68 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



surrounded by, and familiar with during his ramblings as an 

 angler, can fail to be improved in mind and disposition during 

 his solitary wanderings amongst the most lovely and romantic 

 works of the creation, in the wild Highland glens and moun- 

 tains through which the best streams take their course. I do 

 not include in my term angler, the pond or punt fisher, how- 

 ever well versed he may be in the arts of spitting worms and 

 impaling frogs, so learnedly discussed by Isaac — notwithstand- 

 ing the kindliness and simplicity of heart so conspicuous in 

 every line he writes. Angling, in my sense of the word, implies 

 wandering with rod and creel in the wild solitudes, and tempt- 

 ing (or endeavouring to do so) the fish from their clear water, 

 with artificial fly or minnow. Nothing can be more unlike the 

 " worm " described as forming one end of the thing called a 

 fishing-rod, than the gay and gaudy collection of feathers and 

 tinsel which form the attraction of a Findhorn fly. Let us 

 look at the salmon-fly, which I have just finished, and which 

 now li;s on the table before me, ready for trial in some clear 

 pool of the river. To begin : I tie with well-waxed silk a 

 portion of silkworms' intestines on a highly -tempered and 

 finished Limerick-made hook. Here are three different sub* 

 stances brought into play already. I next begin at the tail of 

 the fly : first come two turns of gold thread, then a tenth part 

 of an inch of red floss-silk ; next comes the tail, consisting of a 

 bright gold feather from the crest of the golden pheasant. The 

 body is now to be made of, alternately, a stripe of green, a stripe 

 of blue, and the remainder of orange-coloured floss-silk, with a 

 double binding of gold thread and silver tinsel ; the legs are 

 made of a black barn-door cock's hackle, taken from him, in 

 winter, when the bird is in full plumage ; next to the wing 

 comes a turn of grouse's feather, and two or three turns of the 

 purple-black feather which is pendent on the breast of an old 

 cock heron. Now for the wing, which is composed of a mixture 

 of feathers from the mallard killed in this country ; from the 

 teal drake, also a native ; from the turkey-cock ; the bustard, 

 from India ; a stripe or two of green parrot ; a little of the 

 tippet of the gold pheasant ; a thread or two from the peacock's 

 tail ; a bit from the Argus pheasant, and from the tail of a 

 common hen pheasant : all these mixed and blended together 

 form an irresistible wing. Round the shoulder of the wing a 

 turn of the blue and black feather off a jay's wing. For the 



