22 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



II.— LINE-FISHING. 



I AM convinced that the perusal of Robinson 

 Ci-usoe, the Swiss Robinson, and the works of Cooper, 

 Mayne Reid, and other authors of the same kind — 

 of even my own, it may be — has attracted from the 

 paternal roof many of our most celebrated sailors, 

 and that it will continue to produce the same eifect 

 as often as occasion offers ; but I am still more cer- 

 tain that the greater part of the anglers who line the 

 banks of the Seine, the Marne, and the other great 

 rivers of the world, have been inspired with the 

 "fatal" passion by reading fishing manuals, and 

 works which promise to teach the devotees of the 

 gentle art how to catch large quantities of fish in a 

 short time, — works which develope the theory with- 

 out paying due attention to the practice, and which 

 serve up their lessons with an accompaniment or 

 sauce composed of anecdotes, stories of marvellous 

 takes of fish, and often of exciting illustrations. 



I, who wrote this, good fellow angler, read my 

 Walton years ago — alas, how many ! — with three 

 companions of my own age"; and at the conclusion of 

 that captivating reading, we started off at once for a 

 certain small lake not far from the paternal mansion, 

 duly furnished with rods, lines, hooks, red worms, 

 and morsels of cheese — like true Quixotes as we 



