80 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



H'lEperlan. 

 2tf)* jplounta He Camlet. 



These fish are treated of in some fishing books, but, as 

 they are in fact salt-water fish, and but of little impor- 

 tance to the angler, they are scarcely legitimate objects 

 of consideration in a work like the present. 



SMELTS are as good fish for the table as the sea 

 produces. They require very little cleaning, but they 

 must be rubbed perfectly dry. When they are smothered 

 with egg and bread crumbs, and crisply fried in pure 

 dripping, and served up with rich hot melted butter, they 

 are without any exception the sweetest fish in the world. 

 They are so delicate that the happy epicure may gobble 

 them up, heads and tails and all, regardless of bones. 



Angling for smelts must be a very sorry business. We 

 never heard of any body but Londoners attempting such 

 sport ; but cockneys are a peculiar race, and sometimes 

 do very funny things. 



STICKLEBACKS are nasty little fishes, with sharp fins 

 on their backs, or rather sharp spines, which you will do 

 well to avoid touching. Formerly they were very numerous 

 in some parts of Lincolnshire ; and Pennant tells a story, 

 which has been carefully copied by some writers on these 

 subjects, about their utility as a valuable manure. The 

 agriculturists of Lincolnshire perhaps the best in the 

 kingdom occasionally spread the sprat over their land, 

 near the coast, as a rich unguent previous to a certain de- 

 scription of cropping ; but the men who expend thousands 

 a year in bones, and freight large vessels with guano, 



