Fearing. — An Angling Library 73 



they could be found, autograph letters by each author, to- 

 gether with any interesting newspaper clippings such as 

 notices of the book, obituary notices of the author, etc. 



As regards the books published during the last six or 

 seven years, many of the authors have been kind enough, 

 knowing the library by reputation, to send compli- 

 mentary autographed copies to it. Only one author has 

 refused to put his autograph in his own book when re- 

 quested by the owner of the library. The majority have 

 done more and have added some sentiment or compli- 

 mentary remark regarding the library. The kindly 

 gentleman who refused hated Americans and wrote the 

 gentleman who sent him the book to be autographed for 

 the owner, "that he considered it a * * * piece of 

 American impudence to ask such a favor." He little 

 appreciated that as many, if not more, copies of his book 

 were being purchased by those * * * Americans, as 

 by his own countrymen. In over twenty-five years of 

 ardent collecting this is only the second case of churlish 

 rudeness the owner has met with. The other, it is sad 

 to state, was a fellow countryman from the middle West. 

 Besides the books on the subjects of the library, there is 

 a very large collection of books on whaling. In the early 

 part of the nineteenth century New York lawyers ar- 

 gued long and earnestly on the subject, "Is the whale a 

 fish?" Though we all know now that it is a mammal, 

 the subject is so nearly allied, always being referred to 

 as "The Whale Fishery," that a most interesting portion 

 of the library is taken up with that subject. This com- 

 prises colored and plain prints, engravings and etchings, 

 photographs and charts, besides several hundred volumes 

 in different languages, together with a few manuscripts 

 and many log books. Among the manuscripts may be 

 mentioned the original of "The Journal of a Voyage to 

 the Northern Whale-Fishery * * * made in 1822 in the 

 Ship Baffin of Liverpool, by William Scoresby, Jr.," and 

 an appendix, with interlineations and erasures, bound up 

 with the title-page and text of the first edition, published 

 in 1823. Inserted, also, is a clipping concerning the man- 



