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PHYS.-In my opinion, profound minds are the most likely to think lightly of the resources of human reason: it is the pert superficial thinker who is generally strongest in every kind of unbelief. The deep philosopher sees chains of causes and effects so wonderfully and strangely linked together, that he is usually the last person to decide upon the impossibility of any two series of events being independent of each other; and in science, so many natural miracles, as it were, have been brought to light,-such as the fall of stones from meteors in the atmosphere, the disarming a thunder cloud by a metallic point, the production of fire from ice by a metal white as silver, and referring certain laws of motion of the sea to the

moon, that the physical enquirer is seldom disposed to assert, confidently, on any abstruse subjects belonging to the order of natural things, and still less so on those relating to the more mysterious relations of moral events and intellectual natures.

SEVENTH DAY.

HALIEUS-POIETES-ORNITHER-PHYSICUS.

GRAYLING FISHING.

Scene-Leintwardine, near Ludlow.
Time -- Beginning of October.

HAL.—YOU have reached your quarters. Here is your home—a rural, peaceable, and unassuming inn, with as worthy a host and hostess as may be found in this part of the country. The river glides at the bottom of the garden, and there is no stream in England more productive of grayling. The surrounding scenery is not devoid of interest, and the grounds in the distance are covered with stately woods, and laid out (or rather their natural beauties developed) by the hand of a master, whose liberal and enlightened mind even condescended to regard the amusements of the angler; and he could hardly

have contributed in a more effectual manner to their comforts, than by placing the good people, who were once his servants, in this comfortable inn.

PHYS. Are we to fish according to any rule, as to quantity or size of fish?

HAL. You are at perfect liberty to fish as you like; but as it is possible you may catch grayling only of this year, and which are not longer than the hand, I conclude you will return such pigmies to the river, as a matter of propriety, though not of necessity.

POIET. This river seems formed of two

other streams, which join above our inn. What are the names of its sources?

HAL.-The small river to the left is called the Teme, or Little Teme, and though the least stream, it gives name to the river: the other, and more copious stream, is called the Clun. The Little Teme contains principally trout; the Clun, both trout and grayling: but the fish are more abundant in the meadows, between this place and Downton, than in other parts of the river; for above, the stream is too rapid and shallow to be favourable to

their increase; and below, it is joined by other streams, and becomes too abundant in coarse fish.

POIET. I cannot understand why the grayling should be so scarce a fish in England. It is abundant in many districts on the Continent; but in this island it is found, I believe, only in a few rivers, and does not exist, I think, either in Ireland or Scotland. Yet, being an Alpine fish, and naturally fond of cool water, it might have been expected among the Highlands.

HAL.-I formerly used to account for this, by supposing it an imported fish, and not indigenous; but, in some of my continental excursions, I have seen it living only under such peculiar circumstances, that I doubt the correctness of this my early opinion.

POIET. Which was, I conclude, that it was introduced by the monks, in the time when England was under the See of Rome. As a favourite fish of St. Ambrose it was worth cultivating, as well as for its own sake; and I think you have done wrong to relinquish this idea; for as far as my recollection serves me, the rivers that contain it are near

the ruins of great monasteries. The Avon, near Salisbury; the Ure, near Fountain's Abbey; the Wye, near the great Abbey of Tintern; and, if I am not mistaken, in the lower part of this valley there are the remains of an extensive establishment of friars.

HAL. But there are rivers near the ruins of some of the most magnificent establishments of this kind in Europe, and those nearest the Continent, where the grayling is not found; for instance, in the Stour, at Canterbury. And if the grayling be an imported fish, it is wonderful that it should not be found in the rivers in Kent, and along the south-west coast of England, as in Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, where the monastic establishments were numerous; and why it should be found in some rivers in the mountainous parts of Wales, as in that near Llan-wrted and the Dee; not near Val Crusis Abbey, but fifteen miles higher up, between Corwen and Bala.

POIET. It may have been a fish imported from the Continent, and carried to a number of rivers, only a few of which may have suited

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