584 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



for a little fishing. May-be he has never read what William 

 Howitt says, in his " Rural Life in England," about fishing 

 alone. It will come home to every quiet fly-fisher. See what 

 an unveiling of the heart it is, when the angler is alone with 

 God and Nature. 



" People that-have not been innoculated with the true spirit 

 may wonder at the infatuation of anglers but true anglers 

 leave them very contentedly to their wondering, and follow 

 their diversions with a keen delight. Many old men there 

 are of this class that have in them a world of science not 

 science of the book, or of regular tuition, but the science of 

 actual experience. Science that lives, and will die with them ; 

 except it be dropped out piecemeal, and with the gravity be- 

 coming its importance, to some young neophyte who has won 

 their good graces by his devotion to their beloved craft. All 

 the mysteries of times and seasons, of baits, flies of every 

 shape and hue ; worms, gentles, beetles, compositions, or sub- 

 stances found by proof to possess singular charms. These 

 are a possession which they hold with pride, and do not hold 

 in vain. After a close day in the shop or factory, what a 

 luxury is a fine summer evening to one of these men, follow- 

 ing some rapid stream, or seated on a green bank, deep in 

 grass and flowers, pulling out the spotted Trout, or resolutely 

 but subtilely bringing some huge Pike or fair Grayling from 

 its lurking place beneath the broad stump and spreading 

 boughs of the alder. Or a day, a summer's day, to such a 

 man, by the Dove or the Wye, amid the pleasant Derbyshire 

 hills ; by Yorkshire or Northumbrian stream ; by Trent or 

 Tweed ; or the banks of Yarrow ; by Teith or Leven, with 

 the glorious hills and heaths of Scotland around him. Why, 

 such a day to such a man, has in it a life and spirit of enjoy - 

 ment to which the feelings of cities and palaces are dim. The 

 heart of such a man the power and passion of deep felicity 



