Fish Philosophy evolved. 183 



dam, and ever and anon, as one fell on tlie water, a trout 

 rose very gracefully and swallowed it, turning quickly down, 

 and causing a whirl made by his caudal train, which had so 

 excited me when I first looked upon the pool. With assidu- 

 ity I commenced examining my flies in search of an ash 

 midge. I soon found a pair, and, placing one on as my stretch- 

 er, the first cast I made with it fastened a three-pound trout, 

 played and landed it. The next cast I fastened another, hut 

 so slightly that the hook parted from his mouth. Two or 

 three more casts assured me that the shoal " smelt a rat ;" 

 and as minks, muskrats, and flies with hooked tails are their 

 terror, I adjourned to another pool, and did not return to the 

 dam until n^rly night, when I took the conceit out of four 

 more beauties ; but, after playing the fifth nearly half an hour, 

 he made a rush for the rapids, and went over the chute, car- 

 rying away my casting - line. Having captured five, and 

 played two more trout that day, I felt satisfied. I had for 

 years contended that trout might be taken with artificial fly 

 when in feeding humor, but I had never before found them so 

 fastidious or discriminative. Since then, Mr. James Stephens, 

 of Hoboken, and myself, hired a trout-pond in Connecticut, 

 and though I fished it three days, and Mr. Stephens three 

 weeks, yet neither of us succeeded in capturing one with the 

 fly. Neither would they take a minnow, while they rose 

 freely to angle and grub worms, cast, without sinker, as a fly. 

 On the last day of my visit to the pond I saw the trout rush- 

 ing furiously after tadpoles ; but, as I had not time to re- 

 main and try that bait, I probably lost a treat, for I have 

 since heard that it is the favorite lure for trout in some parts 

 of the state. Indeed, the fish-culturists of France propagate 

 frogs, that the trout may feed on tadpoles. 



The angler, on making, a lengthy tour for sport, can not 

 have too great a number or variety of artificial flies. He can 

 procure them at the principal fishing-tackle establishments 

 in New York, where competition has so sharpened invention 

 and enterprise that the best flies and fly-tiers are imported. 



