110 Fly fishing a science. Chapt. vii. 



size of the May-fly, and evidently a water-born fly ; I have 

 also observed the overhanging bamboos covered with light 

 dun flies that were clearly land flies, and remained on 

 the bamboo till disturbed, not seeming ever to fall into 

 the water for the fish. Besides these two, I have not notic- 

 ed any in my endeavours to work out the rationale of 

 fly fishing in India in preference to the rule of thumb. 

 There is no doubt that fly fishing, if worth anything as 

 a science and a sport, should be reduced to its entomo- 

 logical basis, and each artificial fly should be a close imi- 

 tation of some known natural fly in the habit of living 

 on or near the water, and thus becoming the common 

 food of fish. But if we cannot ascertain the natural flies, 

 we can only do as our fathers pretty generally did in 

 England, and as not a few are still well content to do, 

 namely to make arbitrary guesses at the sort of fly to be 

 used at certain times and places, with very little reference 

 to entomology, preferring to it indeed such crude regu- 

 lators as the colour of the water, and the brightness or 

 otherwise of the day, to guide our preferences, and after 

 all coming back to this, that if one man has killed with 

 a certain fly, another may. For the Barilius Bakeri then, 

 any small trout fly will do, and the black perhaps for 

 preference. 



But there are other small fish also that take the small 

 fly nicely. There are two or three dacelike sorts of fish 

 to be found in the rivers, and I have had excellent sport 

 with them in ponds also, especially in one attached to a 

 Jain temple at a place called Warranga, about three miles 



