FLY-FISHING BY NIGHTLIGHT. 181 
site of the “organ of angling” is actually omitted. 
No elevation appears there to mark the seat of the 
“gentle craft.” Now, of the existence of such a 
“bump,” in some corner or other of the human brain, 
no reasonable doubt can be entertained. To the 
numerous votaries of the craft no appeal on the sub- 
ject need be made. Though unconscious perhaps of 
carrying this particular cerebral development under 
their fishing beaver, they have all felt its excite- 
ments. Otherwise, how indeed should we be able to 
account for that spasmodic twitching of the flexor 
muscles of the hand and forearm to grasp a rod, which 
we have all experienced, when lakes or rivers cross 
our path at home or abroad? The amiable weakness 
too is often most forcibly felt in out-of-the-way places, 
where we are least prepared to indulge its promptings. 
But the “organ” throbs notwithstanding, in un- 
availing pulsations. As it has occurred doubtless 
to many other, so has it happened many times to 
ourselves. Amongst the far-off affluents of the 
Tagus, and the little brook of Balsain flowing down 
from the snows of the Guadarama through the green- 
est of pine-forests to the pleasant summer retreats 
of San Ildefonso, I have often experienced this 
Angleomania in full force. The latter rivulet, in- 
deed, was well calculated to test the activity of the 
latent “bump,” as it gave ocular demonstration of 
containing the largest number of small trout I re- 
