PLEASURES OF FLY-FISHING. 337 



But to bonnie Scotland and its purple braes, its snow-clad 

 peaks and birchen slopes, its sweet-noted mavis and plain- 

 tive cushey-doo, I bid adieu, and flit across the broad ocean 

 till the stormy estuary of the St. Lawrence is reached ; for 

 here, as well as in my native land, the sea-trout cleaves the 

 briny tidal wave or ascends rushing, reckless rivers. But, 

 strange to say, in Eastern and Western streams these 

 beauties are very dissimilar in their habits ; in the former 

 you capture them in the upper waters or fluvial portions ; 

 in the latter, if you desire success, it is in the sea you must 

 seek them, near where an affluent empties its volume. I 

 know of no greater pleasure in this world, so scantily 

 supplied with them, than to be seated in a light buoyant 

 boat, dancing to the music of the ever-murmuring ripples, 

 deftly whipping the surrounding diminutive waves. It is 

 to mature man what the rocking of the cradle is to the 

 child ; the latter, because it has no knowledge of the past 

 or future, is lulled to sleep ; the former feels soothed for 

 the present, and in his enjoyment forgets past trials and 

 hopes for fortune in time to come. There is an alloy in 

 this entrancing pastime as well as in nearly all others to 

 practise it is death and pain to that which affords you the 

 pleasure; but how few of the gratifications of life are 

 without this ! the success of one is the downfall of another. 

 Even the mosquito in gratifying his appetite for blood is 

 not satisfied to depart after he has glutted himself to 

 excess, but must leave a virus behind him that poisons 

 the orifice from whence he has drawn his sustenance. 



At the mouth of all streams that salmon frequent in the 

 Dominion of Canada, sea-trout will be found in abundance ; 



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