Floating Flies, and How to Dress Them. By Frederic M.
Halford. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Some one will probably ask " What is a ' floating fly r " Taking it for granted that the inquirer is an angler, we may recall to his recollection the ordinary method of fly-fishing. The flies are thrown, and drawn along towards the fisherman, who continues to raise his rod, being more or less sunk under the surface. The dry fly is not permitted to sink ; and whereas the ordinary fly is thrown, so to speak, at hazard, though not, of course, without refer- ence to any rising fish that may have been seen, the dry fly is always thrown to a rise; and, we may add, it is always thrown up-stream. Further, we may remark that dry-fly fishing is a refinement of the angler's art, a development of the attack, so to speak, to meet the growing caution of the defence, and that, accordingly, it is practised in the clear streams of the South, where, according to the common saying, to have anything like a chance with the wary trout, one must stand in the next pariah to make one's cast. To this branch of the art, Mr. Halford's admirable monograph is devoted. He begins by pleading for the " eyed hook," as against that which is commonly whipped on to the gut. Doubtless he is right ; if for no other reason, for this, that with the eyed hook the fly is not rendered useless by the decay of the gat. He then gives directions for the acquisition of the necessary implements, an easy matter, and of the materials, a work of vast difficulty. One might apply to the artificial fly what Coventry Patmore says of woman,—that for it " the worm its golden woof presents," and that its diverse attractions are gathered from " whatever runs, flies, dives, or delves." Implements and materials being supposed, we are next taught how to employ them ; and, finally, a chapter is given to instruction in the art of using the result of all this research and ingenuity. It is a satisfaction to feel that one subject out of the infinite variety which go to make up human life is, for the present at least, done with in Floating Flies.
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