NOTE 9 



unprofitable reverie ; you wake up and find yourself standing in 

 a dream — half seeing, half imagining — under some covert of over- 

 arching branches, where the stream flows black and broad among 

 rocks, whose moss is green above the water, and dark below it. 

 . . . But we must hasten on. A few more spotted spoils are 

 awaiting us below. We make the brook again. We pierce the 

 hollow of overhanging bushes — we strike across the patches of 

 sunlight, which grew more frequent as we got lower down towards 

 the plain ; we take our share of tumbles and slips ; we patiently 

 extricate our entangled line again and again, as it is sucked down 

 under some log, or whirled round some network of broken beechen 

 roots protruding from the shore. Here and there we half forget 

 our errand as we break in upon some cove of moss, when our 

 dainty feet halt upon green velvet, more beautiful a thousand 

 times than ever sprung from looms at Brussels or Kidderminster. 

 At length we hear the distant clamour of mills. We have finished 

 the brook. Farewell, wild, wayward, simple stream ! In a few 

 moments you will be grown to a huge mill-pond ; then at work 

 upon its wheel ; then prim and proper, with rufiles on each side, 

 you will walk through the meadows, clatter across the road, and 

 mingle with the More-brook — flow on toward the Housatonic — 

 lost in its depths and breadths. For who will know thy drops in 

 the promiscuous flood ? Or who, standing on its banks, will 

 dream from what scenes thou hast flowed — through what beauty 

 — thyself the most beautiful." 



Such writing as this shows the refined and healthy- 

 tone of the angling literature and taste among our 

 American cousins. With respect to the angling pro- 

 spects of our own country at the present day, they are 

 the most encouraging and hopeful. At no previous time 

 of our history has the amusement been pursued with a 

 keener relish than in the present age; and works on 

 this subject are constantly appearing, which demonstrate 

 the firm hold that it has on the public sentiment and 

 feeling. 



Note to Chaptek I 



Blakey had passed considerably beyond the halfway of life 

 when the foregoing chapter was written, and his pen had been 

 busily employed. Not much wonder, then, that it was the pen of 

 a ready writer. Hence we have him, in these opening sentences, 

 very happily indicating to the reader his methods and style, as 

 an author of repute. We have the evident pains taken in 

 research, the scholarly touch with which everything is invested, 



