42 GAME FOR ACCLIMATISATION. 



angler, though in the parts I visited there are no salmon 

 rivers, need not despair of plenty of amusement. The 

 catfish, weighing 601b. or more, can be caught with a 

 night-line, and at times by the spear. There is also a 

 fresh-water dogfish, who shows excellent sport in his run 

 at the minnow, but he is useless for the table. 



I endeavoured to bespeak of Mr Robertson, the chief 

 poulterer in Fulton Market, some live feathered game to 

 take home to England, of the three sorts, the wood-grouse, 

 the prairie-grouse, and the quail or partridge ; but the 

 obstacle to his receiving them alive was beautifully illus 

 trative of the idle habits of his countrymen. He told me 

 that perhaps they might be caught alive the quails cer 

 tainly but the difficulty was, or, in short, the impossi 

 bility was, in finding any American, though paid to do so, 

 who could be trusted to trouble himself sufficiently to feed 

 the birds in their transit from where they were captured 

 to New York. They were sure to be neglected on the 

 way and starved, to death, unless in charge of a slave or 

 a German servant. So convinced am I, however, that 

 these birds, as well as the Deer, would thrive well in Eng 

 land, that I shall continue my attempts to get them across 

 the Atlantic. 



A very few days gave me a pretty good insight into 

 most of the manners and customs of Americans ; and 

 among some of the things that struck me as extremely 

 odd was the fashion among the ladies of wearing their 

 hoops and crinolines ! I saw New York for the first time, 

 be it observed, at a period (September) when the ladies 

 of fashion or in the best society were out of town. When 

 first I walked into the Broadway at the fashionable hour 

 I had a strange sensation as if my head was turned, and 

 had I had an appendage, like the sailor in the song, " I 



