134 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



weed is to see a comical embodiment of disgust, 

 astonishment and despair. His bewailment and 

 self-upbraidings find expression in the unspoken 

 thought : " With a little more care how different 

 ' it might have been.' 3: All salmon fishers have 

 passed through this experience and understand it. 

 No others can, however graphically described. 

 Did not the poet have this picture in his mind 

 when he wrote : 



Then she took up her burden of life again, 



Saying only: " It might have been." 



God pity them both and pity us all 



Who vainly the dreams of our youth recall ; 



For of all the sad words of tongue or pen, 



The saddest are these: " It might have been." 



There is but one sound in nature, animate or 

 inanimate, which at all resembles the whir of a 

 reel when in full play the rattling trill of a king- 

 fisher when on the wing. It is a singular coinci- 

 dence that the music of the best angler known to 

 ornithology finds its most perfect counterpart 

 in that which man finds indispensable to his 

 successful pursuit of a pastime that constitutes its 

 life-long vocation. This bird most abounds on 

 swift-running waters. They are in great numbers 

 on the Cascapedia, and more than once my reel 

 and this feathered angler have joined in a duet, to 

 my great amusement and delight. They were in 

 as perfect accord as if brought into concert pitch 

 by the hand of the same master. 



