180 DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROCEEDING. 



fish ; or otherwise, perhaps he may lay it down upon 

 the bank, and quietly seating himself by its side, feel 

 for his tobacco-pouch, and enjoy his olium cum dignitate, 

 until a tug at the line announces that some subaqueous 

 stranger demands an interview. I have seen an avaricious 

 old gentleman (a retired tradesman, of course) thus busily 

 superintending the operations of half a dozen rods ; but 

 his imagination was roaming more in the direction of 

 the frying-pan than the sport. Another, donning his 

 float and line, betakes himself to some smooth and 

 retired deep, and attentively watches it glide along, 

 until the long-looked-for bob gives notice, telegraph 

 fashion, that an aquatic friend tugs his forelock and bids 

 him good-morning. A third, resolutely resolved to follow 

 nature as his only guide, allows his bait to be swept 

 swiftly along by the current, without either sinkers or 

 other paraphernalia, stubbornly maintaining that it is 

 quite a work of supererogation on the part of the angler 

 to attempt to modify in any way the manner in which 

 a worm is carried down a stream in a state of nature, or 

 to endeavour to guide it into any parts of the water 

 other than where the natural flow of the current will 

 convey it ; assuming that instinct will unerringly direct 

 the fish to lie in wait in such places for their food. And 

 doubtless the opinions of this philosophical practitioner 

 are entitled to a considerable degree of respect, as in 

 small clear rivers it is the method par excellence. A 

 fourth burly-faced gentleman, apparently suffering from 

 an extra amount of internal caloric, and in diametric 

 opposition to every rule of prudence and propriety, will 



