inch of the stream which you aimed at, and that with as little splash as if it were the descent of the natural insect; there is a certain delicacy of manipulation with which you must use the rod and reel when (happy man!) you actually have hooked a heavy fish; all of which requisites must combine to ensure success. There are the same personal qualities requisite in shooting, billiards, and other exercises of skill, in the use of the turning-lathe, and, as no one knows better than the author of the present work, in the management of philosophical experiments. If thou hast any of this species of alertness of hand and truth of eye in thee, go forth, gentle reader, with "Salmonia" in thy pocket, and return with thy basket more or less heavy in proportion to thy perseverance. But if thou wantest this peculiar knack, we doubt if even the patience that is exercised in a punt above Chelsea bridge would greatly mend thy day's work: though thy dinner depended upon it, thou mayest go on flogging the water from morning till midnight, entangling the hook now in a bush, now in a stem, now driving it through the nose of some brother of the angle, and now through thine own, but not a fin wilt thou basket, whether of bull-trout or minnow; and thou must content | thee with half the definition of the angler, and be the fool at one Эллий Ian end of the stick and string, without the gudgeon at the other.

Indeed, there always seemed to us something magical in this peculiar dexterity, which no chance or advantages of circumstances ever came to balance. The inequality between individual anglers exists to a degree which simple men will not be able to comprehend | from a perusal of "Salmonia." Halieus exhorts his less skilful companion

"Try in that deep pool, below the Tumbling Bay; I see two or three good fish rising there, and there is a lively breeze. The largest fish refuses your fly again and again; try the others. There, you have hooked him; now carry him down stream, and keep his head high, out of the weeds. He plunges and fights with great force;-he is the best fed fish I have yet seen at the end of the line, and will weigh more in proportion to his length. I will land him for you.”—P. 39.

Instant success follows on the adopting of the precept, but, general reader, do not hastily trust that it will be so in real life. We used sometimes to pursue the amusement with an excellent friend now no more, and we still recollect the mortifying distinction between his success and our want of it. With all the kindness and much of the skill of Halieus, he trained us to high adventure:-" Throw where yonder stone breaks the stream; there is a trout behind it"-we obeyed, and hooked the stone itself: "Let your fly fall light on the ripple" we threw, and it fell with the emphasis of a quoit. Our Mentor gave us the choice of his flies, and relinquished in our favour even that which we had seen do instant execution. It seemed as if what in his hands had been a real, animated insect, the live child of

clumsy composition of iron, wool, fur, and feathers. The changing from one to the other bank of the stream in no respect mended the matter, and while trouts came wriggling to the shore as if our companion had charmed them out of the river, we had nothing to struggle with except eel-weeds and alder-roots. In short, there was a spell in it, and we have our suspicions at this moment, that set a bucket of water before our comrade, he would have drawn out a fish, while we, angling in a duke's preserve, might have failed of catching a bane-stickle.

There are, however, those to whom this fatality attaches in a much greater degree than to us, who, after all, were not without having occasionally our lucky days; whereas all men have heard of the fisherman of the Eastern tale, whose persevering ill-fortune first fished up a pannier full of slime, next the carcase of an ass, and taking no warning by these omens, at last dragged out a genie who had like to have wrung his head off. We ourselves know a respected friend whose only attempts at angling were equally ominous with those of this Oriental. In his first experiment, he fished up the carcase of a drowned man; in the second his hook, indeed, was only entangled in the body of a horse, but, which perhaps equalized the two accidents, that horse proved to be his own. We have not heard of his making a third experiment, but we have no doubt that should he be unwise enough to attempt it, the result must be something portentous. Non cuivis, therefore it is not every one who can pursue with success this delightful silvan amusement; there must be, as Tony Lumpkin says, "a concatenation accordingly."

