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downwards which grew uppermost before, upon the back of the hook, leaving so much only as to serve for the length of the wing of the point of the plume lying reversed from the end of the shank upwards: then whip your silk twice or thrice about the root-end of the feather, hook, and towght. Which being done, clip off the root-end of the feather close by the arming, and then whip the silk fast and firm about the hook and towght, until you come to the bend of the hook but not further, as you do at London, and so make a very unhandsome, and, in plain English, a very unnatural and shapeless fly. Which being done, cut away the end of your towght, and fasten it. And then take your dubbing which is to make the body of your fly, as much as you think convenient; and, holding it lightly with your hook betwixt the finger and thumb of your left-hand, take your silk with the right, and twisting it betwixt the finger and thumb of that hand, the dubbing will spin itself about the silk, which when it has done, whip it about the armed-hook backward, till you come to the setting on of the wings. And then take the feather for the wings, and divide it equally into two parts; and turn them back towards the end of the hook, the one on the one side, and the other on the other of the shank, holding them fast in that posture betwixt the forefinger and thumb of your left hand. Which done, warp them so down as to stand and slope towards the bend of the hook; and having warped up to the end of the shank, hold the fly fast betwixt the finger and thumb of your lefthand, and then take the silk betwixt the finger and thumb of your right hand, and, where the warping ends, pinch or nip it with your thumb-nail against your finger, and strip away the remainder of your dubbing from the silk; and then, with the bare silk, whip it once or twice about, make the wings to stand in due order, fasten, and cut it off: after which, with the point of a needle raise up the dubbing gently from the warp; twitch off the superfluous hairs of your dubbing; leave the wings of an equal length,-your fly will never else swim true;-and the work is done. And this way of making a fly, which is certainly the best of all other, was taught me by a kinsman of mine, one Captain Tenry Jackson, a near neighbour, an admirable fly-angler;

any degrees the best fly-maker that ever I yet met

with. And now that I have told you how a fly is to be made, you shall presently see me make one, with which you may peradventure take a trout this morning, notwithstanding the unlikeness of the day; for it is now nine of the clock, and fish will begin to rise, if they will rise to-day. I will walk along by you, and look on: and, after dinner, I will proceed in my lecture on fly-fishing.

Viat. I confess I long to be at the river; and yet I could sit here all day to hear you; but some of the one, and some of the other, will do well: and I have a mighty ambition to take a trout in your River Dove.

Pisc. I warrant you shall: I would not for more than I will speak of, but you should, seeing I have so extolled my river to you. Nay, I will keep you here a month, but you shall have one good day of sport before you go.

Viat. You will find me, I doubt, too tractable that way: for, in good earnest, if business would give me leave, and that, if it were fit, I could find in my heart to stay with you for ever.

Pisc. I thank you, sir, for that kind expression; and now let me look out my things to make this fly.

There needs nothing more be said of these directions, than that hundreds have, by means of them alone, become excellent fly-makers.---H. Ephemera denies this, and says that "Cotton's directions are limited to making the easiest of all made flies-a fly with body and wings, but without tail, hackle-feather for legs, tinsel for tip and ribbing."-Be this as it may, flies of every kind are now made so well and so cheaply by the dealers, that the angler will hardly lose his time over them. Hofland, Ronalds, and Bainbridge, have given very full directions about flies, illustrated by numerous figures; and there is a good list in Rennie's "Alphabet of Angling." For salmon-flies, " "Ephemera's Book of the Salmon" is one of the best. It may be as well to mention here, that Mr. Ronalds prepares fly-books, which contain a good selection of flies, accurately made, and arranged in the order of months, so that the angler need have but little enquiry to make. They are sold by Mr. Eaton of Crooked Lane.-ED.

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FISHING AT THE TOP CONTINUED-FURTHER DIRECTIONS FOR FLY-MAKINGTIME WHEN THE GRAYLING IS IN SEASON-ROCK IN PIKEPOOL.

Pisc. jun. Boy! come, give me my dubbing-bag here presently. And now, sir, since I find you so honest a man, I will make no scruple to lay open my treasure before you.

