CHAPTER XXVI.

VISIT TO THE ADIRONDACKS IN 1873-WHEN TO FISH A STATE PARK -FOREST MEDICINE.

Angling is somewhat like poetry: men are to be born soI mean with inclinations to it, though both may be heightened by discourse and practice. But he that hopes to be a good angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity to the art itself. But having once got and practiced it, then doubt not but that angling will be so pleasant that it will prove to be, like virtue, a reward to itself.-[Sir Izaak Walton.

HAVE discovered that many beside experts take pleasure in reading whatever is said in praise of angling. They have the good taste to appreciate a healthful amusement which they have not the leisure to enjoy. I made this disdiscovery many years ago, when I began a series of letters from "The Woods," which I kept up without intermission until that summer of disasters when McClellan led so many of our brave boys to defeat and death. It seemed like mockery to draw pleasant pictures or speak of personal

enjoyments when the whole nation was in tears, when ten thousand Rachels were weeping for their children, and when the shadow of death hung like a pall over the whole land. So, from that time to this I have made no record of these delightful excursions. Although I have been thus silent for so many years, with the exception of a single summer (of sad memory), I have been permitted to enjoy my month's sport, always awaiting its coming with longing, and always entering upon it with new zest and ever-growing pleasure.

The snow

It was weary waiting this year for “the time of the singing of birds" to come. The spring was more backward than for twenty years. lingered in the woods until far on in May, and it was not until the middle of the month that experienced anglers deemed it worth while to wet their lines in any of the waters of the Adirondacks. For be it known to all novices in the art, and to all who hope to become used to the ways of trout, and experts in their capture, that the best sport only comes after the snow-water has disappeared and the streams have acquired their natural clearness and placidity. High water is not desirable, even for spring fishing; but it is not fatal to success. One has only to know the ground he traverses, and the best points at different seasons, to gather success even with full banks; but a flood is not to be

coveted. The best results are attainable in the spring when the water is falling, and in the summer when it is rising. I have fished in vain in August through a whole day, at the outlets of favorite streams, where, after a rain, I have taken trout in great numbers. A sharp summer shower, by raising the brooks, brings down the feed from the upper waters, and the trout, who know when it rains as well as the angler, concentrate to gather the harvest sent to them. He is fortunate who is at hand to avail himself of such occasions.

In all this region the ice usually disappears from the lakes between the middle and close of April, and I have sometimes started out on the first of May to begin my spring's fishing. But this year it was the 9th of May before the ice succumbed, and the 15th found the snow still intact on the shaded hill-sides and through all the valleys. It was tedious waiting; but there is an end to all things, even to a tardy spring and the chilling relics of a long winter.

As soon as the ice leaves, you may hope for success in trolling. Lake-trout are a gamey fish, and their capture affords exciting sport to those who like it; but it has always seemed to me monotonous and unartistic. Given a proper length of line, weight of sinker, strength of rod, and an intelligent guide, an expert seems to have no advantage

over a novice, except in the single act of landing the fish after he strikes. Unlike fly-fishing, it affords no muscular exercise, no constantly recurring excitement, no skillful casting, no delicate manipulation, and none of the thrill which follows the rise and rush of the fish for the lure which rests upon the surface of the water. And yet it is a pleasant pastime, healthful and invigorating, affording ample opportunity for reading and meditation, and bringing before the eye ever-changing views of the grand old mountains and forest-clad valleys which constitute the attractiveness and beauty of all this region. When the "grasshopper shall become a burden," when "those that look out of the windows shall be darkened," when "the keepers of the house shall tremble," when my "right hand shall forget its cunning," and when I shall no longer be able to wade the mountain stream or cast a fly, if Providence shall thus gently lead me homeward, I shall doubtless find delight in this less robust and less exhilarating amusement. But, meanwhile, I shall leave the troll to those whose waning vigor, neglected education, immature tastes or blissful ignorance render them content with this primary branch of the angler's art.

The "signs" which mark the advent of the "good time" longed for through seven months of weary winter and tardy spring-the budding of