Ntf>igon River Fishing 



course for the upper river. He will over- 

 take a flotilla, bearing some millionnaire 

 and his household goods, feigning to rough 

 it with actually a complete cooking-stove 

 and a huge negro cook aboard. Or at the 

 head of a portage he will come upon some 

 noisy breakfasting party of ten or twelve 

 from one of the inland cities, enlivening 

 these calm solitudes with the clamor of 

 the sociable West. Camps dot the shore 

 ahead of him, and camps astern some 

 charming with the gay colors and bright 

 presence of women, some loud and dirty 

 with pot-hunters on a picnic. 



Why should any one fancy, as so many 

 will, that he may enter easily at middle 

 age into the angler's full enjoyment with- 

 out growing to his skill by practice, any 

 more than he could change untrained into 

 the ripe critic or painter ? Fishing is an 

 art ; a mechanical one at its lower extreme, 

 with nets and worms, but rising to the fin- 

 ish of a fine one. Relish of nature comes 

 as a fruit of cultivated perceptions. Art 

 and nature blend to produce the angler's 

 exquisite pleasure. Yet one will step from 

 a broker's office or a counter into a tackle- 

 shop, equip himself with the latest costly 

 devices, and hurry to the water, to learn 

 with surprise and disappointment that he 



93 