Viat. Did ever any one see the like! What a heap of trumpery is here! certainly never an angler in Europe, has his shop half so well furnished as you have.1

1 Every treatise on fly-fishing gives a long list of the materials with which the angler should be provided. The lists are so various, that, taken collectively, without even admitting repetitions, they would form a vocabulary almost as large as our entire volume. Ronalds says, "the dubbing-bag should contain everything in the world." Hofland gives a very judicious list, with full instructions for making flies; so does Rennie, in his agreeable little volume, "The Alphabet of Angling." Payne Fisher (Beckwith), in "The Angler's Souvenir," says, "The angler's dubbing-bag ought to contain fine wool, floss, silk, and mohair, of various colours, brown, red, orange, lemon, and straw-colour, olive, willow-green, and

Pisc. You, perhaps, may think now that I rake together this trumpery, as you call it, for show only; to the end that

drab; fur of various shades-gosling-green, cinnamon, dun, brown, brownish-yellow, and mouse-colour; feathers, for wings, of different shades, from a dark brown to a bluish-gray, which may be got from the cormorant, heron, bald-coot, starling, dotterel, field-fare, grouse, partridge, kite, pheasant, owl, mallard, teal, pintado, turkey, jay (for salmon-flies), tern, and martin. Peacock and ostrich feathers supply him with herls, and those of the latter may be dyed of any colour required. Hackles-red, black, and white, with a variety of intermediate shades-are obtained from the neck and from the wing-coverts of the common cock and hen. In fact, there is scarcely a bird, from an eagle to a tom-tit, whose feathers may not be of service to the angler. Even the light downy feather of a goose tied on a hook, in the simplest fashion, has been sometimes used with success in night-fishing. Bright scarlet hackles, which are mostly used in dressing salmon-flies, may be obtained from any military acquaintance who shows a tuft of red feathers in his plume. The topping or crest, which moves so gracefully on the head of the lapwing, as he bobs about upon the fell, is often recommended for the body of a fly; but the herl of an ostrich answers the purpose much better. Gut and hair-links, strong silk for whipping, of different colours; gold and silver tinsel, or twist, for ribbing; with wax, needles, penknife, and a pair of sharp-pointed scissors, are necessary appendages to the dubbing-bag." To this extract may be added another from SHIPLEY AND FITZGIBBON, a very sensible treatise on fly-fishing, published at Ashborne in 1838. "MATERIALS.-Silk of every shade and colour, the finest, the strongest, and the best. Fibres from the wings of the starling, fieldfare, blackbird, red-wing, lark, hen-pheasant, woodcock, landrail, grouse, partridge, and twenty others; and feathers of different shades plucked from the body under the wing of the wild drake. The scarcest and best hackles are duns of all shades, particularly those which possess the clearest shades of blue; furnace hackles, which are of a red colour, with a black streak along the stem; red hackles, light and dark ginger, black and grizzled hackles. These are got in the greatest perfection from off the upper part of the necks of cocks. When dun hackles cannot be procured from cocks, you must use those from dun hens; which, however, from the softness of their fibre, are less capable of resisting water. The best time for plucking dun birds is in the middle of winter, the feathers being then perfect, and free from that disagreeable matter which at other times is generally found in the pen-part of the feather. Dun hackles, when plucked in March, and exposed to the action of the sun's heat, assume a fine yellow tinge, and become that useful feather called the yellow dun." We sum up with the elegant lines of Gay :

"To frame the little animal, provide

All the gay hues that wait on female pride;

Let nature guide thee. Sometimes golden wire
The shining bellies of the fly require;

The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not fail,
Nor the dear purchase of the sable's tail.

such as see it, which are not many I assure you, may think me a great master in the art of angling: but let me tell you here are some colours, as contemptible as they seem here, that are very hard to be got; and scarce any one of them, which, if it should be lost, I should not miss, and be concerned about the loss of it too, once in the year. But look you, sir, amongst all these I will choose out these two colours only, of which, this is bear's hair, this darker, no great matter what: but I am sure I have killed a great deal of fish with it; and with one or both of these, you shall take trout or grayling this very day, notwithstanding all disadvantages, or my art shall fail me.

Viat. You promise comfortably, and I have a great deal of reason to believe every thing you say: but I wish the fly were made, that we were at it.

Pisc. That will not be long in doing: and pray observe then. You see first how I hold my hook, and thus I begin. Look you, here are my first two or three whips about the bare hook; thus I join hook and line; thus I put on my wings; thus I twirl and lap on my dubbing; thus I work it up towards the head; thus I part my wings; thus I nip my superfluous dubbing from my silk; thus fasten; thus trim and adjust my fly: and there's a fly made. And now how do you like it?

Viat. In earnest, admirably well; and it perfectly resembles a fly; but we about London make the bodies of our flies both much bigger and longer, so long as even almost to the very beard of the hook.

Pisc. I know it very well, and had one of those flies given me by an honest gentleman, who came with my Father Walton to give me a visit; which, to tell you the truth, I hung in my parlour window to laugh at; but, sir, you know the proverb, "They who go to Rome, must do as they at Rome do ;" and, believe me, you must here make your flies after this fashion, or you will take no fish. Come, I will look you out a line, and you shall put it on, and try it. There, sir, now I think you are fitted; and now beyond the

Each gaudy bird some slender tribute brings,
And lends the growing insect proper wings:
Silks of all colours must their aid impart,
And every fur promote the fisher's art."

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