AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



Ill 



ANGLING. 



[The following treatise on Angling, compiled from the 

 works of several eminent writers, is respectfully submit- 

 ted to those who feel interested in this most delightful 

 amusement.] 



There is not, perhaps, a greater variety in the faces, than 

 in the favourite pursuits of men. And this variety, which 

 in many cases seems extraordinarj?, and almost unaccount- 

 able, conduces as much to the happiness of the individual, 

 as to the advantages of nations. This reflection naturally 

 arises in the mind of the attentive observer, when he sees 

 the enthusiasm with which many, and even those of lively 

 tempers, pursue angling as an amusement. That a man 

 should have a fondness for the active and inspiring toils of 

 the chase, is what all, except lethargic people, can con- 

 ceive; but that any, and particularly among the young, 

 should take delight in merely throwing a line, and standing 

 for hours poring upon a piece of water, seems to most men 

 perfectly strange. Yet we all know there are many who 

 follow this apparently dull, tedious andlanguid amusement, 

 with a perseverance that nothing can overcome, and even 

 with the poignancy of enjoyment which the shooter re- 

 ceives, when he finds birds in abundance, or the hunter, 

 when he follows the hounds in full cry after the fox, who 

 has broke cover. 



Angling, however, though it would be a severe punish- 

 ment to those who have no taste for it, from what they 



consider its dullness, must be admitted by all to be at least 

 a most healthful exercise. Perhaps none is more capable 

 of retoning a stomach which has been weakened by luxury. 

 Its power to produce hunger is well known to all anglers. 

 This arises partly from the exercise, the sharpness of the 

 air on the banks of streams, and from being in sight of so 

 much of what raises only the idea of quenching thirst. To 

 those whose constitutions have been enervated by a too 

 sedentary life, or by dissipation, we would earnestly re- 

 commend it, as it does not, like most other rural amuse- 

 ments, over-fatigue by the violence of exercise required. 

 It affords a gentle exercise which, with the free circulation 

 of pure air on the banks of trout streams, or large rivers, 

 tends to recruit nature, and re-invigorate the system, by a 

 sure, though a slow progress. 



There is a considerable degree of skill and experience 

 required to find out the various kinds of flies that frequent 

 certain streams, and to make artificial ones like them, or 

 to prepare those kinds of bait the best calculated to allure 

 the harmless fishes to their destruction. The scientific an- 

 gler likewise knows well the influence of certain states of 

 the atmosphere, cloudy or clear, in his art; what degree of 

 warmth or cold, is best, or from which point the wind must 

 blow, and how high orJovv, or what state the stream should 

 be in after much rain, in order to insure success. With 

 respect to the rapid trout streams of the north, the angler 

 never fails to prepare his fishing tackle, when they have been 

 in a state of red flood, to be ready, when they return to what 



