548 ikfngs ot tbe 1Rot>, IRtfle, ant> (Sun 



as the summer grilse, with a splash and a flash ; or like 

 a new-run but more sober-minded adult, with a dignified 

 and determined dive ; or like a brown-coated old in- 

 habitant, with a long pull and a strong pull low down 

 in the depths. Without discussing this point in all its 

 aspects, moral and physiological, it is enough that for 

 a very small chance of attaining the salmon-angler's 

 delight, whatever it is, there are multitudes prepared to 

 pay and suffer, without asking anything whatever that 

 is injurious to other men or to the public weal. Nor 

 is it to the purpose that there are moments rather 

 perhaps only one moment when the angler himself 

 may half suspect his own rationality, the moment when 

 after having toiled all day and caught nothing, he turns, 

 soaked and shivering, to the hut which is his home for 

 the night, seeing in his mind's eye his unsympathising 

 wife, his unanswered letters, and especially his vacant 

 chair at the board of the friend whose good opinion and 

 better dinner he has recklessly forfeited. For a moment 

 the inclination seizes him to say with Touchstone in the 

 forest, ' When I was at home I was in a better place.' 

 But it is but for a moment ; and then follows another 

 strange effect. How is it that on or near the river-side 

 everything he sees or tastes seems better than are better 

 things at better places? bad whisky better than the 

 best claret ; braxy mutton than the choice of Leaden- 

 hall ; the conversation of a decidedly unintellectual 

 keeper or boatman than the best mots of the best got- 

 up diner-out ; and the repose on the pallet of chaff 

 or straw deeper and sweeter than often visits beds of 

 air or down ? Come how it may, come it does, that the 



