AMERICAN SAIBLING 



border closely on the confines of pain. The duc- 

 tile wire is ^n essentially different means from a 

 taut silk line. The fish holds the coign of van- 

 tage; when he stands back and with bull-dog perti- 

 nacity wrenches savagely at the pliable metal, — 

 when he rises to the surface in a despairing leap 

 for his life, — the angler is at his mercy. But, 

 brother of the sleave-silk and tinsel, when at 

 last you gaze upon your captive lying asphyxiated 

 on the surface, a synthesis of qualities that make 

 a perfect fish, when you disengage him from the 

 meshes of the net, and place his icy figure in 

 your outstretched palms, and watch the tropsolin 

 glow of his awakening loves soften into cream tints, 

 and the cream tints pale into the pearl of moon- 

 stone, as the muscles of respiration grow feebler 

 and more irregular in their contraction, — you 

 will experience a peculiar thrill that the capture 

 neither of ouananiche, nor fontinalis^ nor naf?iay- 

 cush can ever excite. It is this after-glow of 

 pleasure, this delight of contemplation and specu- 

 lation, of which the scientific angler never wea- 

 ries, that lends a charm all its own to the pursuit 

 of the Alpine trout. 



In consideration of the experience which I have 

 had with the American saibling, I would select it in 

 preference to any other fish^ if I desired a salmonoid to 



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