ANGLING. 29 



and shot; the best squirrel dog, and the use of his father's 

 long flintlock gun. And I confess, as I write these lines with 

 my spectacles on, that I have still a strong drawing towards 

 this type of a boy, whether I meet him in my lonely rambles, 

 or whether he dwells only in my memory. 



Sometimes the recollection of our boyish sports comes back 

 to us after manhood, and one who has been ''addicted" to 

 fishing relapses into his old '' ailment ;" then angling becomes 

 a pleasant kind of disease, and one's friends are apt to 

 become inoculated with the virus, for it is contagious. Or 

 men are informally introduced to each other on the stream, 

 by a good-humored salutation, or an inquiry of '' What luckV 

 or a display of the catch, or the offer of a segar, or the flask, 

 or a new fly ; and with such introduction have become fast 

 friends, from that affinity which draws all true anglers 

 together. 



But let me ask what is an angler, and who is a true angler ? 

 One who fishes with nets is not, neither is he who spears, 

 snares, or dastardly uses the crazy bait to get fish, or who 

 catches them on set lines ; nor is he who is boisterous, noisy, 

 or quarrelsome; nor are those who profess to practise the 

 higher branches of the art, and affect contempt for their more 

 humble brethren, who have not attained to their proficiency, 

 imbued with the feeling that should possess the true angler. 



Nor is he who brings his ice-chest from town, and fishes 

 all day with worm or fly, that he may return to the city and 

 boastingly distribute his soaked and tasteless trout among 

 his friends, and brag of the numbers he has basketed, from 

 fingerlings upwards. 



Anglers may be divided into almost as many genera and 

 species as the fish they catch, and engage in the sport from 

 as many impulses. Let me give, ''en passant," a sketch of a 

 few of the many I have met with. 



