226 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



clever man, is only repeating what has been said a 

 thousand times. Evidently he considered that an angler 

 to be " compleat " must be contemplative. The fisher 

 who thinks of nothing but the slaughter of the finny 

 tribe, and has no eye to see, nor soul to appreciate the 

 beauty of the scene that surrounds him, is not a man after 

 Izaak's model, nor worthy of imitation. He certainly is 

 not of the genus " Contemplative," and the loss is all on 

 his side ; for truly he misses one half of the enjoyment. 

 What true fisher has not glorious scenes of natural beauty 

 photographed, as it were, on his mind, these memories 

 being unaffected by the weight of the basket at the end 

 of the day .'' The sights and sounds amidst which the 

 angler pursues his harmless recreation elevate and 

 ennoble his mind, furnish material for earnest reflection, 

 and raise his thoughts from the beauty and exuberance of 

 nature to the benignant Author of it all. And such 

 sights and sounds are met with upon the banks of Tweed 

 in sweet profusion. 



It is not to such men — though not seldom their love 

 of nature is only equalled by their brilliant success — that 

 we are in any degree to attribute the apparent falling 

 away in the numbers of our river-trout, and the increased 

 difficulty we now experience in making a good basket. 

 Independently of the influence which the universal 

 draining of the land has exerted, by causing the sudden 

 rising of heavy floods, which sweep away the spawn, and 

 the food of the fish — the eggs of aquatic insects — there are 

 two causes which I think may fairly be held to account for 

 the change. These are poaching and pollution. In spite of 



