36 THe Determined Angler 



of season and size may resort to dynamite, and he 

 may not be in sympathy with any of the chivalric 

 means, manners, and methods of any of the worldly 

 matters, but the Angler is not of this stamp. 



Izaak Walton, the father of fishing, never posed for 

 his portrait with half a hundred dead fishes tied to his 

 body. Ferns, feathered friends, flowers, fair skies, 

 fine fishing tackle, and fishes embellished his pictures. 



The fish, to the Angler, is only one feature no 

 doubt the main feature of his favorite pastime, and 

 the killing of the fish is not a pleasant part of his 

 pursuit; the death of the game is, to the Angler, a sad 

 incident, however happy the fisherman may be over 

 the slaughter of his greedy mess, and the Angler, 

 therefore, could not possibly derive the delights of his 

 angling at the sacrifice of the lordly winged creatures 

 he so repeatedly thanks his Master for. 



Who ever read an Angler's story without the song 

 birds in it? The expression "gentle art" is applied to 

 angling and the Angler. Who ever heard of the gentle 

 art of fishing! And angling is a gentle art; so, to prac- 

 tice it, one must be gentle. 



The Angler will not resort to fishing with live bait 

 if the few European artificial flies are excluded from 

 his lures, because he can catch all the fishes his gentle 

 art entitles him to with the flies of home make. 



The artificial flies of England, Scotland, and Ireland 

 are lovely creations of practical as well as beautiful 

 design, and the Angler adores them, but, since his gentle 

 creel can be filled without them, he'll not insist on their 

 importation if it tends in the slightest manner toward 

 the extermination of the very things that make possible 

 the gentle art of angling the birds and the trees, 

 without which the fishes themselves could not survive. 



