NOT ALL OF FISHING TO FISH. 277 



"As connected with natural science, it may be 

 vaunted as demanding a knowledge of the habits of a 

 considerable tribe of created beings — fishes, and the 

 animals that they prey upon, and an acquaintance with 

 the signs and tokens of the weather, and its changes, 

 the nature of waters, and of the atmosphere. As to its 

 poetical relations, it carries us into the most wild and 

 beautiful scenery of nature, amongst the mountain 

 lakes, and the clear and lovely streams that gush from 

 the higher ranges of elevated hills, or that make their 

 way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How 

 delightful in the early spring, after the dull and 

 tedious time of winter, when the frosts disappear and 

 the sunshine warms the earth and waters, to wander 

 forth by some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting 

 from the purple bud, to scent the odors of the bank 

 perfumed by the violet, and enamelled as it were with the 

 primrose and the daisy ; to wander upon the fresh turf 

 below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are 

 filled with the music of the bee ; and on the surface of 

 the waters to view the gaudy flies sparkling like 

 animated gems in the sunbeams, whilst the bright and 

 beautiful trout is watching them from below ; to hear 

 the twittering of the water-birds, who, alarmed at your 

 approach, rapidly hide themselves beneath the flowers 

 and leaves of the water-lily; and, as the season 

 advances, to find all these objects changed for others of 

 the same kind, but better and brighter, till the swallow 

 and the trout contend as it were for the gaudy May- 



