220 FISHING WITH THE FL7. 



In landing a fish, wait till he is pretty well exhausted, 

 bring his mouth above water, and keep it there till 

 he is drawn into the net, and warn your assistant to 

 remove the net at once if he gets his head down. By 

 diving after him with the net the assistant would cer- 

 tainly not catch the fish and might tangle one of your 

 other flies. The fish should be led into the net, and 

 the latter kept as still as possible ; he knows as well as 

 you do what it is for, and if his attention is drawn to 



it will dart off as madly as ever. 



****** 



The trout is admitted to be the most beautiful of all 

 our fish ; not so large or powerful as the salmon, he is 

 much more numerous, abounding in all the brooks and 

 rivulets of our Northern States. He lives at our very 

 doors ; in the stream that meanders across yon meadow, 

 where the haymakers are now busy with their scythes, 

 we have taken him in our early days ; down yonder in 

 that wood is a brook filled with bright, lively little fel- 

 lows ; and away over there we know of pools where 

 there are splendid ones. "Who has not said or thought 

 such words as he stood in the bright summer's day 

 under the grateful shade of the piazza running round 

 the old country house where he played a boy ? 



He does not make the nerves thrill and tingle like 

 the salmon, he does not leap so madly into the air nor 

 make such fierce, resolute rushes ; he has not the silver 

 sides, nor the great strength ; but he is beautiful as 

 the sunset sky, brave as bravery itself, and is our own 



