58 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



gaff gently beneath, and it will be hooked with the utmost 

 ease. 



Well, with broken rod and tangled line, I ordered Sile to row 

 away from the scene of our misfortune. I found my friend 

 at Hammock Rocks, his fish laid out in state on rock-grass, 

 and he mutely bending over it with a face radiant with pleas- 

 urable satisfaction at his achievement. Trolling, to him, was 

 a new-born pleasure, and his first capture a trophy of which 

 a slayer of lions might be justly proud. It would be super- 

 fluous to add, we drank to the study for a Stearns or a 

 Bracket as it lay shining on the pallet of sea-grass. Sandy 

 commiserated Sile's misfortune at losing the large bass. In 

 the centre of a radius containing the most picturesque land- 

 scape near the metropolis, we rested, wondered, and admired. 



" The skies their fairest canvas spread 



When the angler goes a-trolling ; 

 Relenting clouds float -overhead, 

 And tears and smiles alternate shed, 



When the angler goes a-trolling." STODDART. 



Having toasted the health and appetite of bass in that 

 neighborhood in a glass of sherry, and replaced the broken 

 joint of my rod with a sound one, we again seated ourselves 

 in our boats, and commenced trolling the Little Gate, the 

 Kills, and all about Randall's and Ward's Islands, and, after 

 the usual alternatives of hopes, fears, and moments of ecstasy, 

 we finished up a mess of seven bass between us, the largest 

 nearly thirty, and the smallest four pounds in weight. 



Well, having given you a taste of the sport on the waters 

 bounding Manhattan Island on the north and east, let us an- 

 chor our boat near the lower hedges of New York Bay, and 

 learn how different bottom fishing with a tracing sinker is 

 from both trolling and angling with a float. 



SECTION FOURTH. 



STILL-BAITING FOR BASS. 



Use a stiffish rod, like A, B, C on the page of implements. 

 It should be from eight to nine feet in length. The Japan 



