PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 129 



world, where angling is resorted to as a sport, and not merely 

 as a mode of obtaining subsistence, is the great object of the 

 scientific fisherman^s pursuit. 



There is no sportsman, who is actuated by the true animus 

 of the pursuit, who would not prefer basketing a few brace of 

 good Trout, to taking a cart-load of the coarser and less game 

 denizens of the waters ; nor, whether we consider his wariness, 

 his timidity, his extreme cunning, the impossibility of taking 

 him in fine and much-fished waters, except with the slenderest 

 and most delicate tackle ; his boldness and vigour after being 

 hooked, or his excellence on the table, shall we wonder at the 

 judgment, much less dispute it, which, next to the Salmon 

 only, rates him the first of fresh-water fishes. The pursuit of 

 him leads us into the loveliest scenery of the land ; the season 

 at which we fish for him is the most delicious, those sweetest 

 months of spring — when they are not, as at present, the coldest 

 and most odious of the year — the very name and mention of 

 which is redolent of the breath of flowers, the violet, the cowslip, 

 and the celandine, which plunge us into a paradise founded 

 upon the rural imaginings of the most exquisite of England's 

 rural bards, until we are recalled from our elysium by a 

 piercing gale from the north-east, and perhaps a pelting 

 hailstorm, bidding us crush our wandering fancies, and 

 teaching us that spring-time is one of those pleasant things 

 which occurs twice perhaps in a lifetime in the United States 

 of America. 



The habits of the Trout have been already discussed so fully 

 in the earlier part of this article, as Avell as the natiire of his 

 food, that I shall defer further mention of these topics, until I 



K 



