236 Fisuinc iv American WATERS. 
took my fly. Well, thought I, salmon of such great size, in 
so large and rapid a river, should be fished for with leaders 
or casting-lines of double gut all the way. I will return to 
tent, and try to rig gut leaders to hold them. 
The situation of our ménage began to look inviting; and 
with the birch bark gathered by our gaffers, and the ilus- 
trated papers and magazines, our log cabin and dining-room 
were cheerfully ornamented by the ladies, and the menu of 
our dinner would not have dishonored a metropolitan hotel. 
The gaffers’ shanty was finished, and the evisine attractively 
arranged in order. After dinner, numerous sentiments wor- 
thy of the day we were commemorating—it being the glori- 
ous Fourth of July —were given, and we made the welkin 
ring with shouts and music. 
The evening was spent in tying flies, and concluded by ex- 
amining the lunar bow through the smoke of a camp-fire and 
the bottoms of our punch-glasses until the near approach of 
midnight, when we retired to fight again the battles of the 
day in our dreams, and to mingle in them the faces of be- 
loved ones far awe. 
SECTION SIXTH. 
HISTORY AND RUMINATION. 
Neither the Greeks nor Romans knew any thing about an- 
gling for salmon. The Saxons knew not the real luxury of 
angling. A thorough appreciation of angling can only be 
known by man civilized. ‘Catch who catch can” is the 
motto by which savages are guided, and the surest means of 
killing game is to them the best. Savages kill solely to eat. 
They know no better, and lack the genius of the civilized 
poacher to invent stake and concealed nets. Civilization en- 
ables the true sportsman to adopt suitable means to secure 
sport, and as civilized men enjoy a more prosperous condition 
than savages, they are not so dependent on the fish or game 
they take or kill. Hence the sportsmen of the civilized world 
can afford to give the animal pursued some fair-play “law,” 
