SALMON-FISHING  217

The  variety  of  material,  the  combination  of  colours,  and
ingenuity  of  design  displayed  in  salmon-flies  is  truly  in-
exhaustible. Personally  I  am  thoroughly  sceptical  about  the
superiority  of  one  pattern  over  another,  having  repeatedly,  in
the  course  of  a  long  experience,  had  excellent  sport  by  using
whatever  flies  happened  to  be  in  my  box,  and  disregarding  the
warning  of  local  fishermen  to  the  effect  that  none  but  flies  of  a
peculiar  hue  and  shape  were  of  any  avail  in  their  waters. I
could  name  half  a  dozen  different  rivers  in  which,  when  I  was
a  youth,  grey,  brown,  and  neutral  tinted  flies  were  prescribed
as  essential  to  success. At  the  present  time  in  these  waters,
the  brightest  combinations  of  colour  and  tinsel  are  pre-
ferred, and,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  it  is  a  matter  of  perfect
indifference  whether  I  display  an  old-fashioned  dun  turkey
or  grey  mallard,  or  mount  a  hook  bedecked  with  gleaming
tinsel  and  half  the  colours  of  the  prism. William  Scrope,
writing  sixty  years  ago,  mentioned  that  brightly-hued  Irish
flies  had  recently  been  introduced  on  the  Tweed,  and  added
that  the  fishermen  on  that  river  attributed  the  scarcity  of
salmon,  whereof  they  had  to  complain,  to  the  terror  inspired
by  these  uncanny  baits,  which,  they  believed,  drove  the
fish  back  to  the  sea  !  The  fact  is  that  favourite  locally  indi-
genous flies  are  nearly  always  dull  in  colour,  because  bright
feathers  and  materials  were  not  easily  obtained  by  those  who
invented  them  a  hundred  years  ago. There  is  no  surer
killer  in  any  river  than  the  dun  turkey — a  venerable  creature
devised  Lord  knows  how  many  generations  back. What  does
it  consist  of  ?  Strands  from  the  tail  feather  of  the  dun  turkey,
once  to  be  found  in  almost  every  farm  on  every  river,  although
now  the  breed  is  nearly  extinct,  supplanted  by  more  fashion-
able strains  ;  a  black  hackle  from  the  neck  of  the  barn-yard
chanticleer;  some  black  and  red  yarn  from  any  frayed  and
worn  carpet,  and  a  tag  of  yellow  wool  from  the  good-wife's
basket. 