CHAPTER XIX. 



CONDITIONS WHICH GOVEEN THE BITING OF FISH. 



"So I have observed, that if it be a cloudy day, and not extreme cold, let 

 the wind sit in what quarter it will, and do its worst, I heed it not." — Izaak 

 Walton. 



To seek to know all the conditions, positive and hypo- 

 thetical, qualifying and exceptional, which govern the 

 "biting" of fish, is about as vain and discouraging a 

 pursuit as the search for the philosopher's stone. 



To know, positively, before leaving one's office, counting- 

 house, or workshop for a day's outing, that it is the day 

 of all others of the season, and that the phase of the moon, 

 the conditions of sky and atmosphere, the direction and 

 force of the wind, and the temperature and condition of 

 the water are just right to insure success, and to know just 

 what bait or fly to use, and in what j)ortion of the stream 

 to fish, under these conditions, implies a state of knowl- 

 edge that can never be attained by ordinary mortals ; and 

 though we are created, " little lower than the angels," it 

 invcJves a pursuit of knowledge under such extreme diffi- 

 culties, that even prescience and omniscience are but 

 ciphers in the total sum, for it leaves out the most im- 

 portant factor in the calculation — the fish itself. 



Yet it is in just this hope of reducing the matter to 

 the certainty of a mathematical proposition, that some 

 anglers are continually puzzling their own brains, and 

 taxing the patience of their angling friends. 

 (356) 



