2i8 Night-Fishing. 



lies in its association with open day, and sunny 

 skies, and the glad voices and green vales of earth. 

 Still the enthusiasm of a sportsman for his sport 

 exists independently of much that enhances the 

 pleasure of its exercise ; and if that enthusiasm 

 be genuine, it will not only often inspire him to 

 seek the stream under frowning skies and in biting 

 blasts, but will sometimes prove superior to his 

 natural inclination for repose. 



The sport which is to be had during many of 

 the sultry days of June and July is not always 

 such as either to tax the energies of the angler, or 

 to fill his basket; for at this season artificial -fly 

 fishing is on the wane, and in the "small" clear 

 water his main hope lies in angling up-stream with 

 the minnow, the worm, or the caddis. As it is pre- 

 cisely after such days that night-fishing promises 

 greatest success, even the ordinary angler, possessed 

 of ordinary love for his sport, may now and again 

 be induced to " trust the opportunity of night " to 

 supplement the meagre honours of the day. 



Those writers who take exception to the exercise 

 of the sport at night, because under the cloak of 

 darkness much that is illegal is frequently practised, 

 have to be reminded that that is most sadly true of 

 more things than angling, and that it is tyrannous 

 to interdict the lawful enjoyment of a sport on the 

 ground that the ill-disposed have been known to 



