THE NORTH AMERICAN FISHERIES. 17 



Ontario, not far from Rocliester. At seventeen years 

 of age flesh is weak, above all when the tempter is a 

 handsome youth. Mr. P. was a millionaire of the 

 Antinous type, and America, disappointed of her 

 pension from Congress, accepted his offer. The 

 only drawback was that Antinous was as jealous as 

 Othello. 



America, however, gave him no cause for appre- 

 hension in that direction. Her principal amusements 

 were hunting and fishing. She was to be seen 

 hunting the stag, shooting partridges, snipe, quail, 

 and all the fowls of the air and the waters, A 

 veritable Isaak Walton in petticoats, she threw her 

 line over every stream which flowed into Ontario. 



The reputation of her beauty attracted to Mr. P.'s 

 country-house a large number of visitors ; but all, 

 under one pretext or another, were speedily sent 

 about their business, often without even an opportu- 

 nity of presenting to the master of the house their 

 letters of introduction, and without being found 

 worthy of a single glance, even were it of disdain, 

 from the eyes of the fair America. The residence of 

 Mr. P. soon came to be talked about in all the best 

 Clubs of the Union as an inaccessibfe Eden, guarded 

 by the dragons of the Hesperides; and the greater 

 the difficulty was to approach the feet of the fair Ame- 

 rica, the greater the number of the Argonauts who 

 desired to approach that incomparable Golden Fleece. 



Chance had brought me into contact with Mr. P., 



