As is the ribbed sea-sand.'


3. The 'governor.'--In most sandy banks, and dry poor lawns, will be
found numberless burrows of ground bees who have a great trick of
tumbling into the water. Perhaps, like the honey bee, they are
thirsty souls, and must needs go down to the river and drink;
perhaps, like the honey bee, they rise into the air with some
difficulty, and so in crossing a stream are apt to strike the further
bank, and fall in. Be that as it may, an imitation of these little
ground bees is a deadly fly the whole year round; and if worked
within six inches of the shore, will sometimes fill a basket when
there is not a fly on the water or a fish rising. There are those
who never put up a cast of flies without one; and those, too, who
have killed large salmon on him in the north of Scotland, when the
streams are low.

His tie is simple enough. A pale partridge or woodcock wing, short
red hackle legs, a peacock-herl body, and a tail--on which too much
artistic skill can hardly be expended--of yellow floss silk, and gold
twist or tinsel. The orange-tailed governors 'of ye shops,' as the
old drug-books would say, are all 'havers;' for the proper colour is
a honey yellow. The mystery of this all-conquering tail seems to be,
that it represents the yellow pollen, or 'bee bread' in the thighs or
abdomen of the bee; whereof the bright colour, and perhaps the strong
musky flavour, makes him an attractive and savoury morsel. Be that
as it may, there is no better rule for a chalk stream than this--when
you don't know what to fish with, try the governor.

4. The black alder (Sialis nigra, or Lutaria).