APPETITE AND LOCOMOTION. 23 



during a fall of snow or rain. Indeed, a snow-storm seems to 

 improve the appetite of some fishes ; and rains which do not 

 render the stream too turbid, but give to the water a slight- 

 ly-darkened tint, do not injure it for even fishing with the fly. 



It is a commonly received opinion that angling is not as 

 good as usual during easterly winds ; but this is only true 

 when the winds cause the tides to rise so high on our coast 

 that fishes change their feeding-grounds. Fly-fishing for 

 both salmon and trout are, in some waters, best during an 

 cast wind. A really windy day is not good for fly-fishing. 

 The gentle, balmy breeze, which merely produces a catspaw 

 ripple on the surface, and carries the cast of flies out, so as to 

 leave part of the merit for their graceful and snow-flake fall 

 to the angler and the rod, under " a sun of mild but not too 

 bright a beam," form a few of the conditions which give fly- 

 tishing its peculiar zest. The prejudice against an east wind 

 with the American angler on the Atlantic slope near the 

 coast is probably caused by the fact that an east wind so 

 raises the tides along the shores, and sets it back in the estu- 

 aries and creeks, as to cover shoals and islets of eel-grass. 

 This gives fishes a wider range to forage and prospect over 

 shallow and weedy places for shrimp, shedder and soft-shell 

 crabs, instead of remaining in the tideway to watch for bait 

 carried along by the current. 



To converse intelligibly about fishes, it is necessary to 

 know the names of their fins, for these give the means of lo- 

 comotion ; and though this work is not intended as a school- 

 book, or to* be especially scientific, yet, as all retailers of fish- 

 stories should know enough of a fish to name its fins, I pre- 

 sent on the following page the form of a fish, with the names 

 of them. 



The propulsive power of a fish is its tail or caudal fin. 

 The pectorals and ventrals assist a little in speed, but more 

 especially in turning and diving, w T hile the anal and dorsals 

 serve as centre-boards to a ship, to prevent leeway and being 

 easily capsized. Of rapid swimmers in the American waters, 



