DAYS ON THE NEPIGON. 



ished sportsman, otherwise he would have 

 taken better care of his catch. 



He will doubtless expatiate upon his per- 

 formance with unblushing mendacity, and 

 cling to his inflated weights with barnacle 

 tenacity. He personates the man who has 

 looked too long upon the wine when it is 

 red, and sees double. When counting or siz- 

 ing fish, a respectable minority of our brother- 

 hood inspect their catches with magnifying 

 glasses, and their romances seem almost in- 

 spired, while their vision soars in spite of facts 

 and figures, and one realizes that "absolute 

 accuracy is the death of poetry, the prison of 

 the imagination/' and the arch enemy of small 

 fish. 



One cannot fail to applaud the excellent 

 judgment of Munchausen in declining to enter 

 the field of fishing stories; for well he knew 

 the average angler was thoroughly competent 

 to discount his most extravagant and improb- 

 able flights of fancy. I am reminded of 

 Barney Whistler, one of the most notoriously 

 truthful men that ever falsified. A friend 

 7 



