ANGLING ACQUAINTANCES. 



IT is not of the acquaintances which the angler has 

 among human kind that we write, although much 

 might be said upon such a topic, for angling, like 

 poverty, makes us acquainted with strange com- 

 panions. There is another class of acquaintances 

 of which the angler should know more than he 

 oftsn does know the beasts and the birds with 

 which his waterside rambles bring him into con- 

 tact. The angler's friends among men are usually 

 pleasant felloys, for "birds of a feather flock 

 together," and, if he but knows them aright, the 

 birds and the animals are pleasant friends too. 

 Every angler should be a naturalist, or have, at 

 least, an intelligent knowledge of the more in- 

 teresting of the component parts of that great 

 thing called Nature, which makes angling what 

 it is. It is astonishing how much the interest 

 of a ramble is increased by such a knowledge. 

 Depend upon it, the difference between ' ' eyes and 

 no eyes" is greater than is at first apparent, and 

 to no man is this more important to be under- 

 stood than the follower of the gentle craft. 



Angling acquaintances, then, of the sort of 



