THE NORTH AMERICAIT FISHERIES. 7 



and cauglit a few of this strange fish. Placing 

 them in a vessel of water he set over it a stick 

 covered with treacle. The flies were soon attracted 

 to perch upon this, and then each fish raising his 

 head above the water discharged a drop of water at 

 his fly with the most marvellous address, bringing 

 them down into the vessel, Avhere they soon fell 

 victims to the squirting fish. The Texan hunter 

 communicated his discovery to a naturalist at New 

 Orleans, who verified the experiment, and the species 

 was accepted as a novelty. This fish is, with good 

 reason, accounted to be one of the best of the 

 Mexican Gulf, and is now to be found all along the 

 coasts of the Torrid Zone, in the waters of the South 

 Atlantic, and also in the Pacific. 



It is not only on the coasts of America that the 

 fisheries are productive, but also in all the great 

 lakes and rivers of North America. I take a plea- 

 sure in recalling to memory the happy days I spent 

 on the banks of the Mississippi, the Hudson, the 

 Ohio, and the St. Lawrence, not to mention the 

 many great tributaries of those mighty streams. The 

 very recollection of them restores their old elasticity 

 to my limbs, vigour to my muscles, vivacity to my 

 mind, and life to my heart. How lovely was the 

 forest whose branchy summits shaded my head ! 

 How clear the blue skies of that land on which 

 Nature has lavished all her treasures ! How har- 

 monious were the notes of the mocking-bird and the 



