186 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



above, and coppery-yellow varying to silver-white below, according to 

 the purity and brightness of the waters which they inhabit. 



They may be taken with a hook and angle-worm, but it is a nasty, 

 slimy business, and affords no sport to compensate the disagreeable 

 nature of the labor. The Eel-spear, the set-line, or the Eel-pot, is the 

 true mode of taking them, and their true place is not in the creel of 

 the genuine angler, but on the board of the elaborate epicure, en ma- 

 tclotte, or a la tartare^ according to indi^'idual preference. 



With this fish, our list of the soft-rayed species is brought to a close, 

 and I shall now proceed to the Acanfhojjterygii, or spiny-finned fishes, 

 among which are several of our finest species, both of fresh and salt- 

 water, both for sport in the water, and excellence on the table. 



