288 SALMON AND TROUT. 
A large alder fly, dressed as described at p. 293, might 
perhaps be added with advantage to the above list. 
So much for lake flies. 
The flies required for our British rivers and brooks are far 
more various, and depend for their success on minuter details of 
colour and material. Norcan any amount of general experience 
make the fly fisher perfectly at home on a new river, though it 
will prevent his feeling quite strange. I have killed trout in 
-130 streams (to say nothing of 50 lakes) ; but still, on water 
which I visited for the first time, I should be glad to take a 
hint as to the style of fly to be used for the nonce from any in- 
telligent ‘local practitioner.’ The man of one stream, like the 
‘homo unius libri, is a formidable person within a limited range. 
On the same principle constant readers of sporting papers 
may benefit greatly by the recorded experiences of brother 
anglers on particular rivers) And I would recommend fly 
fishers, who have sufficient leisure, to ‘ book’ accurately not only 
their captures but a brief record of the flies which on each occa- 
sion served them best, in order to prevent the results of their 
own experience from eluding their remembrance. Such a record 
is not the formidable affair it might appear at first sight. Three 
minutes at the close of the day will answer every purpose. I 
have been a working man all my life, and have, I believe, at 
least an average memory ; yet I do not regret the time which, 
after every angler’s holiday enjoyed during something like halt 
a century, I have given to brief entries such as the following: 
Fuly 5.—Upper Ledditch. Warm day—light S.W. breeze. Red 
sand fly; orl fly (hackle) and durz coachman. Weight 10} Ibs. 
Best fish 15 02. 
By keeping such records one guards against false impres- 
sions as to the season and the weather when a particular fly 
did execution on a given stream ; impressions which will often 
lead us wrong in our choice. 
I shall not attempt any scientific classification of flies. But 
though I do not pretend to the character of an entomologist, it 
may be useful to beginners to remark that there are two great 
