262 
told us) a trout of one and a half inches has 
been seen to attempt to swallow one of aninch 
inlength. This striking difference in size and 
growth may also be seen in the fry when the 
umbilical sack is still adherent, and goes to 
show that some fish babies, like human ones, 
are born lusty and big, while others are puny 
and pining. 
We regret to see that our correspondent is 
inclined to favor multiplicity of species of 
trout rather than consolidation of them into a 
simpler and more concise classification than at 
present exists. We believe that the tendency 
with the older and best known naturalists of 
America, as it certainly is with those of Eu- 
rope, is to condense species rather than extend 
them. It is not to the credit of either the 
learning or personal reputation of our young 
ichthyologists when they split hairs over ana- 
tomical construction of outline or organs of 
fishes, that they may be dubbed discoverers of 
new species, orin their apparent enjoymentof, 
or eagerness for, a little mutual ‘ back- 
scratching,” they elaborate fish nomen- 
clature with the names of their grateful 
co-laborers, rendered into ungraceful Latin or 
still more incongruous Greek terminology.—Eb. 
Fly Fishing for Trout in the Gloaming. 
During a recent brief trout outing on the 
mountain streams of New York State, we 
chanced to meet with two of the most exper- 
ienced trout fishermen that the country has 
ever produced, They have passed, at least, a 
quarter of a century in the pursuit of the 
brook beauty, and one of them does not care 
a fig to catch any other fish than the trout. 
Saturated, as he is, with love of this fish, and 
passing summer after summer for many years 
in the catching of none other, he has reached 
the point where a man’s hobby depreciates 
everything that buts up against it, and, as 
there is no fish, in his opinion, that can com- 
pare with the lordly trout, his ideas as to its 
quality, habits and deservings reach, we think 
great, but assailable heights. For instance, 
he will not fish in the gloaming for trout, be- 
cause, he says, it is taking an unfair advantage 
of these fish; anybody, he adds, can catch fish 
when they can’t see the angler. 
Our friend and superb angler seems to for- 
get that he starts out in the morning with full 
intent to take an unfair advantage of the fish, 
just as much so as when a man strikes another 
from behind and in the back of the neck. He 
The American Angler 
uses dead feathers, which he so manipulates 
that they appear, to the fish, as a live insect, 
and to make the deception still greater, he 
works up stream, knowing full well that trout 
lie heads up current, and cannot see the ap- 
proaching angler or start at the play of his 
uplifted rod. Again, when the sunlight is 
glinting the face of every pebble or stone on 
the bottom of the pellucid pool, he will wait 
for a passing cloud shadow to darken the water 
before the cast is made. He will crawl, as we 
have done many times before him, on his 
stomach twenty or more feet, that a big one 
in a certain shallow pool, late in the season, 
may not become startled by the concussion of 
his feet on the bank, or, through the refraction 
of light, see the angler’s body looming up like 
a giant approaching with dire intent; angling 
with the fly for trout or any other fish is 
simply the pitting of man’s wit, knowledge 
and experience as an angler against the intel- 
ligent instincts of the fish. Deception is the 
basis of success, and the more knowledge a 
fisher acquires of the habits of his quarry, the 
more positive will be his success in luring 
them. 
True, a man who delights in fly-fishing at 
night, when the rise or play of the trout, after 
being hooked, cannot be seen, is more of a pot- 
fisher than an angler, but this cannot be laid 
to the charge of one who loves to fly-fish in 
the gloaming. At that time, the environment 
of a mountain stream lulls the angler into 
content, even though the fish fail to rise. He 
sees Dame Nature in her most charming robe, 
with the mists falling lace-like down the 
hillsides, and a weird solitude enfolding, 
as it always does, the embrowned water 
courses, when twilight shadows are deepen- 
ing. Atsuch atime, and so long as daylight 
lingers, the angler need not crawl for rods 
on all fours to his favorite pool, nor seek the 
cramped shelter of rock or bush from which 
to cast, but his feathered lures must fall as 
gently, and his play of the fish must be as 
skillful, or rather more so, than when the sun- 
light mirrors the bottom of the brook. 
We always make a note of the opinions and 
practices of anglers whom we meet on our 
outings, not particularly as themes for ed- 
itorial criticism, but in the hope of eliciting 
from our readers an expression, fro or con, 
of their ideas of the subject under discussion. 
There are 6,000 species of fish in American 
waters, and about that number of conflicting 
