178 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



it may be as well to inform the young angler that it con- 

 tains a public library and a museum, both of which are 

 well worth his attentive notice. 



(Srabeltnes. 



The waters which flow through the marais, near St. 

 Omer, find their way into the sea, and numerous other 

 small rivers and canals escape into the ocean at this place. 

 Here the fosses and other waters are filled with fish. 

 Perch, bream, eels, roach, pike, etc., of very large size 

 crowd the streams ; and the waters are open to the angler 

 in every direction. In one of the fosses, which surround 

 the town, and which communicate with the sea, some 

 French gentlemen are endeavouring to preserve the red 

 mullet : here, of course, angling is interdicted. 

 - The following incident will afford some idea of the 

 enormous quantities of fish which crowd these waters. In 

 the month of September, 1844, the water was nearly all 

 drawn off for a few days from a small fosse, on the south 

 side of the town, for the purpose of effecting some repairs. 

 When these were accomplished, and the staunch, which 

 connects the fosse with the canal, was drawn up in order 

 to re-fill it, an immense mass of fish, crowded up to the 

 door to revel in the fresh running water. The walls of 

 the staunch were soon covered with boys who sunk their 

 lines into the water, by means of a lump of lead, through 

 the dense columns of fish. These lines, garnished at in- 

 tervals of three or four inches with unbaited hooks, the 

 lads kept pulling up with the greatest rapidity, invariably 

 bringing out three or four fish every dip, and strewing 

 the surface of the water with hundreds of poor things 

 wounded and mutilated. This wretched sport lasted as 

 long as the fresh water continued to run violently into the 



