8 THE INFLUENCE OF 



watches carefully every motion, and treats its 

 weight by giving line, knowing at the same time — 

 none better — when the full force of the butt is to 

 be unflinchingly applied. Does not this sort of 

 training have an effect on character ? Will not a 

 man educated in fly-fishing find developed in him 

 the tendency to be patient, to be persevering, and 

 to know how to adapt himself to circumstances. 

 Whatever be the fish he is playing, whatever be his 

 line, will he not know when to yield and when to 

 hold fast ? 



But fishing like hunting is solitary. The zealot 

 among fishermen will generally prefer his own com- 

 pany to the society of lookers-on, whose advice 

 may worry him, and whose presence may spoil his 

 sport. The salmon-fisher does not make much of 

 a companion of the gillie who goes with him, and 

 the trouter does best when absolutely alone ; and 

 nothing is so apt to prove a tyrant, and an evil 

 one, as the love of solitude. 



On the other hand, the angler is always under 

 the influence, and able to admire the beauties of 

 nature. Whether he be upon the crag-bound loch 

 or by the sides of the laughing burn of highland 

 countries, or prefer the green banks of southern 

 rivers, he can enjoy to the full the many pleasures 

 which existence alone presents to those who admire 

 nature. And all this exercises a softening in- 



