TEMPERING YOUTHFUL AMBITION. 199 



will be rendered logical by the realization of cause and effect, 

 and his whole being will soon become attuned to the harmo- 

 nies of nature. The pleasurable exercise and anxieties in the 

 practice of angling rest and recuperate the mind, so that 

 children are thereby enabled to commit their school lessons 

 to memory with greater ease, and to understand them more 

 fully. 



A small stream to angle in from the shore, or a pond to 

 row out on and anchor the boat to fish from, is a great lux- 

 ury which a family should not omit the enjoyment of. I have 

 noticed with pleasure that the taste for angling has been in- 

 creasing annually for the past ten years with our ladies. They 

 begin to delight in fishing excursions and in the harmony of 

 angling. There is, therefore, hope of a large crop of anglers 

 from the rising generation. Twenty years ago there were 

 scarcely a dozen ladies in the metropolis who could scull a 

 boat, but now many ladies ply a pair of sculls very grace- 

 fully. With those families settled near the shores of the 

 numerous water approaches to New York, and along Har- 

 lem River, the taste is setting in favor of light, buoyant, com- 

 fortable, and elegant row-boats ; and morning and evening, 

 these boats, laden with joyous families of children, lend an 

 enlivening charm to the scene. 



Sometimes papa and mamma take the children a-fishing. 

 Whenever they do, they should supply them with a light 

 bamboo rod, and attach at a joint one third from the top end 

 a very fine silk or linen line ; wind it a few times round the 

 rod, and cast two half hitches over the top end ; then afiix a 

 float according to the depth of the water, so that the bait will 

 sink within six inches of the bottom, and a foot above the 

 hook fasten to the line from one to three split shot. Let the 

 hook be the minnow size, and the bait a piece of angle- worm 

 dug the day previous, and laid in moss or green grass over 

 night to scour, if for small fresh-water fishes should merely 

 cover the point of the hook. Never bait with the head of 

 the worm ; always break that off and throw it in the water. 



