them to destroy the very breed of those base Otters, they do so much mischief.

VEN. But what say you to the Foxes of the Nation, would not you as willingly have them destroyed? for doubtless they do as much mischief as Otters do.

PISC. O sir, if they do, it is not so much to me and my fraternity, as those base vermin the Otters do.

Auc. Why, sir, I pray, of what fraternity are you, that you are so angry with the poor Otters?

PISC. I am, sir, a brother of the Angle, and therefore an enemy to the Otter:* for you are to note that we Anglers all love one another, and therefore do I hate the Otter, both for my own and for their sakes who are of my brotherhood.

VEN. And I am a lover of Hounds; I have followed many a pack of dogs many a mile, and heard many merry huntsmen make sport and scoff at Anglers.

Auc. And I profess myself a Falconer, and have heard many grave serious men pity them, it is such a heavy, contemptible, dull, recreation.

PISC. You know, gentlemen, it is an easy thing to scoff at any art or recreation; a little wit, mixed with ill-nature, confidence, and malice, will do it; but though they often venture boldly, yet they are often caught, even in their own trap, according to that of Lucian, the father of the family of scoffers. Lucian, well skill'd in scoffing, this hath writ,

Friend, that's your folly, which you think your wit;
This, you vent oft, void both of wit and fear,

Meaning another, when yourself you jeer.

If to this you add what Solomon says of scoffers, that "they are an abomination to mankind," let them that think

* The Otter has almost disappeared from the Lea, and is now rare in all the rivers of the Metropolitan counties. This amphibious animal is destructive to trout and small river fish; but, strange as it may appear, he proves the conservator of salmon, by destroying trout, the worst enemies of that fish. The otter cannot, in open water, catch the salmon, who is too fleet for him; but he sometimes captures that fish in shallow and confined water, more by stratagem than speed. Trout the Otter can run down. He kills them in large numbers, to the delight of the owners of salmon rivers. When salmon are in the act of spawning, they are surrounded by trout, hungering after the ova, the greater portion of which they would devour were they not beaten off by one or other of the breeding salmon. Trout, moreover, feed voraciously on salmon-fry, so that by destroying them the Otter does good service to salmon-hunting. Otter-fishing, with Otter-hounds, is very exciting sport, and is now principally confined to the midland, western, and northern counties, and to the lowlands of Scotland. The Otter packs of the Earl of Aberdeen and the Marquis of Worcester are very celebrated.-ED.

fit scoff on, and be scoffers still; but I account them enemies to me and to all that love virtue and angling.

And for you, that have heard many grave, serious men, pity Anglers; let me tell you, sir, there be many men that are by others taken to be serious and grave men, whom we contemn and pity. Men that are taken to be grave, because nature hath made them of a sour complexion; money-getting men, men that spend all their time, first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it; men that are condemned to be rich, and then always busy or discontented; for these poor rich men, we Anglers pity them perfectly, and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to think ourselves so happy. No, no, sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach of such dispositions, and as the learned and ingenuous Montaigne sayslike himself, freely, "When my cat and I entertain each other with mutual apish tricks, as playing with a garter, who knows but that I make my cat more sport than she makes me? Shall I conclude her to be simple, that has her time to begin or refuse to play as freely as I myself have? Nay, who knows but that it is a defect of my not understanding her language (for doubtless cats talk and reason with one another), that we agree no better? And who knows but that she pities me for being no wiser than to play with her, and laughs and censures my folly for making sport for her, when we two play together?'

I

Thus freely speaks Montaigne concerning cats) and I hope may take as great a liberty to blame any man, and laugh at him too, let him be never so grave, that hath not heard what Anglers can say in the justification of their art and recreation; which I may again tell you is so full of pleasure, that we need not borrow their thoughts to make ourselves happy.

VEN. Sir, you have almost amazed me; for though I am no scoffer, yet I have, I pray let me speak it without offence, always looked upon Anglers as more patient and more simple men, than I fear I shall find you to be.

Pisc. Sir, I hope you will not judge my earnestness to be impatience and for my simplicity, if by that you mean a harmlessness, or that simplicity which was usually found in the primitive Christians, who were, as most Anglers are, quiet men, and followers of peace; men that were so simply wise, as not to sell their consciences to buy riches, and with them vexation and a fear to die; if you mean such simple men as lived in those times when there were fewer lawyers; when men might have had a lordship safely conveyed to them in a

piece of parchment no bigger than your hand, though several sheets will not do it safely in this wiser age; I say, sir, if you take us Anglers to be such simple men as I have spoken, then myself and those of my profession will be glad to be so understood but if by simplicity you meant to express a general defect in those that profess and practise the excellent art of angling, I hope in time to disabuse you, and make the contrary appear so evidently, that, if you will but have patience to hear me, I shall remove all the anticipations that discourse, or time, or prejudice, have possessed you with against that laudable and ancient art; for I know it worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man.

