QUAINT SALTS AT CANAKSIE. 91 



our host orders Captain Abrams to bring his yacht along the 

 dock. It was amusing, when I first inaugurated rod-fishing 

 for sheepshead, to perceive the members of the hand-line-com- 

 mittee cast furtive glances at me as they winked knowingly 

 to one another, as much as to say, " All's fish as comes to our 

 net, and a greenhorn is as good as any, if he pays." The clam- 

 rakers and crab-catchers, whose small sail and row ooats dot 

 the shores and shoals of Jamaica Bay as they saunter about 

 barefooted and clad in a red shirt and rolled-up trowsers, also 

 believed that anglers for sheepshead with rod and reel were 

 monomaniacs ; and though they freely took my money for 

 bait, they frankly advised me to use a hand-line for " head." 

 This want of faith, however, lasted no longer than did the 

 gibes and sneers of the shad-fishermen at Holyoke when Seth 

 Green stated that he could hatch a million of shad a day, and 

 within a week he hatched six times that number daily. So 

 the members of the hand-line-committee and bait-catchers 

 soon became not only civil, but vied with each other in sec- 

 onding my wishes by taking pains to* procure me peculiar 

 baits, etc., concluding finally that angling with a rod and reel 

 may be as respectable as fishing with a hand-line. 



SECTION FOURTH. 



ANGLING FOR SHEEPSHEAD. 



The saline air is invigorating, and a slight haze protects us 

 from an unwelcome glare of the sun. The gulls scream as 

 they dip and sweep over shoals of young herring and men- 

 haden. Members of the hand-line-committee are out in full 

 force, and sixty clinker-built and copper-fastened tiny sail- 

 boats, with poles lowered and sails wrapped round them, are 

 anchored along the banks of mussel-beds, intent on baiting 

 with clams, and casting their heavy sinkers catchung ! ca- 

 lling ! Our captain rounds our craft to as if he intended to 

 swamp half a dozen tiny craft ; but all is serene and the an- 

 chor cast, when the captain falls to opening shedder crab and 

 soft-shell clams, and throwing the shells overboard at the bow 



