The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-06-29

opened and it is time to "go fishin,"
perhaps arouses in him most joy; and
perhaps most recollections shall clus-
ter around fishing luck. We have re-
Gently been reading 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 overfowed
| in f1oodtime, 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, a still
| pool, which was the home invariably,
| as it seemed, Of the biggest trout in
| the river, or, at least, in that part of
it; and in that pool we learned our
earliest lessons in the natural history
Of fishes. I fear the greater number
Of the trout that we caught were
taken with lure less subtle and sci
entitic 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 a pound
or so) 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 &C.
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 it's 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 a trout in all
| the river, or, at least, in all that part
of it-also that it was very much
more properly to be called lodging
than 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 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,
| which acknowledged the motion by
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.
?s<.eWhen} We saw for ourselves the
truth of this warning, thus strikingly
shown by theEwrinkling Of the water
/ at the edges cot the Ice as we. came,
Fever sosg ingerly, To- the hank, then we
were indeed stricken with reverence
for the wisdom Of age which knew 50
much, and were satisfied that, If the
water were disturbed thus in q man:
ner so plainly visible to our eyes as
we stood on the bank, it was likely to
carry very distinct notice of our. COM
ing to the things that actually lived
In the water itself. There was no
Edimculty in realizing it with this ,evi-
dence before our vision, and tbs was
lesson that probably cost many fish
his life at our hands in the many days
i since we learned It ~. ~. -. .@-'<