316 Book of the Black Bass. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



CONDITIONS WHICH GOVERN THE BITING OF FISH. 



" So I hare observed, that if it be a cloudy day, and not ex- 

 treme cold, let the wind sit in what quarter it will, and do its 

 worst, I heed it not." — Izaak Walton. 



To seek to know all the conditions, positive and hypo- 

 thetical, qualifying and exceptional, which govern the 

 " biting " of fish, is about as vain and discouraging a 

 pursuit as the search for the philosopher's stone. 



To know, positively, before leaving one's office, counting- 

 house, or workshop for a day's outing, that it is the day 

 of all others of the season, and that the phase of the moon, 

 the conditions of sky and atmosphere, the direction -and 

 force of the wind, and the temperature and condition of 

 the water are just right to insure success, and to know just 

 what bait or fly to use, and in what portion of the stream 

 to fish, under these conditions, implies a state of knowl- 

 edge that can never be attained by ordinary mortals; and 

 though we are created, "little lower than the angels," it 

 involves a pursuit of knowledge under such extreme diffi- 

 culties that even prescience and onmiscience are but ciphers 

 in the total sum, for it leaves out the most important factor 

 in the calculation — the fish itself. 



Yet, it is in just this hope of reducing the matter to the 

 certainty of a mathematical proposition that some anglers 

 are continually puzzling their own brains, and taxing the 

 patience of their angling friends. 



They imagine that fish, somehow, form an exception to 

 the rest of the animal creation, and are governed in their 



