The AmcriciDi Ampler. 



of a warm heart and a keen apprecia- 

 tion of the manly virtues that make 

 one's declining- 3'ears the better half of 



life. Mr. P , of Atlanta, of that 



"uncertain ag-e " that begets modesty 

 and a retiring disposition, yet he is 

 congenial and full of fun, tall of stature 

 and beautiful of form, but painfully 

 conspicuous in his want of knowledge 

 in all things pertaining to angling — to 

 him, his rod was a pole, his reel a 

 windlass, his silk line a string, and the 

 sack to his rod case, a slip — and by far 

 the greater portion of his time was 

 employed in picking himself up out of 

 the stream or hunting for some part of 

 his tackle — a mother's darling and a 



wife's pride. Max B , of Michigan, 



a Hercules in physical prowess, an 

 Adonis in attractiveness, sedate and 

 austere as a gowned judge, prim as an 

 old maid, and yet an intensified Lord 

 Chesterfield in manners and dress; a 

 fisherman who tries harder to attain to 

 the heights of artistic angling and falls 

 further short of his ambition than any 

 man I have met on the water. Like 



Mr. P— , Max found it necessary to 



devote so much of his time to extri- 

 cating his manly form from out the 

 boulders in the bottom of the river and 

 in making the many changes of raiment 

 incidental to his impromptu baths, that 

 but little time was left him in which to 

 look after the trout. As an angling 

 companion too much cannot be said 

 in favor of " Yovmg-Man-Afraid-of-the- 

 Water, " he is the soul of honor and 

 good fellowship, a persistent caster, a 

 fearless wader, an ardent angler in all 

 things, save the exhibition, now and 

 then, of a hoggish instinct to capture 

 his prey, as if he was after meat rather 

 than sport, but when the pleasure of a 

 fellow angler is in issue, he totes more 

 than fair, he wants you to fish the most 



likely pools, and to have the biggest 

 drink of Moonshine, though he has 

 been known to manifest more or less 

 loss of memory when he or his chum 

 has landed an extra good fish, as to 

 what was the exact language employed 

 by the Governor of North Carolina to 

 the Governor of South Carolina on a 

 particular historical occasion, biit time 

 and proper associations will no doubt 

 eliminate these defects, and proud of 

 their glorious work will stand him up 

 before the world and crj-, ' ' Behold the 

 perfect angler." Such miracles have 

 been worked, but so far back in the 

 dim, distant past, that it is now impos- 

 sible to locate any of them on or near 

 the ground now occupied by Atlanta. 



Of the writer, perchance, the least 

 said the better. At all events it is not in 

 good form ' ' to look a gift horse in the 

 mouth," therefore we will spread "the 

 mantle of charity" over his many 

 faults and emulate his fine virtues, as 

 we may discover them. 



Our party, save Colonel ]\I , left 



Atlanta the morning of May loth. 

 The Colonel received us that night at 

 Adrens, N. C, but he had to get out of 

 bed to act as a coinmittee on reception. 



After a refreshing night's sleep, made 

 more peaceful and restful by dream- 

 land's pictures of the speckled beauties, 

 as they lay in our creels on beds of 

 laurel leaves, we ate an early breakfast 

 of trout, and began our mountain ride 

 of fourteen miles to Aquone, a hamlet 

 in name only, located on the banks of 

 the Nantahala River, which winds its 

 sinuous course through a narrow, but 

 picturesque and fertile valley, hemmed 

 in by the towering walls of the twin 

 spurs of the Nantahala Moimtains. 



We put up with Mr. jMundy, who 

 holds the fee simple to something like 

 five thousand acres of vallcv. trout and 



