CHAPTER XVIII 



GAME FISHES OF SPAIN, FRANCE AND 

 PORTUGAL 



' Oh ! not in camp or court 

 Our best delights we find, 

 But in the far resort 

 With water, wood and wind. 

 Where Nature works 

 And beauty lurks 

 In all her craft enshrined.' 



Stodda/rt. 



IT was Ebeu G. Scott who said, ' The forest, the ocean, the 

 desert, these are where exhausted Antaeus renews his 

 strength at the touch of mother earth ; the sky, the winds, the 

 waters, the trees, the rocks, the stars, these are the counsellors 

 that feelingly persuade Mm what he is.'' How true this is every 

 true angler knows, and knows well, whether he is 



' Wading down some purling brook in June, 

 Where the mountain laurel and the wild rose is just abloom,' 



or breasting the strong winds along a rocky shore, or following 

 up some deep canon in the mountains where the soft wind whispers 

 in the pines a requiem that fills the air with incense. It matters 

 little where the angler is, he is sure to possess that love of the 

 open, of the uncontaminated, that enables him to renew his 

 strength at the touch of wind or waters. The angler sees things 

 that no one else can. He has a second and a third sight ; inani- 

 mate things in their deepest perversity are often a joy ; and he 

 revels in the fact that all the good things of nature are his to 

 enjoy and to own. I know not how it is with the gentle reader 

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