AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
ill 
ANGLING. 
[The following treatise on Angling, compiled from the 
works of several eminent writers, is respectfully submit- 
ted to those who feel interested in this most delightful 
amusement.] 
There is not, perhaps, a greater variety in the faces, than 
in the favourite pursuits of men. And this variety, which 
in many cases seems extraordinary, and almost unaccount- 
able, conduces as much to the happiness of the individual, 
as to the advantages of nations. This reflection naturally 
arises in the mind of the attentive observer, when he sees 
the enthusiasm with which many, and even those of lively 
tempers, pursue angling as an amusement. That a man 
should have a fondness for the active and inspiring toils of 
the chace, is what all, except lethargic people, can con- 
ceive; but that any, and particularly among the young, 
should take delight in merely throwing a line, and standing 
for hours poring upon a piece of water, seems to most men 
perfectly strange. Yet we all know there are many who 
follow this apparently dull, tedious and languid amusement, 
with a perseverance that nothing can overcome, and even 
with the poignancy of enjoyment which the shooter re- 
ceives, when he finds birds in abundance, or the hunter, 
when he follows the hounds in full cry after the fox, who 
has broke cover. 
Angling, however, though it would be a severe punish- 
ment to those who have no taste for it, from what they 
consider its dullness, must be admitted by all to be at least 
a most healthful exercise. Perhaps none is more capable 
of retoning a stomach which has been weakened by luxury. 
Its power to produce hunger is well known to all anglers. 
This arises partly from the exercise, the sharpness of the 
air on the banks of streams, and from being in sight of so 
much of what raises only the idea of quenching thirst. To 
those whose constitutions have been enervated by a too 
sedentary life, or by dissipation, we would earnestly re- 
commend it, as it does not, like most other rural amuse- 
ments, over-fatigue by the violence of exercise required. 
It affords a gentle exercise which, with the free circulation 
of pure air on the banks of trout streams, or large rivers, 
lends to recruit nature, and re-invigorate the system, by a 
sure, though a slow progress. 
There is a considerable degree of skill and experience 
required to find out the various kinds of flies that frequent 
certain streams, and to make artificial ones like them, or 
to prepare those kinds of bait the best calculated to allure 
the harmless fishes to their destruction. The scientific an- 
gler likewise knows well the influence of certain states of 
the atmosphere, cloudy or clear, in his art; what degree of 
warmth or cold, is best, or from which point the wind must 
blow, and how high or low, or what state the stream should 
be in after much rain, in order to insure success. With 
respect to the rapid trout streams of the north, the angler 
never fails to prepare his fishing tackle, when they have been 
in a state of red flood, to be ready, when they return to what 
