ii2 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



The Rev. Dr. Beecher, of New York, as an 

 Angler. I am not quite sure whether this is the 

 celebrated Dr. Henry Ward Beecher or one of 

 his brothers. Mr. Robert Blakey quotes him as 

 having recently (that is in 1853) written a series 

 of delightful papers in the "New York Inde- 

 pendent" on his favourite amusement of angling. 

 Mr. Blakey devotes about seven pages to him. 

 From these pages I will select a few choice 

 bits. 



" Still further north is another stream, some- 

 thing larger, and much better or worse, accord- 

 ing to your luck. It is easy of access and quite 

 unpretending. There is a bit of a pond some 

 twenty feet in diameter, from which it flows, and 

 in that there are five or six half-pound trout, 

 who seem to have retired from active life and 

 given themselves to meditation in this liquid 

 convent. They are very tempting, but quite un- 

 temptable. Standing afar off we selected an irre- 

 sistible fly, and with a long line we sent it pat 

 into the very place. It fell like a snowflake. No 

 trout should have hesitated a moment. The 

 morsel was delicious. . . . We cast our fly again 

 and again; we drew it hither and thither; we 

 made it skip and wriggle ; we let it fall plash 

 like a surprised miller, and our audience 

 calmly beheld our feats. . . . Again changing 

 place, we will make an ambassador of a grass- 

 hopper. 



" Catching Grasshoppers. That is in itself no 

 slight feat. The first step you take at least forty 

 bolt out and tumble headlong into the grass; 



