6 CHATS ON ANGLING. 



accuracy needed in securing him forms the most potent of the many charms 

 of this most beautiful of sports. 



Should, as may often prove to be the case, the unpropitious 

 conditions continue without improvement, our angler is not without 

 resource. His surroundings are so entirely congenial ; he lies on the 

 fresh green meadow-grass, the hedgerows ablaze with blossom, the copses 

 in their newly-donned green mantles, blue with the shimmering sheen 

 of countless blue-bells, are full of rejoicing and of promise. The birds, 

 instinct with their love-making and nesting operations, are full of life ; 

 all nature seems to be vigorous with new-born hope. The true angler 

 can rejoice with them all, sharing their pleasure and delight, drinking in 

 pure draughts of ozone, and adding, perchance, to his store of knowledge of 

 insect and animal life. His field glasses, as he lies prone and sheltered, 

 bring him within touch and range of many sights that otherwise would 

 have passed unnoticed. That water vole coasting along the bank side, 

 pausing incontinently to sit up and look around, those rabbits playing near 

 the burrow mouth, the moorhens cruising round the flags and sedges, all 

 afford interest and instruction. In the very grass on which he lies he will 

 find ample scope for observation and amusement in his enforced leisure 

 should he care to watch the teeming multitudes of insects that throng it, 

 his ears meanwhile being solaced and refreshed by countless woodland 

 songsters. 



