*> SALMONID^. 103 



ness and vigor after being hooked, or his excellence on the table, shall 

 wo wonder at the judgment, much less dispute it, which, next to the 

 Salmon only, rates him the first of fresh-water fishes. The pursuit of 

 him leads us into the loveliest scenery of the land ; the season at 

 which we fish for liim is the most delicious, those sweetest months of 

 spring — when they are not, as at present, the coldest and most odious 

 of the year — the very name and mention of which is redolent of the 

 breath of flowers, the violet, the cowslip, and the celandine, which 

 plunge us into a paradise founded upon the rural imaginings of the 

 most exquisite of England's rural bards, untU we are recalled from 

 our elysium by a piercing gale from the north-east, and perhaps a 

 pelting hail-storm, bidding us crush our wandering fancies, and teach- 

 ing us that spring-time is one of those pleasant things which occurs 

 twice perhaps in a lifetime in the United States of America. 



The habits of the Trout have been already discussed so fully in the 

 earlier part of this article, as well as the nature of his food, that I 

 shall defer fm'ther mention of these topics, until I come, in the second 

 part of this volume, to the taking of him with the natural or artificial 

 bait, which is most intimately connected with the consideration of his 

 prey and his haunts, so that in that place these will be most suitably 

 discussed. 



