8 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



the banks of any stream in the neighbourhood are 

 thickly studded with anglers, a few of whom meet 

 with good sport, but the greater number, having 

 demolished their sandwiches and emptied their flasks, 

 return with their baskets, and occasionally their 

 heads, lighter than when they left home. Happily, 

 however, and it is certainly a strong argument in 

 favour of the attractions of angling, they are not 

 a whit discouraged ; but, on the contrary, eager to 

 return first opportunity, and have always a good 

 excuse for their want of success. We never yet met 

 a bad angler that had not a good excuse ; some- 

 times it is clear water, sometimes a bright day, 

 sometimes thunder in the air, very often too many 

 white clouds ; and failing all these, there still re- 

 mains the great excuse which is equally applicable to 

 all states of weather and water, that somehow or 

 other the trout would not take all of which we 

 dismiss upon the ground that they should take the 

 trout. Anglers have also an extraordinary knack of 

 raising, hooking, and playing, but losing large trout. 

 The trout once escaped, there is ample scope for the 

 imagination to conjecture its probable size. 



We have never heard of any phrenologist having 

 made the discovery that persons addicted to angling 

 lack or lose the faculty of correctly distinguishing 

 the essential properties of all matter number, size, 

 and ponderosity. It is certain, however, that in 

 relation to fish they frequently show a lamentable 

 deficiency in this power. Or, to take the harsher 

 view that we fear finds too much favour with a 



