THE FASCINATION 195 



it, that makes angling for trout worth while. 

 Furthermore, as was emphasized in the preceding 

 chapter, it is neither the full creel nor the empty, 

 that renders some days "successful" and others 

 "failures." Then, what is it? 



Says that incomparable writer, Henry Van 

 Dyke, in "Fisherman's Luck" (surely every 

 true angler owns and loves the book) : "What 

 enchantment binds them to that inconsiderable 

 spot? What magic fixes their eyes upon the 

 point of a fishing-rod, as if it were the finger of 

 destiny? It is the enchantment of uncertainty: 

 the same natural magic that draws the little sub- 

 urban boys in the spring of the year, with their 

 strings and pin hooks, around the shallow ponds 

 where dace and redfins hide; the same irresistible 

 charm that fixes a row of city gamins, like ragged 

 and disreputable fish-crows, on the end of a pier 

 where blear-eyed flounders sometimes lurk in the 

 muddy water. Let the philosopher explain it 

 as he will. Let the moralist apprehend it as he 

 chooses. There is nothing that attracts human 

 nature more powerfully than the sport of tempt- 

 ing the unknown with a fishing-line." 



We will pass Van Dyke's assertion without 

 comment, for we know that the Lure of the Un- 

 known is very real and potential, and turn our 



