require to be sized for different flies; the 

 gut demands the most careful examination and adjust- 

 ment; the hackles must be stripped, and the dubbing 

 well waxed ; the silk must be carefully assorted, and of 

 the very finest texture ; and the wings must be tied the 

 length of the hook they are to be fastened to, in order 

 that the fibres of the feathers may be brought into the 

 small compass of the hook. This previous care and 

 trouble not only save time in the process, but ensure 

 a degree of neatness in the execution that is otherwise 

 almost unattainable. 



The tying of the wings is thus performed. A piece 

 of well-waxed silk is laid in a noose on the forefinger 

 of the left hand ; the wings, or feathers, are put in the 

 under part of the noose, and at the distance of the 



