the class to which we ourselves belong, but in 

 order to use an epithet in contradistinction to 

 the French one already used with respect to 

 all coarse fish), which we will call, the aristo- 

 cracy of the water.* The fish that generally 

 take the fly are the salmon, the trout, and the 

 grayling, with their varieties, and every body 

 will allow that they are the noblest, the best, 

 and the most beautiful of the fresh-water 

 finny tribe ; and every fisher of any experience 

 will also allow, that the streams and rivers in 

 which those fish are found, are, with respect to 

 the nature of their waters, the variety of the 

 channels through and over which they flow, 

 the country in which they are situated, the 

 formation of the banks that confine them, 

 and the diversity of the scenery that sur- 

 rounds them, the most romantic and the 

 most picturesque of all those that irrigate, 

 fertilise, and beautify the most enchanting 

 districts of the happy land we live in.f 



* The only thoroughly coarse fish the only vilain or 

 worthless plebeian of the waters that greedily takes a 

 fly, is the handsome but tasteless chub. The pike, the 

 roach, and dace, also take the fly ; but though we cannot 

 place them amongst the aristocrats of the water, we may 

 safely say that they belong to the respectable portion of 

 the middle classes. 



t Sir Humphrey Davy, encouraging a young fly-fisher, 

 holds out the following allurement : " And 1 think I can 

 promise you green meadows, shady trees, the song of the 

 nightingale, and a full and clear river. 



