THE PLEASURES OF DIFFICULT VICTORY. 5 



circumstances, would have held in the mightiest 

 Samson of the salmon race. If these mishaps 

 and miscarriages recur pleasantly to my recol- 

 lection, how much more pleasantly to it must 

 come memories of success — remembrance of pis- 

 catorial prowess performed under difficulties — 

 the powerful fish conquered amidst rushing, 

 roaring waterfalls, amidst rocks on land and rocks 

 in water, where trees impede the hand and nearly 

 impassable cliff-paths impede the foot — and the 

 weapons of conquest a frail rod, of fairy, wand- 

 like joints, a casting line, and hook, of despicable 

 fineness and size ! Great and suggestive of good 

 is the wonder in which we gaze at the silver-sided 

 salmon — its stren2;th wasted and its struo;o;les 

 o'er — lying there upon that gravelly or rocky 

 shore, seduced by a feather-and-fur semblance of an 

 insect, a winged one, the fanciful creation of some 

 angling artist's brain, and slain by implements, 

 which, if the power of leverage had not been 

 called into action, would have been shivered by 

 the first adverse plunge of the salmon, as easily 

 as the reeds of the jungle are smashed by the 

 rush of the wild boar! The contemplation of 

 these things is very pleasant ; the far-off, retro- 

 spective, and prospective contemplation of them, 

 — for what has happened before, we fondly hope 



B 3 



