74 FLY FISHING FOE TEOUT. 



believed chiefly in exact imitation. His flies 

 are copied from nature, though he did not 

 reach the point of fashioning the wings of 

 duns, which are upright, different from those 

 of sedges or the stonefly, which are flat. But 

 he had general flies, too, such as the hackle and 

 silver twist, which he got up early on the 

 second morning to dress. Chiefly, however, he 

 relied on exact imitation : he dressed them 

 larger or smaller, lighter or darker, according 

 to weather and water, but always they repre- 

 sent a natural insect. His contemporaries, 

 however, used general or fancy flies more than 

 he did. A light coloured fly for a clear day, a 

 red or orange fly for a thick water, a dark fly 

 for dark weather, a black or brown fly for a 

 whitish water, says Venables. Barker goes 

 further, and gives five general flies for use all 

 the year, besides individual flies, such as the 

 Mayfly and Hawthorn fly, which he copied. So 

 here for the first time appears the real division, 

 between those who copy the fly and those who 

 attune themselves to weather and water. 



All Cotton's sixty-five flies have names, 

 some of which have survived, but the most 

 interesting list is that given by Chetham in an 

 appendix. In the body of his work he merely 

 pirates Cotton, but in the appendix he gives 

 a quite different list, stated to be used by a good 

 angler. The dressings are wonderfully modern, 

 and so are the names also; starling wing 

 appears for the first time. Cotton gives the 