The work before us alarms us on another topic, or rather would have alarmed us, had we acquired the information contained in the following passage, during a more active period of our life. The party of anglers are seated at dinner, a scene which our author understands as well as he does the art of fly-fishing, or the more recondite mysteries of philosophy, and it is after a hearty meal upon fresh salmon, eaten with the salt and water it is boiled in, and some delicate snipes from a Highland morass, that one of the pleasant interlocutors, Ornither, makes a genial proposal for another bottle of claret, observing (most reasonably, as we should have thought, à priori), that a pint per man (Scottish measure, we hope, for the scene lies on Loch Maree) was not too much after such a day's fatigue. To this motion, which we are afraid we might, in our rashness, have seconded, Halieus makes the following unexpected opposition :

"Hal.-You have made me president for these four days, and I forbid it. A half-pint of wine for young men in perfect health is enough, and you will be able to take your exercise better, and feel better for this abstinence. How few people calculate upon the effects of constantly renewed fever in our luxurious system of living in England! The heart is

of wading adopted by some sportsmen, 'whether in shooting or fishing, is delivered either to the hemorrhoidal veins, or what is worse to the head. I have known several free livers who have terminated their lives by apoplexy, or have been rendered miserable by palsy. in consequence of the joint effects of cold feet and too stimulating a diet; that is to say, as much animal food as they could eat, with a pint or perhaps a bottle of wine per day. Be guided by me, my friends, and neither drink nor wade. I know there are old men who have done both and have enjoyed perfect health; but these are devil's decoys to the unwary, and ten suffer for one that escapes. I could quote to you an instance from this very county, one of the strongest men I have ever known. He was not intemperate, but he lived luxuriously, and waded as a salmon fisher for many years in this very river; but before be was fifty, palsy deprived him of the use of his limbs, and he is still a living example of the danger of the system which you are ambitious of adopting.

Orn.-Well, I give up the wine. but I intend to wade in Hancock's boots to-morrow. "Hal-Wear them, but do not wade in them. The feet must become cold in a stream of water constantly passing over the caoutchouc and leather, notwithstanding the thick stockings. They are good for keeping the feet warm, and I think where there is exercise. as in snipe-shooting, may be used without any bad effects. But I advise no one to stand still (which an augler must do sometimes) in the water, even with these ingenious waterproof inventions. All anglers should remember old Boerhaave's maxims of health, and act upon them: Keep the feet warm, and the head cool, and the body open.'"-Pp. 102104

We before hinted that we have had our lucky days, and the most propitious time, both as to the size and number of trouts, were the hours before and after sunset upon the very warmest days of July and August. The large trouts which have lain hid during the whole day are then abroad, for the purpose of food, and take the fly eagerly. These moments,

"When the sun, retiring slowly,
Gives to dews the freshen'd air,"

are still alive in our recollection as green spots in the waste of existence. We recollect with what delight we entered knee-deep into the stream after the heat of a sultry day; the green boughs on the margin scarce waving a leaf to the balmy gale of the evening-the stream which glided past us almost alive with the object of our pursuit the whole a mixture of animal enjoyment, gratified love of sport, with a species of mental repose which enhanced both. This delightful amusement was not to be obtained if, "like the poor cat in the adage," we spared wetting our feet; for the shallowness of the stream, as well as the branches of the trees, impeded our sport, if we could not reach the middle-current with our cast. Neither see we much cause to feel regret or remorse when we add that any little chillness which might arise from pursuing this fascinating sport too late in the evening, was effectually removed by a glass of right Nantz, Schiedam, or Glenlivet; which remedy, if the glass be not too large or filled a second time, we can with a good conscience recommend as a sovereign Specific upon occasions of wet feet.

We will not, however, suppress evidence, though somewhat contradictory of our own, as we happen to recollect an anecdote corroborative of the view taken by Halieus concerning the risk of wading, and at the same time indicative of the passionate hold which the sport of angling maintains over the minds of some individuals, with

(considerably above thirty) since we met in fishing quarters the very pleasing and accomplished gentleman, then engaged in his medical studies, from whom we heard the story.

In a former fishing excursion, such as that in which he was engaged at the time, our friend had observed a follower of the same sport holding his course down the very midst of the small river; and the angler in question was a "noticeable man." He was of uncommon stature a large and portly figure, brandishing with both hands a rod which commanded the stream on either side-while, being immersed to the waist, his fair round belly seemed to project like a dark rock when in the shallow water, and in the deep current to rest and float on the surface of the waters like the hull of some rich argosy.

