CHAPTER VIII 



THE HOGFISH 



" And there were crystal pools, peopled with fish, 

 Argent and gold ; and some of Tyrian skin, 



Some crimson-barred." 



THOMAS HOOD. 



THE angler is a true lover of nature ; were he 

 not the gentle art would flag and die, as in his 

 experience there come dark days when the game 

 for some strange and unreasonable cause will not 

 rise, or sink to the lure. By such periods you 

 shall know the true rodsman, as when the fish 

 refuse to bite he finds solace in a thousand and 

 one objects : the soft sighing of the leaves along 

 some favorite stream ; the gurgle of the water as 

 it flows from pool to pool ; the call of the locust, 

 which " stabs the still air with its shrill alarm " 

 are all understood. If a sea-angler he can 

 " call spirits from the vasty deep " ; the deep blue 

 of the ocean, its many moods, the shadow of 

 clouds upon its surface, the delicate glasslike 

 shapes that drift across his line ; the sounds of 



118 



