26 TREATISE ON FLY-FISHING. 



to characterise man in his highest or intellectual 

 state ; and the fisher for salmon or trout with the 

 fly, employs not only machinery to assist his 

 physical powers, but applies sagacity to conquer 

 difficulties ; and the pleasure derived from inge- 

 nious resources and devices, as well as from 

 active pursuit, belongs to this amusement. Then 

 as to his philosophical tendency ; it is a pursuit 

 of moral discipline requiring patience, forbear- 

 ance and command of temper. As connected 

 with natural science, it may be vaunted as 

 demanding a knowledge of the habits of a con- 

 siderable tribe of created beings fishes, and the 

 animals that they prey upon ; and an acquaint- 

 ance with the signs and tokens of the weather and 

 its changes, the nature of waters and of the 

 atmosphere. As to its poetical relations, it 

 carries us into the most wild and beautiful 

 scenery of nature ; amongst the mountain lakes, 

 and the clear and lovely streams that gush from 

 the higher ranges of elevated hills or that make 



