EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OF FLY-MAKING.

WE have here diagrams representing the artificial-fly in its several stages of fabrication.

No. 1. Is what is called the hook "armed," that is to say, the hook and gut-link tied or whipped together, preparatory to putting on the wings of the fly. Hook and gut are whipped together thus :-You wax a piece of fine tying silk, about a foot or eighteen inches in length; then take your hook by the bend between the thumb and forefinger of your left hand; make a whip or two of the waxed silk round the bare shank of the hook nearly opposite to the barb, and having done so, place your gut under the shank up to the whipping, which whipping or winding of the silk you must continue over gut and shank of hook up almost to the end. Make a slip-knot, and allow the silk to depend. Now for the wings,

see

No. 2. The wings here are partly set on. To do so, you must strip from the wing-feather of some small bird, using the longest fibres, a smallish bunch. You place them on the

back of the shank of the hook, near its end, with their butts towards the bend of the hook; you tie them down with three or four whips or laps of the silk; you then cut away the fibres of the butt, and you wind your silk down the shank to the spot at which you began the arming, and leave the silk depending.

No. 3. You here see the whisks or tail set on, and the hackle-feather tied by the point and ready to be wound up to the wings. The whisks and hackle-feather are whipped on after you have finished the operations necessary for No. 2, as already described. The back of the feather must be towards you. Take it by the bared stem, and wind regularly up the hook to the wings; wind so that the fibres will project like those of No. 4 or No. 5. When you have wound the hackle-feather up the wings, fasten it down by two or three whips of the silk over it; make a slip-knot, cut away the end of the stem, leave the silk depending, and then you will have the representation marked

No. 4. Now pass your silk between the division of the wings, round by the butt of the half-wing on the left side of the hook, and bring the silk back again between the division, and round by the butt of the half-wing next to you. Force the wings down, forwards towards the bend of the hook, and tie them down behind the shoulder, at which spot you must

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OF FLY-MAKING.

form the head of the fly, by three or four laps of the silk, and a couple of slip-knots, and then you will have diagram

No. 5. In which you have only to cut away the silk, and put a drop of varnish on the cutting to prevent the slip-knot from coming undone.

No. 6. Represents the hackle put on differently from the way shown at No. 3. The fibres seen in this diagram, No. 6, round the shank of the hook, between the tail and the wings, are a body of dubbing, of mohair or fur, which has been twisted round the silk after the tail has been fastened on, and wound up to the wings; a slip-knot was then made, and superfluous dubbing taken away. The hackle-feather was then attached as you see, and wound round two, three, or four times at the wing; the stem of the hackle was then cut away, after having been tied down; and the wings arranged as directed at No. 4, as well as the head. When it is necessary to rib the body of the fly with gold or silver twist or tinsel, tie it on immediately before your hackle, near the thick end of the tail, and then outside the tinsel tie your hackle; wind your tinsel regularly, for ribbing, up the body of the fly to the wings: fasten your tinsel down, and cut away the end. By its side wind afterwards your hackle. If no hackle is used, but simply dubbing for body, spin it on your silk and wind round shank from tail to shoulder of the fly. Lap tinsel or twist over it, picking out dubbing for legs, and to show the tinsel.

He who shall not be able to make a trout-fly, after studying these diagrams and directions, must be deficient either in brains or in manual dexterity.

EPHEMERA.