PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 233 



sensible trout " out of his propriety." But, some- 

 how such fellows do lure fish to their ponderous 

 bait ; and that they do so is the strongest evidence 

 that could possibly be given of the abundance of 

 trout still remaining in these waters. 



But lest, from what I have said of my want of 

 success at this favorite spot on this occasion, some 

 who remember it as pleasantly as I do myself, may 

 heave a sigh of regret at its degeneracy, I had better 

 say right here, although a little out of consecutive 

 order, that on my return three weeks afterward, I 

 found it to be " all my fancy painted it," and all 

 my long previous experience had found it to be. 

 It was getting well on in the afternoon, we had 

 ten miles to row, and I was as nearly satiated with 

 angling as I ever expect to be, but I could not fore- 

 go the opportunity to make a cast or two as we 

 dashed through the rapids homeward. The first 

 throw brought a fine fish to the surface. I struck 

 him as gently as the law of angling permits, and 

 duly landed him. Another and another and an- 

 other, in rapid succession, came at my call with a 

 promptness and a rush which renders this last half 

 hour of my three weeks' fishing a very pleasant 

 memory. A dozen, gorgeous in their beauty, lay 

 at my feet with a dozen more " making the water 

 boil" in their eagerness to "get in out of the 

 wet ; " but I had no use for them, and with a 



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