FISHING 39 



" canoehial bliss," when the female wasp of the 

 establishment unexpectedly became the happy 

 mother of thirty fine boy grubs, several of 

 whom it was rightly deemed permissible to 

 make use of as ground-bait. 



From that moment the Ark was always well 

 provided with fresh food; its human inhabi- 

 tants spent many happy hours fishing over the 

 side, and, like that eminent British angler 

 whose name is now a household word (though 

 for the moment I cannot recollect it), found 

 this edifying pastime " a rest to the mind, a 

 cheerer of the spirits, a diverter of sadness, a 

 moderator of passions, a producer of contented- 

 ness, and a begetter of those habits of peace 

 and perseverance upon which so much of human 

 felicity depends." 



Thus it was that fishing became a universally 

 popular pursuit; Japhet's creel fell upon the 

 shoulders of a long line of worthy successors, 

 from St. Peter to Sir Henry Wotton, from 

 Mr. Isaac Walton to Sir Edward Grey and Mr. 

 Harry Tate, and thence to my uncle, Sir Noel 

 Biffin, than who (or " whom," if you prefer 

 to be ungrammatical) no modern angler ever 

 watched a float or impaled a worm upon a 

 bent pin with greater patience or precision. 



