PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 45 



quest, and that the grand sport of to-day will be 

 excelled by the grander sport of to-morrow. Of 

 no others can it be said more truthfully : 



" Hope springs eternal in the human breast; " 



hope not merely to capture the best of the fish for 

 which he is angling, but hope that at some time not 

 far off he may capture his proper quota of the 

 gamiest fish that swims. During many more than 

 a score of years I have found great pleasure in 

 angling for trout, but at no time in all these years 

 have I ceased to hope that sometime in the golden 

 future kind fortune would favor me with the oppor- 

 tunity to kill a salmon. And at length, after many 

 years of " hope deferred," the opportunity came, 

 the excursion was projected, the waters were 

 reached, the cast was made, hope became fruition 

 and the coveted result was achieved. A great 

 many pleasurable " first times " are jotted upon the 

 memory of every one the merchant's first suc- 

 cessful venture, the lawyer's first case and the poli- 

 tician's first triumph but none of these, nor all of 

 them combined, can compare with the delight which 

 comes to the enthusiastic angler from the rise and 

 swirl and strike and capture of his first salmon. 

 I speak from experience, and propose, for the delec- 

 tation of those who are still hoping, to enter into 

 particulars, not of that single incident alone, but of 



