208 AUDUBON 



of great and daring enterprise. They will analyze, as it 

 were, into each component part, the country as it once 

 existed, and will render the picture, as it ought to be, 

 immortal. 



FISHING IN THE OHIO 



It is with mingled feelings of pleasure and regret that 

 I recall to my mind the many pleasant days I have 

 spent on the shores of the Ohio. The visions of former 

 years crowd on my view, as I picture to myself the fer- 

 tile soil and genial atmosphere of our great western gar- 

 den, Kentucky, and view the placid waters of the fair 

 stream that flows along its western boundary. Methinks 

 I am now on the banks of the noble river. Twenty years 

 of my life have returned to me; my sinews are strong, 

 and the "bowspring of my spirit is not slack;" bright 

 visions of the future float before me, as I sit on a grassy 

 bank, gazing on the glittering waters. Around me are 

 dense forests of lofty trees and thickly tangled under- 

 growth, amid which are heard the songs of feathered 

 choristers, and from whose boughs hang clusters of glow- 

 ing fruits and beautiful flowers. Reader, I am very 

 happy. But now the dream has vanished, and here I am 

 in the British Athens, penning an episode for my Orni- 

 thological Biography, and having before me sundry well- 

 thumbed and weather-beaten folios, from which I expect to 

 be able to extract some interesting particulars respecting 

 the methods employed in those days in catching catfish. 



But before entering on my subject I will present you 

 with a brief description of the place of my residence on 

 the banks of the Ohio. When I first landed at Hender- 

 , son in Kentucky, my family, like the village, was quite 

 small. The latter consisted of six or eight houses, the 

 former of my wife, myself, and a young child. Few as 



