58 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



some thoughtful philosopher has said, that " half 

 the joy of old age consists in the recollection of 

 the pleasures of youth." 



A single incident in the experience of Chief 

 Justice RITCHIE is especially worth mentioning. 

 Near the close of a day of fine sport he struck a 

 thirty-pound salmon, which he tried in vain to 

 kill before nightfall. It is a herculean task, re- 

 quiring the highest skill and every possible favor- 

 ing opportunity, to capture such a fish. The chan- 

 ces are always against success at the best. But the 

 venerable Chief found himself tied to this monster 

 long after twilight had ceased to fall upon the face 

 of the waters. The pool, always dark in its great 

 depths, soon became black as a starless midnight. 

 There were rocks on either side of him, rushing 

 waters above him and boiling rapids below him. 

 His line was invisible, and the only perceptible 

 sign of life around him or before him, was the 

 tugging and rushing of the maddened salmon fight- 

 ing for his life amid the thick darkness which every 

 where prevailed. Under any circumstances, the 

 venerable angler would rather, a thousand times, 

 subject himself to the merciless criticisms which 

 a wrong judicial decision might provoke, than to 

 lose a fish. But under the circumstances in which, 

 at this time, he was surrounded, he would rather 

 have taken that fish than to have been placed on 



