From a color sketch by T. E. Pritt.
English Grayling. (Thymallus thymallus.)
The Cloister and the Stream
And how the hooking of a grayling must have stirred the stagnant blood and quickened the pulses of those austere souls! And how the languid muscles must have stiffened, and the deadened nerves thrilled, when the gamesome grayling leaped into the sunlight sparkling like a gem and glittering like a crystal!
Ah! what a happy contrast to the gloomy cell and breviary it must have been to those rigid and frigid celibates to view the ever-changing tints and the reflected glory of the "lady of the streams" after she had coquettishly responded to their lures!
The Warning of the Past
But let us return from the musty ages of the past, and the hoary fathers—those wise conservators of their beloved fish—to the present day, with the sad vanishing of the Michigan grayling as a solemn warning. Let us, then, guard and preserve this beautiful creature that has come down to us through the centuries, hallowed by the jealous care of the good fathers of yore, so that the toiler in these stirring times may, if he will, forsake the busy marts, the office or workshop, for a period, be it ever so brief, and journey even a thousand miles to enjoy—as the monks of old—the catching of a grayling.
THE TROUT: THE ANGLER'S PRIDE