196 GLAUCUS; OE, 



side, whose pen is tlie finger of God, whose covers 

 are the fire kingdoms and the star kingdoms, and its 

 leaves the heather-bells, and the polypes of the sea, 

 and the gnats above the summer stream. 



I said just now, that happy was the sportsman 

 who was also a naturalist. And, having once men- 

 tioned these curious water-flies, I cannot help going 

 a little farther, and saying, that lucky is the fisher- 

 man who is also a naturalist. A fan* scientific know- 

 ledge of the flies which he imitates, and of their 

 habits, would often ensure Mm sport, while other 

 men are going home with empty creels. One would 

 have fancied this a self-evident fact ; yet I have 

 never found any sound knowledge of the natural 

 water-flies which haunt a given stream, except among 

 cunning old fishermen of the lower class, who get 

 their living by the gentle art, and bring to inn-doors 

 jjaskets of trout killed on flies, which look as if they 

 had been tied with a pair of tongs, so rough and 

 ungainly are they ; and which, nevertheless, kill, 

 simply because they are (in colour, which is all that 

 fish really care for) exact likenesses of some obscure 



