The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-09-07

opened and it is time to Ego fishin',"
perhaps arouses in him most JOY and
/ perhaps most recollections shall clus-
ter around fishing luck. We have re-
Gently been reading a beautifully illus
trated article in the English maya
zine called Country Life, and find that
this particular man in recounting boy
hood experiences dwells longest and
most pleasantly on the fishing days:
after the stream had come rushing
from under the arch by the mill it
passed down through the fold of the
valley, fringed with willows, alders,
birches and all, kinds of high and low
floral growth, and so on down to a
level water-meadow country where it
pursued less hurried and vehement
courses, and went between dull, mud
dy banks which it often overhowed
in floodtime, making all the meadows
like lagoon. Just where it ceased
from it's most energetic vehemence,
after passing the archway it formed,
round little bend of the bank, still
pool, which was the home inVaria bly,,
as it seemed, of the biggest trout in
the river rs-atS least in that nart--of-
it; and in that pool we learned our
earliest lessons in the natural history
of fishes. fear the greater number
Of the trout that we caught were
taken with lure less subtle and sci
entific than the fly. The worm was
more deadly in our hands. But the
chapter of natural history of this
wonderful pool was our schoolroom,
was this. So soon as we caught, at
the beginning of the season-that is
to say, as early as April or even the
latter end of March in that country
the monster (sometimes running to
the prodigious weight of half pound
or SOY of the pool, his place on the
very day following would be inevita-
bly, taken by another, only one de-
gree less monstrous. Then, when we
had captured monster number two, a
monster of the third degree, just one
| ounce, or even half an ounce only, it
| may be, less in weight, came into oc-
cupancy of the pool; and so on all
| through the season-so fast as we
| caught one good fish in that pool an
| other would come up to take its place,
| always rather smaller fellow than
his predecessor; but by so little small
er that the difference was only just
perceptible. The lesson which this
seemed to teach was that this pool was
the favorite lodging for trout in all
the river, or, at least, in all that part
| ~
more properly to be called lodging
than a hotel"
| Many lessons the river taught this,
English boy, and we like his manner.
of telling how he gradually learned
about the art Of angling, "there was
often an edging of ice stretching out
over. the placid flow of water. And
here, too, we learned a lesson. It
hardly mattered how gently we crept
up on tiptoe to the waters edge;
when the fringes were coated thus
with thick ice-layer it was almost
impossible to approach SO quietly as
not to communicate trembling of the
earth under our footsteps to the ice,
and from the ice to the silent water,
| "u1CA aCAAOWASuSSu IAc uOIAOA Ny
wrinkling into little ripples. These
ripples, Of course, were the first signs
visible to us Of the tremor that our
footsteps carried to the water.
when we saw for ourselves the
truth of this. warning, thus strikingly
shown by the wrinkling of the water
4 at the edges Of the ice as we came,
ever SO gingerly, to the bank, then we
were indeed stricken with reverence
! for the wisdom Of age which .knewzso
much, and were satisfied that IL the
]. water were disturbed thus in q man:
,ner, 50 plainly visible. to our eyes las
we stood on the bank, It Was likely to
carry very distinct notice Of our com:
ing to the things that actually lived
lin the water itself There was no
i difhculty in realizing it with this evi
I Edence before our vision, and tbs was q
lesson that probably cost many q fish
his life at our hands in the many days