The Dry-Fly in Its Infancy 



way," so that they "float^ed longer on 

 the surface of the water after being 

 cast than the ordinary wet fly." But 

 in reading Mr. G. P. R. Puknan's 

 "Vade-Mecum of Fly-Fishing for 

 Trout," pubhshed in 1851, I came 

 across what seemed to be a descrip- 

 tion of our present-day theory of the 

 dry-fly. This subject, I have since 

 learned, was mentioned in a much 

 smaller edition of Mr. Pulman's work, 

 published in 1846. In the summer of 

 1911, 1 wrote to Mr. R. B. Marston, of 

 London, asking for information about 

 the early history of the dry-fly in Eng- 

 land, and he in turn consulted Mr. 

 William Senior, the well-known "Red 

 Spinner" of angling Uterature. Mr. 

 Senior referred to Mr. Pulman's book 

 as containing the first mention of the 

 dry-fly of which he was aware, but 

 added: "I am now away from all my 



[189] 



