LONG ISLAND. 



HE waters of Long. Island are familiar to few beside 

 the anglers of New York and vicinity, and although 

 extolled by them, would hardly be appreciated, I 

 fear, by the brotherhood at large. The most expert 

 disciple of Izaak Walton may have wet his line in 

 many a mountain lake and stream, or purling meadow-brook, 

 and still have much to learn if he has never thrown a fly 

 where the saline breezes blow over the salt marshes of the 

 famed " South Side," or attended the roysterous opening of 

 the season on the 15th of March. For thus early, while in- 

 terior streams are bound by Winter's fetters, and snow-drifts 

 mount the fences, the waters of Long Island have been 

 released by a more southern sun and the tempering breezes 

 of ocean. The ebb and flow of tide have purged them of 

 snow-water, and the eager trout, after his long Lenten sea- 

 son, is glorious game for the sportsman. 



Long Island is said to resemble a fish in shape a remark- 

 able delineation of its physical character. Gotham experts 

 deem it the finest trouting region in the world for scientific 

 anglers, because none but skillful rods can take the fish of 

 its .creeks and streams. Worthy members of the brother- 

 hood who are wont to steal a march upon the Culex family 

 in their annual trips to the north, may have taken at times 

 their fifty pounds of trout per diem in Adirondack or Cana- 



