SALMONIC^. 103 



ness arid vigor after being hooked, or his excellence on the table, shall 

 we wonder at the judgment, much less dispute it, which, next to the 

 Salmon only, rates him the first of -fresh^water fishes. The pursuit of 

 him leads us into the loveliest scenery of the land ; the season at 

 which we fish for him is the most delicious, those sweetest months of 

 spring — ^when they are not, as at present, the coldest and most odious 

 of the year — the very name and mention of which is redolent of the 

 breath of. flowers, the violet, the cowslip, and the celandine, which 

 plunge us into a paradise founded upon the rural imaginings of the 

 most exquisite of England's rural bards, until we are recalled from 

 our elysium by a piercing gale from' the. north-east, and perhaps a 

 pelting hail-storm, bidding us crush our wandering fancies, and teach- 

 ing us that spring-time is one of those pleasant things which occurs 

 twice perhaps in a lifetime in the United States of America. 



The habits of the Trout have been already discussed so fully in the 

 earlier part of this, article, as well as the nature of his food, that I 

 .shall defer further mention of these topics, until I come, in the second 

 part^of this volume, to the taking of him with the natural or artificial 

 bait, which is most intimately connected with the consideration of his 

 prey and his haunts, so that in that place these will be most suitably 

 discussed. 



Note to Revised Edition. — For some fartlier particulars as to the size of the 

 Brook Trout, see Supplement. Art. Bronk Trout, Salmo Fontinalis. 



