CHAR. 255 



influence of wealth, power, or private favour, 

 is yet highly advantageous, and even essen- 

 tial to the existence of a free country ; and, 

 useful as it may be to the population, it is 

 still more useful to the government, to 

 whom, as expressing the voice of the people, 

 though not always vox Dei, it may be re- 

 garded as oracular or prophetic. But let 

 us change our conversation, which is neither 

 in time nor place. 



PHYS. The char* is a most beautiful 

 and excellent fish, and is, of course, a fish 

 of prey. Is he not an object of sport to the 

 angler ? 



HAL. They generally haunt deep cool 

 lakes, and are seldom found at the surface 

 till late in the autumn. When they are at 

 the surface they will, however, take either 

 fly or minnow. I have known some caught 

 in both these ways ; and have myself taken 

 a char, even in summer, in one of those 

 beautiful, small, deep lakes in the Upper 

 Tyrol, near Nazereit; but it was where a 



* Sailing of the Germans. 



