200 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPOUTS. 



always paramount pleasures ; their tastes are as diver- 

 sified as the colouring in Joseph's coat, as the physi- 

 ognomy which we bear. While one is devoted to 

 the horse, another is to the hound ; while one loves 

 the gun, another loves the rod ; to question their 

 tastes and argue with them the reason, would probably 

 be unproductive, but of this I am convinced, no man 

 ever felt the pleasure, the intense excitement of 

 having a salmon on a rod, or even the more diminu- 

 tive trout, without being again desirous of renewing 

 the sensation ; the very uncertainty causes this fasci- 

 nation. A gentleman for whom I have much esteem, 

 and who has been busily employed all his life 

 in mercantile pursuits, principally abroad and in 

 countries where fly-fishing was not practicable, a few 

 years ago met me on a fishing excursion. His essays 

 with the fly, from lack of experience, were not gene- 

 rally successful ; but when I hooked a heavy fish 

 and handed him the rod to play the deluded victim, 

 his countenance, particularly if victorious, exhibited 

 more satisfaction than I believe it would have done if 

 he had made thousands of dollars. Fishing legiti- 

 mate fishing with rod and fly requires but to be 

 known and practised to have more votaries than any 

 other sport extant. 



That afternoon I killed four more fish, all worthy of 



