Sir fnimpbn? IDaw 307 



energy and zeal in fishing which he showed in every- 

 thing else he undertook, but on other points they differ. 

 Paris asserts that Humphry Davy's temperament 

 was too mercurial ; " the fish never seized the fly with 

 sufficient avidity to fulfil his expectations, or to support 

 that degree of excitement which was essential to his 

 happiness, and he became either listless or angry, 

 and consequently careless and unsuccessful." John 

 Davy, on the other hand, says that his brother's 

 patience and perseverance were as remarkable as his 

 energy and zeal. " I remember," he writes, " fishing 

 with him from early dawn to twilight in the river 

 Awe in June, for salmon, with little interruption, 

 without raising a fish." 



Humphry's passion for angling betrayed itself upon 

 all occasions ; and the sport was alike his relief in toil 

 and his solace in sorrow. 



" Whenever," writes Dr. Paris, " I had the honour of 

 dining at his table, the conversation, however it might 

 have commenced, invariably ended on fishing ; and when 

 a brother of the angle happened to be present you had 

 the pleasure of hearing all his encounters with the finny 

 tribe how he had lured them by his treachery and 

 vanquished them by his perseverance. He would 

 occasionally strike into a most eloquent and impassioned 

 strain upon some subject which warmed his fancy ; such, 

 for example, as the beauties of mountain scenery ; but 

 before you could fully enjoy the prospect which his 

 imagination had pictured, down he carried you into some 

 sparkling stream or rapid current, to flounder for the 

 next half-hour with a hooked salmon ! 



