lo AMERICAN FISHES. 



the matter is settled, and it is only necessary to bait and lower the hooks, 

 for each time without fail there will be a fish brought up for each hook 

 baited.* 



To the words of instruction and advice already written, I would add a 

 sentence of warning to him who angles for Perch. Do not yield too un- 

 reservedly to the fascination of the pastime. Remember the unfortunate 

 angler in Bulwer's "My Novel." 



"Young man, listen ! " said Burley. "When I was about your age, I 

 first came to this stream to fish. Sir, on that fatal day, about 3 P. M., I 

 hooked up a fish — such a big one, it must have weighed a pound-and-a-half. 

 And just when I had got it nearly ashore, the line broke, and the Perch 

 twisted himself among those roots and — cacoda^mon that he was — ran off, 

 hook and all. Well, that fish haunted me ; never before had I seen such 

 a fish. INIinnows I had caught, also gudgeons, and occasionally a dace. 

 But a fish like that — a PERCH — all his fins up, like the sails of a man-of- 

 war — a monster Perch, — a whale of a Perch! — No, never till then had I 

 known what leviathans lie hid within the deeps. I could not sleep till I 

 had returned ; and again, sir — I caught that Perch. And this time I 

 pulled him fairly out of the water. He escaped ; and how did he escape? 

 Sir, he left his eye behind him on the hook. * * * I gazed at that eye, 

 and the eye looked as sly and wicked as if it was laughing in my face. 

 Well, sir, I had heard there is no better bait for a Perch than a Perch's eye. 

 I adjusted that eye on the hook and dropped in the line gently. In two 

 minutes I saw that Perch return. He approached the hook ; he recognized 

 his eye, — frisked his tail, — made a plunge — and, as I live, carried off the 

 eye, and I saw him digesting it by the side of that water lily. The mock- 

 ing fiend ! Seven times since that day in the course of a varied and event- 

 ful life, have I caught that Perch, and seven times has that Perch escaped. 



* * * Good Heavens ! If a man knew what it was to fish all one's 

 life in a stream that has only one Perch, to catch that Perch nine times 

 in all and to see it fall back into the water, plump. Why then, young sir, 

 he Avould know what human life is to vain ambition." 



* American Afigh'r, March 14, 1885. 



