73 WINTER TALKS ON SUMMER PASTIMES. 



of some lofty eminence which gives me an enchanting view 

 of the vast forests spread out inimitably before me; in float- 

 ing hither and thither, where the kingly salmon 



'Cuts with his flashing oars the silvery stream;' 

 in listening to the music of singing birds and to the melody 

 of rippling waters; in lazily loitering about our cosy camp; 

 in filling my exulting lungs with the pure atmosphere in 

 which I am enveloped, and in inhaling the delectable odors 

 of the virgin woods as they are borne to me by the summer 

 zephyrs which sweep down from the forest-clad mountains 

 with the refreshing balminess of the breath of the morning. 

 Fishing is but a pleasant incident in these forest experiences. 

 To me it simply gives zest to what, independently of it, 

 is a source of perpetual delight. Possibly, at first, I might 

 not have sought out these quiet places if I had had no taste 

 for angling; but certain it is that angling would never have 

 come to be to me what it is if it had not been associated 

 with, and if it were not a part of, these other and higher 

 sources of mental and physical delights. I am sure, also, 

 that I am not exceptional either in my tastes or in my habits 

 from the great mass of the brotherhood. There is not a 

 fluttering leaf, a rippling rapid, a silver cascade, a mo- 

 mentary sun-glint, a passing shadow, a bird note, a tiny 

 flower, a feathery fern, or any one of a thousand other 

 'things of beauty' we see and hear where our pastime 

 draws us, which is not remembered by the appreciative 

 angler equally with the rise and strike and swirl of trout or 

 salmon." 



"That is true, every word of it," was the reply. "Angling 

 never yet made a bad man woise, while it has made a great 

 many good men better. I admit that all anglers are not saint?, 

 but I insist that they would be less saintly if they were not 

 anglers. For the recreation brings its votaries into close and 

 constant contact with whatever is sublime and beautiful and 

 exalting in nature, and no one can long hold communion and 

 loving fellowship with the thing created without acquiring 

 a higher appreciation of the beneficence, wisdom and power 

 of its Creator. " 



