that your fly may first fall upon the water, and as little of your line with it as is possible: though if the wind be stiff, you will then, of necessity, be compelled to drown a good part of your line, to keep your fly in the water. And in casting your fly you must aim at the further, or nearer bank, as the wind serves your turn, which also will be with and against you, on the same side, several times in an hour, as the river winds in its course, and you will be forced to angle up and down by turns accordingly, but endeavour, as much as you can, to have the wind, evermore, on your back. And always be sure to stand as far off the bank as your length will give you leave when you throw to the contrary side: though when the wind

loop: then take your end-fly, or stretcher, which should be made with one or two lengths of good level gut, full as fine as, or a little finer than, the bottom link of your foot-length, tied and whipped neatly together, and looped nicely at the end: loop this to the end of your gut-length and then, your drop-fly just above a knot, where whipped, about a yard from the end-fly, to hang from the line, not more than two or three inches. If you chuse to fish for more, keep them all about the same distance. And observe that if your droppers be larger than, or even as large as, your stretcher, you will not be able to throw a good line but a beginner should never use more than one fly.

Instructions for throwing the line.

When thus prepared, let out the line, about half as long again as the rod; and holding the rod, properly in one hand, and the line just above the fly, in the other, give your rod a motion from right to left: and as you move the rod backwards, in order to throw out the line, dismiss the line from your hand at the same time : and try several throws, at this length. Then let out more line; and try that: still using more and more, till you can manage any length needful: but about nine yards is quite sufficient for a learner to practise with. Aud observe that in raising your line, in order to throw it again, you should wave the rod a little round your head, and not bring it directly backwards: nor must you return the line too soon, nor until it has streamed its full length behind you, or you will certainly whip off your end-fly. There is great art in making your line fall light on the water, and shewing the flies well to the fish. The best way that I can direct is, that when you have thrown out your line, contriving to let it fall lightly and naturally, you should raise your rod gently, and by degrees; sometimes with a kind of gentle tremulant flourish, which will bring the flies on a little towards you; still letting them go down with the stream, but never draw them against it, for it is unnatural: and before the line comes too near you, throw out again. When you see a fish rise at a natural fly, throw about a yard above him, but not directly over his head; and let your fly (or flies) move geutly towards him, which will shew it to him in a more natural form, and tempt him the more to take it. Experience and observation alone, however, can make an angler a complete adept in the art, so as to enable him to throw his fly behind bushes and trees, into holes, under banks, and other places mentioned as the Trout's haunts, and where the best fish are to be found.-Taylor's Art of Angling.

will not permit you so to do, and that you are constrained to angle on the same side whereon you stand, you must then stand on the very brink of the river, and cast your fly to the utmost length of your rod and line, up or down the river, as the gale serves.

1

It only remains, touching your line, to enquire whether your two hairs next to the hook are better twisted or open? And for that I should declare that I think the open way the better, because it makes less shew in the water, but that I have found an inconvenience or two, or three, that have made me almost weary of that way; of which one is, that, without dispute, they are not so strong open as twisted; ' another, that they are not, easily, to be fastened of so exact an equal length in the arming that the one will not cause the other to bag, by which means a man has but one hair upon the matter to trust to; and the last is, that these loose flying hairs are not only more apt to catch upon every twig, or bent, they meet with, but moreover, the hook, in falling upon the water, will, very often, rebound and fly back betwixt the hairs, and there stick, (which, in a rough water especially, is not presently to be discerned by the angler,) so as the point of the hook shall stand reversed; by which means your fly swims backward, makes a much greater circle in the water, and till taken home to you and set right, will never raise any fish, or, if it should, I am sure, but by a very extraordinary chance, can hit none.?

Having done with both these ways of fishing at the top, the length of your rod, and line, and all, I am next to teach you how to make a fly; and, afterwards, of what

(1) In the original, the words are twisted as open, contrary to what is, evidently, from the connection, the Author's meaning: the Editor has therefore transposed the words.

(2) This and the other inconveniences mentioned in this paragraph, are effec tually avoided by the use of a fine grass, or gut, of about half a yard long, next the hook. See Notes on Chap. XXI. Part I. p. 228.

dubbing you are to make the several flies I shall hereafter name to you.

betwixt your finger and

In making a fly, then, which is not a hackle or palmerfly, (for of those, and their several kinds, we shall have occasion to speak every month in the year,) you are, first, to hold your hook fast betwixt the fore-finger and thumb of your left hand, with the back of the shank upwards, and the point towards your fingers' ends; then take a strong small silk of the colour of the fly you intend to make, wax it well with wax of the same colour too, to which end you are always, by the way, to have wax of all colours about you, and draw it betwixt your finger and thumb to the head of the shank; and then whip it twice or thrice about the bare hook, which, you must know, is done, both to prevent slipping, and also that the shank of the hook may not cut the hairs of your towght, which sometimes it will otherwise do. Which being done, take your line, and draw it likewise thumb, holding the hook so fast, as only to suffer it to pass by, until you have the knot of your towght almost to the middle of the shank of your hook, on the inside of it; then whip your silk twice or thrice about both hook and line as hard as the strength of the silk will permit. Which being done, strip the feather for the wings proportionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that side 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 bend 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 the 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 left hand, 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 Henry Jackson; a near neighbour; an admirable fly-angler; by many degrees the best fly-maker that ever I yet met with.1 And now that I have told you how a fly

(1) There needs nothing more to be said of these Directions, than that hundreds have, by means of them alone, become excellent fly-makers.

For making a palmer, or hackle, see the Notes on Chap. VII.

is to be made, you shall presently see me make one, with which you may peradventure take a Trout this morning, notwithstanding the unlikeliness 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 of 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 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.