18 AX ANGLER'S REMINISCENCES. 



Reverend John Todd, and a host innumerable, are in the ranks, all aged and 

 venerable; and who of them all shall take precedence? Brackett and Yenning still 

 live at eighty-seven and eighty-eight years, respectively, and John Burroughs 

 venerable. 



Reminiscences crowd up before me in wind-rows, like the ripening leaves 

 of autumn, or the rubescent clouds of sunset. Brown himself is one of the 

 most charming sportsmen, because he is such a nature worshiper. Ardent, and 

 still not young (indeed, he is what some youthful sportsmen would call an old 

 man), he could make the dreariest camp environment cheerful with firelight and 

 a genial presence when the weather failed to brighten. Taxonomically he belongs 

 to the guild of camera-hunters, like the still more famous George Shiras, 3d, 

 who hunts the forests for nature study rather than for slaughter. I think that 

 neither of these men aspire to be classed with the mighty nimrods of the age, 



MR. \VALTER M. BRACKETT, 

 Venerable Angler. 



MR. COT.IX CAMPBELL. 

 Famous Angler and Hunter. 



though I reckon their larders are kept well supplied with the game of the 

 country. The litter of fish-bones and 'feathers around their campgrounds attests 

 to the truth of this surmise. And there are others. H. W. Herbert, better known 

 as "Frank Forester" ; Genio C. Scott, a noted angler, and writer for Porter's 

 ''Spirit of the Times" ; old man Durivage, the author, who lived to be eighty-odd 

 (all of them my acquaintances) ; J. V. Hayes, one of the first secretaries of the 

 New York Sportsman's Club; Charles Astor Bristed ("Carl Benson"), who 

 fell in love with "Dodo," author of "Kismet" and daughter of Rev. J. C. Fletcher; 

 Charles H. Haswell, the engineer, of New York City, who died in harness two 

 years ago in his ninety-ninth year; Charles G. Leland ("Hans Breitmann") ; 

 Marriner A. Wilder, moose hunter; Sam Knox, son of Rev. John Knox, who 

 tied my connubial knot in 1855, with Amelia J. Wardell ; Col. E. Z. C. Judson ("Ned 

 Buntline") ; Aaron S. Vail, of Long Island; Stephen Massett ("Jeems Pipes); 



