PLEASURES OF FLY-FISHING. 9 



lative success, to practise it amongst the most 

 picturesque panorama designed by nature. The 

 swift stream that dashes along the hill's side, the 

 brook that runs through the valley, the moun- 

 tain waterfalls the currents foaming between 

 moss-grown rocks, or brawling over a pebbly 

 bottom, are the scenes of the fly-fisher's triumphs. 

 Salmon and salmonidse, happily the most frequent 

 prizes of the fly-fisher's skill, are not to be found 

 in the sluggish, turbid waters that flow through 

 flats and fens, but breed in, and inhabit, in due 

 season, those delightful streams that play through 

 table-lands. Their favourite food is not the offal 

 of slime or mud, but the insects that disport on 

 the surface of clear water. There the bounding 

 salmon tribe seek them, and in that search they 

 encounter the fatal artificial insect of the fly- 

 fisher, and all the deadly resources of his craft. 

 The shape, the colour, the flavour of the fly- 

 fisher's fish, do not mis-beseem the beauties that 

 surround salmon, trout, and grayling streams. 

 As the plain, nutritious sheep thrives well upon 

 Leicester and similar pasturage lands, so in their 

 waters breed prolifically the heavy carp, chub, 

 and tench. On the contrary, the heather of the 

 Highlands is the haunt of the dainty doe and 

 wild stag ; and the crystal waters of their inland 

 cliffs produce the aristocracy of the finny race. 

 The concordances of life, society, nature, are 



