END OF THE ANGLING SEASON. 215 



sportsman; affording no play when hooked, and 

 no satisfaction when caught. In other respects 

 also angling is divested of half its charms ; there 

 is nothing cheering, nothing invigorating, in a 

 ramble by a river's side. The angler's path is 

 not now adorned with the daisy and the violet, or 

 scented with the perfume of innumerable wild 

 flowers ; and the singing of the birds, and the hum 

 of the mountain-bee, are replaced by the sighing 

 of the wind among leafless branches, or along a 

 bleak hill-side. Nature is fast resuming her wintry 

 aspect, and 



" When chill November's surly blast 

 Makes fields and forests bare," 



the angler who has followed his vocation in the joy- 

 ous spring-time, and again when the summer's sun 

 throws his rich glories over mountain and valley, 

 and has continued with undiminished ardour when 

 the breezes play cooler, 



" And Autumn's soberer hues 

 Tint the ripe fruit, and gild the waving corn," 



will not lose much by bidding adieu to the streams 

 for the season, and awaiting, with thankfulness for 

 the past, and bright hopes for the future, the coming 

 of another spring. 



