By stream-fishing I mean either bait or fly-fishing from the bank or by wading the stream. This is my usual and favorite way of angling, and I think surpasses lake or pond fishing beyond the bounds of comparison. Light rods and tackle can be employed, for the Bass in rocky, swift streams are usually the small-mouthed species, and do not grow so heavy as the big-mouthed Bass of lakes and ponds; and especially is this true of fly-fishing, because the largest fish, as a rule, do not take the artificial fly. Fly-rods, then, may be used weighing from seven to seven and one-half ounces, and bait-rods from seven and one-half to eight ounces for stream-fishing.

Boat-fishing on lakes, ponds, and broad, quiet streams is unendurable without a companion, and the angler always has at least his boatman for company; but in stream-fishing he has the birds and flowers, the whispering leaves, the laughing water-old and genial friends of whom he never tires, whose fellowship is never wearisome, whose company is never dull. There are no harsh or discordant sounds on the stream -nothing to offend the eye or ear. Even the kingfisher's rattle, the caw of the crow, the tinkle of the cow-bell, the bark of the squirrel are softened and subdued and harmonised by the ripple of the scream and the rustle of the overhanging trees. All is joy and gladness, peace and contentment, by the merry shallows and quiet pools of the flowing, rushing stream. The swish of the rod, the hum of the reel, the cutting of the line through the water, the leap of the Bass, seem somehow to blend with the voices of the stream and the trees on its banks, and to speak to the angler in louder, though sweeter, tones than on open waters; such sounds seem to be more intensified or heightened in their effect by some mysterious acoustic property of the stream and its surroundings. And the occasional "pipe of peace" in some shady nook or sequestered spot, where, stretched at full length, the angler idly watches the nicotian incense assuming all manner of weird shapes as it ascends toward the tree-tops, while he indulges in fanciful day-dreams, with the cool breeze fanning his heated brow-the soft ferns resting his tired limbs! Yea, verily, this is the fishing beyond compare.