214 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



&omme. 



This is a very important river, and contains many fine 

 trout. It takes its rise a few miles above St. Quentin, at 

 a village called Fonsomme, and runs a westerly course 

 for above a hundred miles, discharging its waters into the 

 sea a little below St. Valery. 



St. Quentin is a fine large town, and enjoys considerable 

 celebrity on many accounts. It is a place of great anti- 

 quity; and in the times of the Romans rejoiced in the 

 name of Augusta Viromanduorum. The Hotel de Ville, 

 which is a Gothic structure, and contains the best chimes 

 in the world, is highly deserving of attention ; as well as 

 the cathedral, the botanical garden, and the public library, 

 which contains a splendid collection of more than four- 

 teen thousand volumes. 



If the angler commence his operations on the river, at 

 St. Quentin, and proceeds to fish down the stream, he 

 will arrive at the celebrated fortress of Ham ; which is 

 the strongest place of the kind in all France, and which 

 constitutes the almost hopeless prison of the principal 

 political offenders against the supreme power in the state. 

 It is a gloomy place, and makes the passing angler bless 

 his stars that his limbs are unfettered and free. 



The streams, before the river joins the canal of St. 

 Quentin, are good for fly, minnow, and red-worm. 



The next place of importance on the Somme is Peronne ; 

 a town remarkable for some highly interesting historical 

 events. It is surrounded by marais, and is a place of great 

 military strength. It enjoyed the reputation of being a 

 virgin fortress, and on that account had obtained the 

 cognomen of Pucelle ; but the title must now, we presume, 

 cease to be appropriate, since it was taken, during the last 

 war, by the Duke of Wellington "a great destroyer," 



