EQUIPMENT OF THE AN GLEE. 11 



Enough has been said systematically about trout and salmon. 

 I shall therefore reserve the proofs of the correctness of these 

 opinions for the chapters in which I examine each river, brook, 

 and lake, placing the angler by the banks, opposite some favourite 

 and killing stream; his basket full of fish, he may, if he so 

 choose, compare this book with Nature. 



II. 



The material and equipment of an angler are not matters of 

 indifference. Should he reside near the banks of trouting 

 streams, the angler gradually degenerates into a mere pot- 

 angler ; he is fishing unconsciously for the kettle ; neither is he 

 very particular as to the time when, with salmon roe, or otter, 

 or with worm, he chances to kill some stone weight of trout, 

 emptying the stream for a period, rendering it worthless for the 

 season, and interfering sadly with the one to come. In '51 he 

 draws, a la Napoleon, the conscripts of '53, forestalling Nature's 

 supplies. Such a person is no true angler ; he does not rush from 

 the smoky town, where, long pent up, debarred from fresh air, 

 exercise, and the contemplation of Nature's work, he has 

 become an idler and a triiler. I write not for him, neither 

 should he have a cottage of mine near a trouting stream at any 

 price. I write for him who, dwelling in towns, amidst what, in 

 courtesy, I presume, to man's taste, is called a civilized humanity, 

 becomes at last weary of the commonplace of every -day life : for 

 him whom the carpeted room, the morning paper, the ample 

 library, the well-supplied table, the pleasant social converse of 

 educated friends have ceased to please : for him who instinctively 

 feels that, ceasing to be a man as Nature made him, he is be- 

 coming a citizen a cit ! Abhorred word ! I would rather 

 dwell, as I once did, amidst the wild and now desolate dells of 

 the Anatolo, leading at the base of the beauteous Boschberg 

 the life of the wandering Caffre, than listlessly pace London's 

 idly busy streets, with nothing to look at but miles of hideous 

 brick walls, with holes in them called doors and windows. 

 Odious commonplace ! you mask humanity, and mar the better 

 part of human nature. 



I shall suppose the angler about to proceed to some angling 

 station, there to commence his operations of at least a few days 



