496 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



consumes. The gurnard and channel-crabs are the greatest 

 annoyances to anglers on Jamaica Bay or the Great South 

 Bay ; for when paying three dollars a dozen for shedder-crab, 

 to have them destroy a couple of dozens in a day, and oblige 

 the angler to retire from the contest minus a mess of fish, it 

 is rather trying to the patience. Anglers have many trials 

 of patience, and they sometimes serve as lessons. Gurnards 

 are generally bottom-biting, and their thefts of bait teach 

 the angler to fish with a moving bait. The angler with rod 

 and reel, if he fishes with still-bait on the bottom, is no more 

 an angler than is" a member of the Hand -line Committee. 

 There are some very game fish which are always bottom- 

 biters, such, for example, as the sheepshead. For such fish 

 you should let your sinker fe6l along over the feeding-ground, 

 not letting it rest more than a half-minute in a place. Still- 

 baiting from a boat in bays and estuaries is beautiful sport ; 

 for, being away from shore on the water, there are no con- 

 fused noises to disturb meditation, and the sights of the 

 shores and waters are more enchanting than when viewed 

 from any other position. 



" Now fleecy clouds, and gently warming beams, 

 Alternate, overshade and gild the streams : 

 And, like the wicked, fish unalarm'd view 

 Their fellows perish, and their path pursue. 

 Fish have their various characters, defin'd 

 Not more by form or color than by mind ; 

 We cheat the finny fools, ourselves as blind, 

 Fools, in our turn, are cheated by our kind!" 



