THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 209 
such means, any page of that great green book out- 
side, whose pen is the finger of God, whose covers 
are the fire kingdoms and the star kingdoms, and 
its leaves the heather-bells, and the polypes of the 
sea, and the gnats above the summer stream. 
I said just now, that happy was the sportsman 
who was also a naturalist. And, having once men- 
tioned these curious water-flies, I cannot help going 
a little farther, and saying, that lucky is the fisher- 
man who is also a naturalist. A fair scientific 
knowledge of the flies which he imitates, and of 
their habits, would often ensure him sport, while 
other men are going home with empty creels. One 
would have fancied this a self-evident fact; yet I 
have never found any sound knowledge of the 
natural water-flies which haunt a given stream, 
except among cunning old fishermen of the lower 
class, who get their living by the gentle art, and 
bring to indoors baskets of trout killed on flies, 
which look as if they had been tied with a pair of 
tongs, so rough and ungainly are they; but which, 
nevertheless, kill, simply because they are (in colour, 
Pp 
