ATTRACTIONS OF ANGLING. 5 



shooting and hunting, the dogs do the observation 

 and the reasoning part of the business, and the 

 sportsmen the mechanical ; but the angler has not 

 only to find out where his fish are but to catch 

 them, and that not by such a " knock-me-down " 

 method as is practised upon some unfortunate black- 

 cock or unwary hare, but by an art of deception. 

 The angler's wits, in fact, are brought into direct 

 competition with those of the fish, which very often, 

 judging from the result, prove the better of the 

 two. 



Besides the mere pleasure of fishing, however, 

 angling has more varied attractions than almost any 

 other amusement. To the lover of nature no sport 

 affords so much pleasure. The grandest and most 

 picturesque scenes in nature are to be found on the 

 banks of rivers and lakes. The angler, therefore, 

 enjoys the finest scenery the country offers ; and, 

 whereas other sportsmen are limited to particular 

 places and seasons, he can follow his vocation alike 

 on lowland stream or highland loch, and during the 

 whole six months in which the country is most in- 

 viting. From April, with her budding trees and 

 singing birds, to May and June, with their meadows 

 decked with the daisy and the primrose, and breezes 

 scented with the hawthorn and wild thyme, and on 

 to autumn, with her "fields white unto the harvest," 

 he sees all that is beautiful all that is exhilarat- 

 ing all that is grand and elevating in this world of 

 ours, which, whatever people may say, is not such a 



