404 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



adviser, me judice, says that if it is certain that the read- 

 er will skip all that, then I had better do so. I ask my 

 good angel what to substitute, and intimate that 1 have 

 already said all that is necessary on the subject of fishing 

 with the fly for White Perch ; but my mentor says that so 

 far the fishing has been in mill-ponds, where they are rarely 

 found, and has not touched upon the taking of them in the 

 brackish waters where they most abound; and suggests that 

 something be said of that. Now there is nothing more to 

 be said on the subject ; you can take the fish wherever you 

 find it, with either fly or bait, and it is no part of my purpose 

 to tell about taking them with worms, pieces of fish, crickets, 

 or other gross lures which appeal to their baser appetites. 

 With Dr. Bethune, "I have long since washed my hands of 

 the dirty things," and will only say, do not put a water-proof 

 silk line into salt water, because it will soften and ruin it ; 

 use linen or other material. 



If after reading "this bald unjointed chat" there is a desire 

 for a serious consideration of the merits of the fish, take down 

 Goode's "American Fishes," and read his last paragraph, p. 

 38; it gives the White Perch a high grade, and recommends 

 it to "the easy-going British Angler of the Waltonian type, 

 to whom the pleasure of the rural scenery and quiet outing 

 is of more moment than the strength arid voracity of the 

 fishes," etc. Goode and Norris are the only writers that I 

 recall who have given this game fish a fairly decent notice. 

 But this yarn has been spun too long and I am reminded of 

 Edgar's remark (King Lear, Act ii., Sc. 4): "Frateretto 

 calls me, and tells me, Nero is an angler in the lake of dark- 

 ness." And thereby hangs a tale! "To this complexion may 

 we come at last." How many of us can plead not guilty to 

 Caesar's charge against Antony: 



"He fishes, drinks, and wastes the lamps of night in rev- 

 el ?" 



If there is any moral to be drawn from what has been 



