4 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



And the experience of the past is that of to-day 

 not among the eminent alone, but among the 

 lowly as well, who find pure delight and refresh- 

 ing recreation in quiet forests and by the side of 

 crystal waters, with no other companions than rod 

 and reel, singing birds and summer zephyrs. " As 

 Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, i Doubtless God 

 could have made a better berry, but doubtless God 

 never did ;' and so, if I may be judge, God did 

 never make a more calm, quiet, innocent recrea- 

 tion than Angling." 



But it would be an inexcusable exaggeration to 

 assume that this strong liking grows upon those 

 who only engage in the grosser departments of the 

 art. The greatest enthusiast soon wearies of bait 

 and troll as lures for pike and pickerel, or sun fish 

 and perch. As coarse food palls on the palate, so 

 the love of angling soon dies out unless it reaches 

 up to the higher plane of trout and salmon, lured by 

 the tiny fly, kept in check by the gossamer-like 

 leader, and conquered by the skillful manipulation 

 of the slender rod, which curves to the pressure as 

 gracefully as the tall pine to the blast of the tem- 

 pest. It is only in this higher department of the 

 art that the angler finds the witchery of his voca- 

 tion and the octegenarian the ecstacy which gives 

 to him ever increasing pleasure and delight. If 

 the fascinating art had no other commendation 



