FISHES. 
49 
sixty, and even seventy pounds, and that Salmon 
of this weight yield to the skilful angler, with 
a diminutive artificial fly, a thin silkworm-gut 
line, and a rod of pieces lighter and more limber 
than a lady's riding wand,” we may well say that 
the fly-fishing art is one fully worthy of the 
sportsman’s enthusiasm. 
The charges of cruelty and frivolity have been 
often brought against angling by those who have 
taken no interest in its gentle excitement. ' From 
the former we fear it cannot entirely be cleared, 
at least so long as living vertebrate animals, 
whether frog, fish, or mouse, are used as bait. 
But adepts in the art have maintained that these 
are not necessary, mimic representations being 
made sufficiently true, to answer every purpose 
of the troller. The accusation of frivolity seems 
no more applicable to this than to any other 
recreation, while it has recommendations pecu- 
liarly its own. A host of brilliant names might 
be cited among the lovers of angling, especially 
of its highest branch, fly-fishing. To one of 
these we shall confide its defence, himself an able 
master of the art, and a pleasing describer of its 
charms. 
The search after food,” remarks Sir Hum- 
phrey Davy, is an instinct belonging to our 
nature ; and, from the savage in his rudest and 
most primitive state, who destroys a piece of 
game or a fish with club or spear, to man in the 
most cultivated state of society, who employs 
artifice, machinery, and the resources of various 
other animals, to secure his object, the origin of 
the pleasure is similar, and its object the same. 
That kind of skill, however, which requires most 
E 
