54 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



appeared since then, that in my possession being the 

 seventh (1868). No one who aims at being a scientific 

 fly-fisherman or fly-maker should be ignorant of the con- 

 tents of this book, the excellently executed plates giving, 

 with some trifling inaccuracies, a coloured representation 

 of the natural fly, and of that to be produced artificially. 

 The book is a great authority, especially for what may be 

 called Midland Counties' waters. In 1849, too, Wheatley 

 published his Rod and Line, with plates of flies. Pulman's 

 Vade Mecum (I am quite tired of Vade Mecums) of Fly- 

 fishing is entered among the " Births " of 1851. Blacker, 

 a first-rate angler and first-rate fishing-tackle-maker, but 

 " gone over to the majority," published the Art of Fly- 

 making, 8fc, in (I believe) 1855. Let no fly-fisherman be 

 without it, if he can get it. My edition, the second, of 

 W. 0. Stewart's Practical Angler, or the Art of Trout-fish- 

 ing, is dated 1857 ; and this again is one of the books with 

 which every fly -fisher should be acquainted. The title- 

 page adds, " more particularly applied to clear water," and 

 with an eye to this the book should be carefully studied. 

 Here I remark, by the way, the strong tendency about 

 this period for Angling Literature to be busied most with 

 ^-fishing. About this time, or soon after, we have 

 Blakey's Angler's Guide, and I am by no means disposed 

 to run down this contribution to Angling Literature as 

 some have done. I am inclined to hold the very chari- 

 table doctrine, that in matters piscatorial there is some- 

 thing or other to be learnt from almost every author. 

 "Wade's Halcyon, or Rod-fishing, with Fly, Minnow, and 

 Worm, with eight coloured plates and 117 specimens of 

 natural and artificial flies, was published in 1861, and in 

 the year following Jackson's Practical Fly-fisher, more 



