THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



He who first cast a fly in Englisli trout streams has left no 

 trace, but that the Eomans fished here is well known, as they held 

 the land for several centuries. I recall a day spent in an old 

 Eoman camp near Blackburn with W. W. Stimson, Esq., where 

 in an old well by the river Hodder had been found a marvellous 

 collection of Eoman articles. 



Theocritus, so rich in fishing pastorals, wrote of angling 

 two centuries before Christ and referred to flies, ' the bait fal- 

 laceous suspended from the rod.' Three centuries after Christ 

 AeUan described fly fishing among the Macedonians as tried in 

 the Eiver Astracus. He refers to a bee-like insect and a ' fooled 

 fish ' that rises and seizes it. Speaking of files, reminds me 

 that the most aUuring spot I remember in connection with flies 

 and fly tying is one of the upper floors of the Fly Fishers Club 

 of London, where I fancy there is always a seat waiting for me. 

 There is a wonderful little library on one floor, where you may 

 see and read many angling works from the time of Walton down. 



The most interesting spot is the fly room, where a member, 

 if seized with a feathery inspiration, may sit down at a table 

 and find in drawers at hand, every feather for any fly known, 

 from the Ibis to the Sflver Doctor. More, there is here a collec- 

 tion of real insects from almost every stream in England, from 

 which flies are shaped or have been made ; and the novice will 

 be amazed to see how unhke, and like, artificial files are to the 

 real thing, and to observe that they are not flies at aU. 



Just who invented fly fishing is not known, but that it is a 

 very ancient art goes without saying, reaching far back into 

 antiquity. Doubtless, the Eomans fished with a fiy in England 

 ages ago, and the' men of the stone age before them. The Ameri- 

 can Indian had never heard of the March Brown, or May-fiy, 

 described by Juliana Berners, yet some of them fished their 

 radiant streams with a fly. 



When fishing years ago near Big Meadows, California, on the 

 Feather Eiver, I noticed here and there fluffy feathers of white 

 dancing in the breeze over the water, and beneath a clump of 

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