CONDITIONS WHICH GOVERN THE BITING OF FISH. 357 



They imagine that fish, somehow, form an exception to 

 the rest of the animal creation, and are governed in their 

 feeding, or "biting," by certain laws, as unchanging as 

 those of the Medes and Persians; and that these immutable 

 laws have an outward expression in certain states and 

 conditions of weather and water; and that it is only nec- 

 essary to ascertain the peculiar combination of wind, 

 weather and water, under which fish feed, nolens volens, 

 to be able to effect their capture easily. 



The glorious uncertainty attending the "biting" of fish, 

 even at apparently favorable times, has been observed for 

 ages, and has invested the gentle art with a glamour, and 

 an air of mystery, in which the element of chance, or 

 luck, is a prominent feature. The angler wending his way 

 homeward is accosted at every turn with the interrogatory 

 of, " What luck ?" while " fisherman's luck " has become 

 an universal synonym of failure. 



Many anglers, in lieu of more cogent reasons, have 

 conveniently relegated this whole question to " luck," 

 and have ceased to trouble themselves much about it, 

 taking the good with the bad, in a spirit of calm phi- 

 losophy or in meek submission to the inevitable. 



Even while engaged in solitary angling, so conducive 

 to quiet meditation, the habits and idiosyncrasies of fish 

 do not often occupy our thoughts, but other and wholly 

 irrelevant themes. And even with all the information 

 that can be obtained, by close and careful observation of 

 the habits of fishes, and the nature of their surroundings, 

 there is still left much to be explained, and some things 

 that seem to be beyond our comprehension, which we 

 might safely leave to chance or luck, until we understand 

 them better. 



