136 AMERICAN GAME. 



length into a subject so intricate and so full of details, 

 as the habits and nature of trout, their haunts, habita- 

 tions, and all the various devices for taking them which 

 have been invented by the ingenuity of man. 



Of fresh water fish, they have been in all ages consid- 

 ered the best on the board ; and, as fish of game, none 

 except others of their own family, such as the salmon, 

 the salmon-trout, the grayling, and one variety of the 

 lake-trout, are worthy of comparison to them; bold, 

 active, and fierce in pursuit of their prey, voracious in 

 their appetites, so cunning and quick-sighted that they 

 can be deceived only by the finest of tackle, and the 

 most exquisite imitations of the flies on which they feed 

 by preference ; so vigorous, determined and savage in 

 their resistance to the hook after being struck, that they 

 can be mastered only by a rare combination of science 

 and skill, of delicacy and firmness, of perseverance and 

 resources ; the capture of the brook-trout with the arti- 

 ficial fly and single gut, or single horse-hair, which must 

 be had recourse to where the streams are fine and the 

 fish shy, is the very ne plus ultra, and has ever been so 

 indisputably admitted, of the anglers' art. The imple- 

 ments are a light twelve-foot rod, very pliable and 

 springy, and bending on a strain, in an even curve from 

 the second joint to the tip I prefer a solid butt, which 

 gives more power in leverage and resistance against a 

 strong run-away fish, and the spare tips can be carried 

 in. the handle of the landing-net, or gaff a good click 



