BABIES.— BAIT YS. FLY, 147 



lows by the shores, where fair sized trout were hunting for 

 minnows, or tish with bait off rocky points; and, saddest 

 confession of all, the fly cast in the good orthodox way was 

 almost useless anywhere except down the river upon the 

 rapids. There one might have sport, such as it was, with 

 the little fellows, and take trout in numbers to his satisfac- 

 tion. The scales, Innvever, brought mortihcation and 

 regret. The wicked Herod himself would have shed tears 

 to see what a heap of dead babies one afternoon's slaughter 

 produced. 



But a half loaf is better tlian none; and I maintain that a 

 tisherman, who sulks in his tent,-like that graceless and 

 obstinate hero, Achilles, -because he can't take trout with a 

 lly whde he can with l)ait, is, to say the least, more nice 

 than wise. The most ardent fisherman wdiom it is my 

 good fortune to know, tlie victor in many a contest of skill 

 with the bamboo, the venerable and genial Reuben,~who 

 fondles a favorite tly, frayed and ragged from the light 

 with a big trout, as a father fondles his tirst baby,-even 

 Keubeu, when he must do it, yields tiies, leader, slencler 

 rod and all, and takes a "bait-pole." After him, let no 

 common tisherman lift his nasal organ sky-ward and sniff, 

 if tisherman's luck brings him to the woods at a time 

 " between hay and grass," and only bait takes the fish. 



Without describing the spirit in which we did it. it is 



• suflieient to say that in this case we accepted the inevitable, 



and after a fair trial confined ourselves in the main to still 



bait fishing and trolling with the rod. It would afford me 



peculiar satisfaction, as a historian, to record triumphs 



