THE COMPLETE ANGLER 31 



hunting the wild boar, the stag, the buck, the fox, or 

 the hare ? How doth it preserve health, and increase 

 strength and activity ! 



And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their 

 excellency to that height which they deserve ? How 

 perfect is the hound at smelling, who never leaves or 

 forsakes his first scent, but follows it through so many 

 changes and varieties of other scents, even over and 

 in the water, and into the earth ! What music doth 

 a pack of dogs then make to any man, whose heart and 

 ears are so happy as to be set to the tune of such instru- 

 ments ! How will a right greyhound fix his eye on the 

 best buck in a herd, single him out, and follow him, 

 and him only, through a whole herd of rascal game, 

 and still know and then kill him ! For my hounds, I 

 know the language of them, and they know the language 

 and meaning of one another as perfectly as we know 

 the voices of those with whom we discourse daily. 



I might enlarge myself in the commendation of hunting, 

 and of the noble hound especially, as also of the docible- 

 ness of dogs in general ; and I might make many observa- 

 tions of land creatures, that for composition, order, 

 figure, and constitution, approach nearest to the com- 

 pleteness and understanding of man ; especially of 

 those creatures, which Moses in the Law permitted to 

 the Jews, which have cloven hoofs, and chew the cud ; 

 which I shall forbear to name, because I will not be 

 so uncivil to Mr. Piscator, as not to allow him a time 

 for the commendation of angling, which he calls an 

 art ; but doubtless it is an easy one ; and, Mr. Auceps, 

 I doubt we shall hear a watery discourse of it, but I hope 

 it will not be a long one. 



Auc. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 



Pise. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I 



hounds in Spain, and hunted when his troops were in their winter 

 cantonments. E. 



