X THE THAME.S. 309 



to catch the creature which but yesterday he was as- 

 serting had so little brains. The brain of the fish is 

 quite sufficient to keep him off the professor's hook, 

 angle he never so wisely. For my own part, I have 

 often been laughed at for bad sport. Returning from 

 fishing one cold winter's day, when the jack were 

 not on the run, I met. a foxhunter coming home from 

 a run across country. " Why," said he, " Buckland, 

 you never bring home a fish, and you are always 

 fishing : it is very extraordinary." " Not at all," I 

 replied ; "you are always out hunting, my friend, and 

 I never yet saw you bring home a fox." 



There is a species of harmless monomania peculiar 

 to anglers, which others, who have not been bitten by 

 it, can by no means appreciate. The angler will walk 

 miles, and then fish all day ; he will go through all 

 sorts of hardships and difficulties for the sake of 

 catching fish ; and when he has got them, and shown 

 them for this is a great part of the fun he often 

 does not know what to do with them, unless, of 

 course, he happens, lucky man, to be in a trout or 

 salmon country. Again, there may be often plenty 

 of fish, and tlwy ivon't bite ; alas, how often does the 

 angler sing this melancholy song ! The Cockney fish 

 about London have had their noses pricked by the 

 hook too often, and know the smell of cobbler's wax 

 and varnish too well to be caught by anybody wh<> 

 holds a " wand," as the Scot calls a fishing-rod. Some- 



