THE POETRY OF FLY FISHING. 205 



reference to the art of fishing with the artificial fly, 

 thus : "Fly-fishing has been designated the royal and 

 aristocratic branch of the angler's craft, and unques- 

 tionably it is the most difficult, the most elegant, and 

 to men of taste, by myriads of degrees the most pleasant 

 and exciting mode of angling. To land a trout of three, 

 four or five pounds weight, and sometimes heavier, with 

 a hook almost invisible, with a gut line almost as deli- 

 cate and beautiful as a single hair from the raven tresses 

 of a mountain sylph, and with a rod not heavier than a 

 tandem whip, is an achievement requiring no little 

 presence of mind, united to consummate skill. If it 

 be not so, and if it do not give you some very pretty 

 palpitations of the heart in the performance, may we 

 never wet a line in Lake George, or raise a trout in the 

 Susquehanna." 



Thomson, the much admired author of " The Sea- 

 sons," was in his youth a zealous angler, frequently cast- 

 ing his fly in the rippling waters of the Tweed, a trout- 

 stream justly famous along the Scottish border. The 

 poet has eulogized his favorite pastime of fly-fishing in 

 the following elegant lines : 



" Now, when the first foul torrent of the brooks, 

 Swell'd with the vernal rains, is ebb'd away ; 

 And, whitening, down their mossy tinctur'd stream 

 Descends the billowy foam, now is the time, 

 While yet the dark brown water aids the guile 

 To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly — 

 The rod, fine tapering with elastic spring, 



