148 TROUT FISHING 



trate itself, and should any particular be at all 

 fading, most vividly will the main features 

 indelibly impressed, recall every minutiae of 

 detail, hallow the whole with a sweet fascination, 

 and be to us a present ecstasy of past enjoyment. 



Ah ! reader, brother Devonian, your sweet 

 garden is indeed a Paradise ; grander magnifi- 

 cence of country we may know, but give me your 

 sweet little dales and hillocks, your little brooks 

 and furze bushes, your homely air and welcome, 

 joyous, happy aspect, in preference to the austere 

 snowy ranges, the frowning mountains, and the 

 pompous state of majestic rivers, vast plains, and 

 impenetrable forests the whole so reserved, so 

 distant, so difficult of intimate acquaintance, 

 demanding such laborious toil even to approach 

 their presence, that you feel amongst what is un- 

 congenial, unfriendly, overwhelming, and exclu- 

 sive. Ay, but the little stream is dancing, the 

 music of the falls is heard; we must be off to our 

 sport, and retrace our devious course to where we 

 began to digress. 



This mode of fishing with the beetle on the 

 middle-sized streams, as the double water, is de- 

 structive and exciting thus walking up through 

 the centre of the stream and fishing against it, 

 your line and collar together should not exceed 

 the length of the rod, indeed if your collar is the 

 length I have recommended you will have no line 

 out sometimes you will want a little greater 

 length to reach some good fish, but this rarely 

 happens, and never should be done with the ideii 



