PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 5 



than this, that the pleasure which it affords never 

 abates but grows in attractiveness and intensity 

 with every repetition, it would be worthy of culti- 

 vation, and should commend itself to all who deem 

 it possible for old age to have some more tangible 

 joy than that afforded by the barren recollections 

 of the distant past. 



Nor is it alone during the all too brief period 

 in which he is actually engaged in whipping the 

 rivers and bagging the spoil that the angler de- 

 rives delight from his art. Weeks before it is 

 practicable to visit " the woods," or proper to even 

 attempt to "entice the finny tribe from their 

 aqueous element," the chronic angler finds exquis- 

 ite delectation in the needful preparation for his 

 sojourn 



Where lakes and rills and rivulets do flow; 

 The lofty woods, the forests wide and long, 



Adorned with leaves, and branches fresh and green, 

 In whose cool bowers the birds with many a song 



Do welcome with their choir the Summer's Queen; 

 The meadows fair, where Flora's gifts among 



Are intermixed, with verdant grass between ; 

 The silver-scaled fish that softly swim 

 Within the sweet brook's crystal watery stream. 



The recollection of what has been and the an- 

 ticipation of what is to be; the quiet discourse 

 of men with like tastes, of past successes and of an- 

 ticipated triumphs ; reminiscences of river and 

 lake and forest and camp-fire, make up a series of 

 prospective and retrospective pleasures akin to 



