NIGHT-FISHING. 79 



speaking of the social privileges of anglers. 

 As regards evening fishing, I agree with 

 you as to its enjoyments, provided it be not 

 extended into the night, nor followed longer 

 than it is agreeable ; if longer, then I think 

 we must call it poaching. Dark-fishing, that 

 is, when you cannot see your flies, and are 

 guided by the ear and not by the eye, is 

 truly a deed of darkness ; being a killing 

 time, the larger fish then on the alert foraging, 

 it is a favourite time of the poacher. If an 

 exception is to be made in favour of night- 

 fishing, it is, I think, in the north, and in the 

 height of summer, when the late and early 

 twilight meet. Then and there, it certainly 

 has its charms ; and I would advise the young 

 angler, that is, the man young in years, 

 to try it occasionally. Apart from the sport, 

 there is an enjoyment of another kind, arising 

 out of the peculiarities of the hour, the 

 mysterious light, the solemn stillness, the 

 profound solitude, the sleep of nature. Even 

 now, after the lapse of so many years, I have 

 fresh in memory the feelings produced at such 

 a time, when a student youth fishing in the 

 romantic grounds of Craigy Hall, hear Edin- 



