"Doubt not, therefore, sir, but that angling's an art, and an art worth your learning; the question is, rather, whether you be capable of learning it, for angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so I mean with inclinations to it, though both may be heightened by discourse and y ut he that hopes to be a good angler must not only L : an inquiring, searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity the art itself; but having once got and practised it, then doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant that it will prove to be like virtue, a reward to itself."-Izaak Walton. The black bass are unquestionably as fine a fish for angling purposes as any we possess, and as an article of food are equal to our best."-Parker Gilmore. 1. Cheney. 3. La Belle. 5. Shad-Fl 2. White Miller. 4. Scarlet Ibis. 6. Green and Gold. "Never use too much power in casting; it is not only not necessary, but it is injurious. You cast the line with the top and half the second joint, and very little force suffices to bring this into play. If you use more, all the effect is to bring the lower part of the rod into action, which has very little spring compare with the top of it."-Francis Francis. "Black bass when struck and played wi.. always head down stream."-W. C. Harris. "Fish always lose by being 'got in and dressed.' It is best to weigh them while they are in the water. The only really large one I ever caught got away with my leader when I first struck him. He weighed ten pounds."-Charles Dudley Warner. "The aim of the angler ought to be, to have his artificial fly calculated, by its form and colors, to attract the notice of the fish ; in which case he has a much greater chance of success, than by making the greatest efforts to imitate any particular species of fly." -Professor Rennie. "I fear it will be almost decmed heresy to place the black bass on a par with the trout; at least, some such idea I had when I first heard the two compared ; but I am bold, and will go further. I consider he is the superior of the two, for he is equally good as an article of food, and much stronger and untiring in his efforts to escape when hooked."-Parker Gilmore. "The one great ingredient in successful fly-fishing is patience. The man whose fly is always on the water has the best chance. There is always a chance of a fish or two, no matter how hopeless it looks. You never know what may happen in fly-fishing."Francis Francis. "In bass fishing we have thought the moon to be an advantage. If it does not guide the prey to the lure, it at least lends beauty to the scene and bathes in its pale light the surroundings of the fisherman, which are often so exceedingly beautiful. In addition, it assists him in his work and enables him to handle his tackle more easily and play his fish more comfortably."-Seth Green. THE RESOURCES OF FLY-FISHING. BY DR. JAMES A. HENSHALL. THE charms of fly-fishing have been sung in song and story from time immemorial by the poetically gifted devotees of the gentle art, who have embalmed the memory of its æsthetic features in the living green of graceful ferns, in the sweet-scented flowers of dell and dingle, and in the liquid music of purling streams. The fly-fisher is a lover of Nature, pure and simple, and has a true and just appreciation of her poetic side, though he may lack the artist's skill to limn her beauties, or the poet's genius to describe them. "To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language." And what delightful converse she holds with the flyfisher, as with rod and creel he follows the banks of the meandering stream, or wades its pellucid waters, casting, ever and anon, the gossamer leader and feathery lure into shadowy nooks, below sunny rapids, over foam-flecked eddies, and on silent pools. She speaks to him through the rustling leaves, murmurs to him from the flowing |