Fish and l-lsJiinsr in America. 



i8S 



iliXSi 



ble to the touch, begets such thoughts, 

 and feeble are the sensibilities of the 

 man in whom wonder and worship do 

 not arise when thus communing with 

 nature. Under such conditions it is but 

 a step from agnosticism to Christian 

 faith. 



The gudgeon, like its greater kindred, 

 the carp and the chub, is an historic 

 fish, and has been the theme of writers 

 for many centuries. Ovid, in the first 

 century, wrote of it as a " slippery " 

 fish ; Ausonius, 450 B. Q^^ said it was 

 fat and savory; Walton, in 1653 A. D., 

 has a good word for it as a table-fish, 

 and other old English writers, including 

 Shakespeare, have taken the gudgeon 

 as a synonym for a man " easily cheated 

 and ensnared." This, because when 

 hungry the gudgeon seizes the bait 

 greedily, but the derivation weakens in 

 application when we consider that this 

 fish must be fished for with extremely 

 delicate tackle and with care not to dis- 

 turb the feeding shoals of fish. 



The American gudgeon, under con- 

 sideration, is a varietal form {H. regiiis) 

 of the silvery or smelt minnow, Hybog- 

 nathns nuchale. It is the largest of the 

 species, and is said to be found only in 

 Maryland and Virginia waters ; possi- 

 bly, however, according to Professor 

 Cope, in the Susquehanna and Delaware 

 rivers. The most striking difference 

 between it and the typical fish {iiiicliale) 

 is its deeper body and larger eye. Its 

 color is greenish above the lateral line, 

 getting paler below, with a broad sil- 

 very band on the sides. It has eight 

 rays in the dorsal and anal fins, and 

 nine in the ventral fin. The lower jaw 

 is shorter than, and fits into, the upper. 



The gudgeons swim in large shoals, 

 and at times are taken in great numbers. 



A small minnow-hook must be used, 

 and it should be baited with a minute 

 piece of earthworm ; at times these fish 



will take greedily anything in the shape 

 of flesh-bait, and many anglers use 

 small pieces of raw beef with success. 

 As a rule, quill floats form a part of the 

 delicate gudgeon-tackle, but the more 

 practiced rodsters prefer to feel the 

 thrill of the pluck of even so small a 

 fish as the gudgeon, rather than the 

 gratification at seeing the dip of the 

 float when the little cyprinoid is taking 

 the bait. 



Colonel F. G. Skinner, the veteran 

 angler, field sportsman and dilettante, 

 now deceased, wrote me some years 

 ago from " the Relay," a great resort of 

 the gudgeon-fishers of Baltimore and 

 Washington. He describes con amore 

 the scene presented by these anglers 

 when fishing for their favorite fish : 



" Your past grand masters of the gen- 

 tle art, the aristocrats of the rod and 

 reel who capture the lordly salmon in 

 the Canadian rivers, and who cast their 

 flies upon the remote waters of the 

 Aroostook and the Nepigon, may look 

 with lofty disdain upon their humble 

 brethren who find enjoyment in angling 

 with earthworms and gentles for so 

 diminutive a fish as a gudgeon, and yet 

 the annual run of these little fishes in 

 the Patapsco, Gwyn's Falls and Stem- 

 mer's Run, small streams in close vicin- 

 ity to Baltimore, is looked forward to 

 by thousands of people of all ages, from 

 the gray-headed grandsire to the 

 youngsters not yet in their teens, with 

 anticipations of delight. 



" The gudgeon, like the swallow and 

 the bluebird, is the harbinger of spring, 

 and as he annually returns to his natal 

 stream, the trees on its banks assume 

 their vernal covering of tender green, 

 the starlike blossoms of the dogwood 

 glitter through the woods, and the wild 

 flowers bloom forth as if to welcome 

 his coming. 



'' When the announcement so eagerly 



