28 Salmon Fishing. 



the common every-day practice each butcher is 

 constrained to follow, in the slaughter of sheep 

 and cattle. Whereas now, what, with the wild 

 scenery, the bracing air, the difficulties to be 

 surmounted, the inch by inch creeping and 

 crawling through all that stands in the way ; 

 the fancy of the most enthusiastic can scarcely 

 fail of finding enough food to gratify his taste, 

 and keep him on the tenter hooks of excitement, 

 till the fatal rifle has performed its work. 



Were the mere killing of fish our prime 

 motive, half a dozen flies would probably do 

 as well as a hundred. But in the larger supply 

 lies a fund of matter for discussion not devoid 

 of deep interest to the salmon-fisher in general. 

 When men meet men together, the subjects 

 most congenial to them at the time invariably 

 have the precedence in their conversation. Of 

 politics and religion, how entire an absorption of 

 the thoughts does the subject involve ! How 

 powerfully is the play of the passions put in 

 motion by it ! Joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, 



