45 6 Notes on Sport and Travel vn 



Still, there are places in the world where it will pay 

 you to chop a hole in the ice which covers the elbow 

 of some swirling, sandy -bottomed stream, — as, for 

 example, Colorado -way, — and to extract thereout 

 infinite purple-backed, scarlet-bellied char, known to 

 the natives by the name of trout ; a custom which 

 nothing will make them leave off. I saw the other 

 day an American notice of our beloved y^r/t?, despis- 

 ing him for his want of brilliant colouring. You 

 might as well condemn a cock grouse for not wearing 

 a scarlet waistcoat like a cock-robin ! In fact, all 

 these comparisons between real wild natural things 

 are, as the copy-book says, odious. Comparisons 

 between artificial things, such as cocks and hens, 

 cattle, swine, prize ' turmits,' and undergraduates, 

 are perfectly legitimate. We do not know their 

 value till we try, but natural things are all good in 

 their respective ways ; if they were not, they would 

 have disappeared long ago. 



But my American friends — and I have many — 

 love comparisons between the things they happen to 

 find in their new country and those of everywhere 

 else — as in the case of their oyster : ' Sir, our oyster ' 

 (as if they had trained it and civilised it, as we have 

 ours) ' is universally agreed to be the best in the 

 universe.' Gently ask him the standard of perfect 

 oysterdom, and you will be told ' Sir, our oyster is 

 the perfect oyster ' ; and if you be wise you will 

 accept this hospitable offer to sample them, though, 

 between ourselves, I still retain my own opinions as 



