i66 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



form of white fly which it would be absurd to try 

 and imitate. This was a simple deduction from the 

 fact that the fish were rising furiously all round, and 

 that all one could see on the water were whitish specks 

 which seemed to be cruising about on the surface." 

 . " Later, I discovered that these whitish specks were 

 not smuts at all — they were the inadequate wings 

 belonging to the substantial body of our friend the 

 oliyejrnidge^ It was no wonder that the trout were 

 rising, for they had something solid to rise at. Then 

 the ranger, Mr. Donald Carr, sent some of these 

 flies to me for examination and identification. 

 Thanks to the good offices of my friend, Mr. Martin 

 Mosely, the midge was identified at South Kensington 

 as Chironomus tentans, an insect which in this or closely 

 allied forms is common on many lakes and pools." 



"It seems to me not a little curious that a fly which 

 is common on such well-known lakes as Killarney, 

 Arrow, and Leven, and which is evidently so welcome 

 to the trout, should hitherto have escaped notice 

 among anglers. Possibly it does not elsewhere appear 

 in such numbers or have such an effect on the fish as 

 at Blagdon. Possibly, too, the fact that it does not 

 appear till dusk (that at any rate is my experience) 

 has helped to keep it unknown. Certainly, I myself 

 should have gone through life believing that the 

 Blagdon trout rose in the evening at a whitish midge 

 unless Mr. Carr had shown me what the beast really 

 was. The big body is of course invisible on the 

 water in the dusk and the wings are all that one can 



