14 THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



to the spirit of sportsmanship — have I not found it good sport, 

 at times, to sally out from some sequestered fishing hamlet, in 

 the trim schooner or more humble yawl, and try my fortune 

 with the Cod, the Haddock, and the Halibut ; or if, perchance, 

 on the rocky shores of Eastern New England, with the delicate 

 and lively Whiting, too little known, as yet, to the epicures of 

 America, although surpassed in excellence by few, if any, of his 

 race. With deep-sea fishing I shall deal, therefore, although 

 briefly, as becomes its rank in proportion with the more exciting 

 and scientific branches of the piscatory art ; nor will the shoal- 

 water, or bay and estuary fishing, as they are practised along 

 our coasts, occupy so many pages, as will appear proportionate 

 to the numljer or excellence of the species taken in that sport. 

 Many of these are delicious fish on the table; but the sport 

 of taking them consists, principally, in the frequency of their 

 biting ; and the skill requisite for their capture lies mainly in 

 the knowing the most favourable bottom-grounds, the state of 

 the tides and eddies most propitious to success, and the most 

 killing baits at various seasons. 



In throwing out and drawing in the bait, there is, compara- 

 tively speaking, small science; and taking the fish, when once 

 hooked, little skill and small judgment ; temper, and a moderate 

 degree of patience alone seem needful. 



It is not, indeed, to be denied that in this, as in all other 

 ground-bait and bottom-fishing, an old experienced angler shall 

 take many times more fish than the tyro sitting alongside of 

 him in the same boat, and working Avith apparatus precisely 

 similar, and baits identical. 



This is, however, to be attributed much to practice and habit ; 



