﻿ABOUT ANGLING. 



139 



How dark the water looks ! and yet it has little color. 



In some parts of the world the ocean is perfectly transparent. 

 At Hammerfest, a little town in the north of Norway, the fish can 

 be seen approaching the hook at the depth of sixty feet. 



But these fellows don't seern to relish our bait. I wonder how 

 long before we shall take out one? It is best to have patience, how- 

 ever. Fishing affords an excellent opportunity to try it. 



I remember hearing Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson tell of passing a 

 quiet neighbor, early one summer morning, who was seated, with 

 rod and line, upon the bank of a shady stream, eagerly watching 

 his cork float, expecting to see it every moment disappear. 



Returning, towards the close of the afternoon, he discovered his 

 friend still there. 



" Well, what luck ? " was the question. 



" Oh ! " said the philosophical angler, " I have had a most excel- 

 lent nibble ! " 



But pull, James ! and I 've one, too. Well done ! they have taken 

 hold, at last. 



I was fishing, a few years ago, from a boat, above the dam yon- 

 der, with one of those fancy painted corks on my line. I had got 

 " a bite," and was drawing in what appeared to be a fish of comfort- 

 able size, when a huge pickerel, thinking my float a richly embel- 

 lished frog, jumped and swallowed it. My pole bent almost dou- 

 ble with the increased load, but I succeeded in swinging them over 

 the boat, when, most unluckily, off dropped the pickerel, just out- 

 side. 



What ! hold again ? Now, this is what I call sport. What a 

 splendid perch ! We shall soon have enough for to-morrow's dinner. 



I came to this same spot, when a boy, with a young cousin of 

 mine, who now angles for customers in his own Boston store. 



o 



I thought we had very good luck, but he quite cut me down with 

 the stories he told me of the big fish around his country home. 



In the course of the summer, I returned his visit, and tried his 

 fishing. For the sake of his pride, I regret we were so very unsuc- 

 cessful. 



I tried all my persuasion on the " big fish," in vain ; and, boys, 

 what do you guess he drew to the top of the water, after screaming 

 that he had got a four pounder ? A great overgrown tortoise ! 



