132 ANGLERS AND ANGLING. [CHAP. iv. 



not generally accessible to strangers, being of the nature of a 

 club. The plan which every angler ought to adopt on going 

 to a strange water is to place himself under the guidance of 

 some shrewd native of the place, who will show him all the 

 best pools and aid him with his advice as to what flies he 

 ought to use, and give him many useful hints on other points 

 as well. Anglers, however, must divide their attention, for it 

 is quite as interesting (not to speak of convenience) for some 

 men to spend a day on the Thames killing barbel or roach as 

 it is to others to kill a ten-pound salmon on the Tweed or 

 the Spey. It is good sport also to troll for pike in the 

 Lodden or to capture grayling in beautiful Dovedale. And 

 so pleasant has of late years become the sport that it is no 

 uncommon sight to see a gentle-born lady handling a salmon- 

 rod with as much vigour as grace on some one of our 

 picturesque Highland streams. In fact, angling is a recreation 

 that can be made to suit all classes, from the child with his 

 stick and crooked pin to the gentleman with his well-mounted 

 rod and elaborate tackle, who hies away in his yacht to the 

 fiords of Norway in search of salmon that weigh from twenty to 

 forty pounds and require a day to capture. For those, however, 

 who desire to stay at home there is abundant angling all the 

 year round. From New-Year's Day to Christmas there needs 

 be 110 stoppage of the sport ; even the weather should never 

 stop an enthusiastic angler ; but on very bad days, when it is 

 not possible to go out of doors, there is the study of the fish, 

 and their natural and economic history, which ought to be 

 interesting to all who use the angle, and to the majority of 

 mankind besides ; and there is spread out around the angler 

 the interesting book of nature inviting him to perusal. He 

 can see the white seal of winter opened, and observe the balmy 

 spring put forth its vernal power ; note the turbid streams of 

 winter as they are slackening their volume of water ; see the 

 swelling buds and the bursting leaves ; admire the cowslip and 



