SUPPLEMENTARY TREATISE 



FLY-FISHING. 



Fly-fishing may well be considered the most beautiful of all rural 

 sports. For, in addition to the great nicety required to become pro- 

 ficient in the art, it is also absolutely requisite, for ijs successful attain- 

 ment, to study much and long — how to adapt and blend the various 

 materials used in the construction of a fly ; how to construct the fly 

 on certain defined rules ; and, lastly, how to select your flies, thus 

 carefully and correctly constructed, in accordance with the state of the 

 sky, the color of the water, and the peculiar habits of the fish in dif- 

 ferent rivers. The two first are tolerably easy to acquire ; the last by 

 far the most difficult of all. A lifetime devoted to it would barely 

 render a man decently knowing, for scarcely do two rivers present the 

 same appearance, two skies the same shadows, or the fish of two rivers 

 the same tastes, and consequently no particular rules can be laid down 

 or plan devised which shall everywhere be infallible. 



In this last section, then, of the first part, it is not to be expected 

 that more than a general enumeration, of errors to be avoided, plans 

 and practices found useful, can be given. Each angler must study for 

 himself the peculiar habits of the fish in the various rivers in his sec- 

 tion of the country, where he may hope to be after a while a respect- 

 able angler ; while, perhaps, on an expedition to a distant river, h» 

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