But, gentlemen, though I be able to do this, I am not so unmannerly as to engross all the discourse to myself; and, therefore, you two having declared yourselves, the one to be a lover of hawks, the other of hounds, I shall be most glad to hear what you can say in the commendation of that, recreation which each of you love and practise; and having heard what you can say, I shall be glad to exercise your attention with what I can say concerning my own recreation and art of angling, and by this means we shall make the way to seem the shorter; and if you like my motion, I would have Mr. Falconer to begin.

Auc. Your motion is consented to with all my heart; and to testify it, I will begin as you have desired me.

And first, for the element that I use to trade in,-which is the air,—an element of more worth than weight—an element that doubtless exceeds both the earth and water; for though I sometimes deal in both, yet the air is most properly mine,I and my hawks use that most, and it yields us most recreation it stops not the high soaring of my noble, generous falcon; in it she ascends to such a height as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are not able to reach to; their bodies are too gross for such high elevations: in the air my troops of hawks soar up on high, and when they are lost in the sight of men, then they attend upon and converse with the gods; therefore I think my eagle is so justly styled "Jove's servant in ordinary" and that very falcon that I am now going to see, deserves no meaner title, for she usually in her flight endangers herself, like the son of Dædalus, to have her wings scorched by the sun's heat, she flies so near it; but her mettle makes her careless of danger; for then she heeds nothing, but makes her nimble pinions cut the fluid air, and so makes her

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highway over the steepest mountains and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks with contempt upon those high steeples and magnificent palaces which we adore and wonder at; from which height I can make her to descend by a word from my mouth (which she both knows and obeys), to accept of meat from my hand, to own me for her master, to go home with me, and be willing the next day to afford me the like recreation.

The

And more this element of air which I profess to trade in, the worth of it is such, and it is of such necessity, that no creature whatsoever, not only those numerous creatures that feed on the face of the earth, but those various creatures that have their dwelling within the waters, every creature that hath life in its nostrils, stands in need of my element. waters cannot preserve the fish without air, witness the not breaking of ice in an extreme frost :* the reason is, for that if the inspiring and expiring organ of any animal be stopped, it suddenly yields to nature, and dies. Thus necessary is air to the existence both of fish and beasts, nay, even to man himself; the air or breath of life with which God at first inspired mankind, he, if he wants it, dies presently, becomes a sad object to all that loved and beheld him, and in an instant turns to putrefaction.

Nay more, the very birds of the air, those that be not hawks, are both so many and so useful and pleasant to mankind, that I must not let them pass without some observations. They both feed and refresh him-feed him with their choice bodies, and refresh him with their heavenly voices. I will not undertake to mention the several kinds of fowl by which this is done-and his curious palate pleased by day, and which with their very excrements afford him a soft lodging at night

these I will pass by; but not those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art.

As, first, the lark, when she means to rejoice, to cheer herself and those that hear her; she then quits the earth, and sings as she ascends higher into the air, and having ended her heavenly employment, grows then mute and sad, to think

* Though deep waters may be frozen over, fish will live in them beneath the ice. In shallow waters, fish are frequently frozen to death. Fish, like certain quadrupeds-the northern bear, the marmot, and the little dormouse, frequently remain in a torpid state during winter, and only revive with renewed increase of temperature of the water, caused by rains or atmospheric influence.-ED.

she must descend to the dull earth, which she would not touch, but for necessity.

How do the blackbird and thrassel [thrush], with their melodious voices, bid welcome to the cheerful spring, and in their fixed months warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument can reach to?

Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their particular seasons, as, namely, the leverock, the titlark, the little linnet, and the honest robin, that loves mankind both alive and dead.

But the nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, "Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such music on earth?"”

And this makes me the less to wonder at the many aviaries in Italy, or at the great charge of Varro's aviary, the ruins of which are yet to be seen in Rome, and is still so famous there, that it is reckoned for one of those notables which men of foreign nations either record, or lay up in their memories, when they return from travel.

This for the birds of pleasure, of which very much more might be said. My next shall be of birds of political use. I think 'tis not to be doubted that swallows* have been taught to carry letters between two armies. But it is certain, that when the Turks besieged Malta or Rhodes (I now remember not which it was), pigeons are then related to carry and recarry letters. And Mr. G. Sandys, in his Travels, relates it to be done between Aleppo and Babylon. But if that be disbelieved, it is not to be doubted that the dove was sent out of the ark by Noah, to give him notice of land, when to him

* Walton's knowledge of Natural History was as superficial and as superstitious, if I may be allowed the use of the epithet, in many respects, as that of a Munster peasant or Highland shepherd of the present day. No birds can be trained to fly to and from places. The carrier-pigeon will only fly with a message, generally written on a slip of oiled-tissue paper lapped round the leg, from a place to which the bird is taken, to its home. It will not carry a message from its home or dove-cot to a given place; it can make a return voyage, but not an outward one.-ED.