Our friend could not help looking back more than once at this singular figure, until he suddenly observed the angler quit the stream, get out upon the bank, and hasten towards him with shouts which seemed a signal of distress. On his closer approach, our medical friend observed that the countenance of the fisherman, naturally bluff and jolly, and not unfitted to correspond with the height of his stature and importance of his paunch, seemed disordered and convulsed with pain. He begged earnestly to know if our acquaintance had in his basket a flask with spirits of any kind, complaining, at the same time, of an attack of cramp in the stomach which gave him intolerable agony. This was supplied, with all the benevolence which should subsist between brothers of the angle, according to the instructions of their patriarch, Izaak Walton. When the tall fisherman had experienced the relief which the cordial drop afforded, our informer told him his profession, and enquired whether these attacks were frequent, and whether they seemed constitutional. "Very frequent," answered the lusty edition of "Piscator," "and I am afraid rooted in my system."-"In that case, sir," replied our friend, "allow me to tell you that fishing, or at least wading while you fish, is the most dangerous amusement you could select for yourself."— "I know it," said the poor patient, dejectedly. "Assure yourself," pursued the physician, "that your very life depends upon your forbearing to pursue your sport in the manner you do." The intelligence seemed nothing new to our forlorn angler. "I know it, sir," he said, "I have been told so by the best doctors-but," he added, with an air of stoical yet rueful resignation, that might have graced a man who sacrificed life to some weighty duty, "Heaven's will be done! I cannot live without fishing, and without wading I can never catch a fin." So saying, the Giant thanked his adviser, went back to the spot where he had left his rod, and was seen a few minutes afterwards bowel-deep in the stream.

of wading adopted by some sportsmen, 'whether in shooting or fishing, is delivered either to the hemorrhoidal veins, or what is worse to the head. I have known several free livers who have terminated their lives by apoplexy, or have been rendered miserable by palsy. in consequence of the joint effects of cold feet and too stimulating a diet; that is to say, as much animal food as they could eat. with a pint or perhaps a bottle of wine per day. Be guided by me, my friends, and neither drink nor wade. I know there are old men who have done both and have enjoyed perfect health; but these are devil's decoys to the unwary, and ten suffer for one that escapes. I could quote to you an instance from this very county, one of the strongest men I have ever known. He was not intemperate, but he lived luxuriously, and waded as a salmon fisher for many years in this very river; but before be was fifty, palsy deprived him of the use of his limbs, and he is still a living example of the danger of the system which you are ambitious of adopting.

Orn.-Well, I give up the wine. but I intend to wade in Hancock's boots to-morrow. "Hal-Wear them, but do not wade in them. The feet must become cold in a stream of water constantly passing over the caoutchouc and leather, notwithstanding the thick stockings. They are good for keeping the feet warm, and I think where there is exercise. as in snipe-shooting, may be used without any bad effects. But I advise no one to stand still (which an augler must do sometimes) in the water, even with these ingenious waterproof inventions. All anglers should remember old Boerhaave's maxims of health, and act upon them: Keep the feet warm, and the head cool, and the body open.'”—Pp. 102104.

We before hinted that we have had our lucky days, and the most propitious time, both as to the size and number of trouts, were the hours before and after sunset upon the very warmest days of July and August. The large trouts which have lain hid during the whole day are then abroad, for the purpose of food, and take the fly eagerly. These moments,

"When the sun, retiring slowly,
Gives to dews the freshen'd air,"

are still alive in our recollection as green spots in the waste of existence. We recollect with what delight we entered knee-deep into the stream after the heat of a sultry day; the green boughs on the margin scarce waving a leaf to the balmy gale of the evening-the stream which glided past us almost alive with the object of our pursuit the whole a mixture of animal enjoyment, gratified love of sport, with a species of mental repose which enhanced both. This delightful amusement was not to be obtained if, "like the poor cat in the adage," we spared wetting our feet; for the shallowness of the stream, as well as the branches of the trees, impeded our sport, if we could not reach the middle-current with our cast. Neither see we much cause to feel regret or remorse when we add that any little chillness which might arise from pursuing this fascinating sport too late in the evening, was effectually removed by a glass of right Nantz, Schiedam, or Glenlivet; which remedy, if the glass be not too large or filled a second time, we can with a good conscience recommend as a sovereign specific upon occasions of wet feet.

We will not, however, suppress evidence, though somewhat contradictory of our own, as we happen to recollect an anecdote corroborative of the view taken by Halieus concerning the risk of wading, and at the same time indicative of the passionate hold which the sport of angling maintains over the minds of some individuals, with