In the Dartford river, a very dark red palmer, with
peacocks' herle, and a little bright yellow at the end



216 FISH KS AND FISHING.
of the body, either finely ribbed, or not, with silver,
is, 1 ain told, very killing ; but natural hackles, so
dark a red, are scarce.
In the Thames, palmers of a tolerable good size, of
any description, will take chub and dace ; but the
fly with which Mr. Brand, a legal gentleman, of
Staples Inn, a most successful fly angler, killed trout
and salmon in the Thames, was a palmer made of a
d^ep red and black live hackle, body of bright green
floi^s silk, ribbed with gold, and not too small.
I have not had the advantage of enjoying the noble
sport of fly-flshing for salmon, but I have often thought
of the strauge-looking things salmon flies are. I am
told they are intended to imitate the dragon-fly — if so,
they are very poor imitations ; however, as I believe
the best salmon Ashing occurs some time before the
dragon-fly makes its appearance, any nondescript
substance moving on the surface of the water, like a
thing of life, probably proves attractive to the hungry
Mi.
