THE FISH UTTERESTS OF INDIANA. 225' 



informed by truthful fishermem — and who ever knew a fisherman to lie? — that a 

 seven-pound bass ia not a rarity in some neighborhoods. I would rather see a. leu- 

 pound bass than hear tell of it, though I would not for a moment question either 

 tht veracity or voracity of the proverbially truthful fisheiman. 



It was, doubtless, the reputation I bear as a fisherman which procured roe the- 

 honor of appearing before you, and knowing myself to be undeserving, at least 

 practically, of such a reputation,^ I almost feel myself to be an old fraud who haa- 

 honors thrust upon him beyond bis merit; but, then, when one's heart is in it, that 

 is half the battle. There are those who can distance me many degrees in fishing 

 andin knowledge of fish, perhaps, put me to shame, and yet I never go to Broad 

 Ripple but I bring home with me a me&s of fish. No. they are not given to me as a 

 general thing ; they are secured with patience and perseverance, and if they are 

 small and many to the pound, why, you may say I like small fish best. 



It was, I believe, the Rev. Myron W. Keed, who, once upon a time, said alF 

 fishermen were liars. As the reverend gentleman himself is quite a uottd fisherman, 

 I can not do such violence to his cloth a.s to believe the assertion unless taken cum 

 grano sails. You will certainly be»r roe witne-s that I have not lied concerning aay.- 

 prowess as a fisherman. I can not say with the Hon. Sunset Cox, of New York,, 

 that I have fished under the shadows of our Sierras in Tahoe, lake and stream ^ 

 that I have followed the mountain rivulet Restonica in Corsica, where the waters 

 blanch the boulders into dazzling whiteness, and the associations of the vendetta 

 and the Bon apartes give a ruddy tinge to the adventure; that I have caught th« 

 cod in the Arctic around Cape Nord, under the majestic light of the midnight soa ^. 

 that I have angled in the elear running Malaren Saltsjon, which circulates health- 

 fully amid the splendid islets of stately Stockholm, and in the Bosphorus, in sight 

 of the historic Euxine and the marble palaces and mosques of two continents ; that: 

 I have been tossed in shallops along with the jolly fishers of the Bay of Biscay., 

 that I have hiid the honor of beholding the pillars near Iskenderoon in the north- 

 west corner of the Mediterranean, erected by a grateful people on the spot where 

 Jonah was thrown ashore by the whale; and that I have bounded through the- 

 league-long rollers on the shores of New Jersey, along with my favorite life-saver*- 

 — to see and feel the "^blufish wriggling on the hooks." 



No, I have not thrown a lin« in or at any of these places, but I have cast vaj 

 hook in 8alcm Creek, New Jersey, for perch; have angled in Long Island Sonnd;. 

 gone for wall-eyed pike in " La Belle" river, have roamed the banks of the Mn»- 

 katatak for red-eyes;, have set trofe-lines in the Kentucky for mud-cats; hare 

 angled in the two Miamfe with indiflferent success; have helped to set and draw 

 the seine in beautiful and storied Wye river, Maryland; have sunned myself ou 

 the banks of the Monocaey, awaiting a glorious nibble ; have seintd for minnows- 

 beside "Mill creek's marshy marge;" have spent precious hours at Eagle creek;, 

 have lingered at DoUarhide; have taken croppies and spotted catfish from SliaQ_ 

 non's lake, mullets from Fall creek, and an uncounted variety of fins, from bass to 

 dace, from Broad Ripple. O, I have had sport, that let me tell you, even if I have 

 never captured eight, ten and' eleveo-poand bass. 



I am not only entbuuiastieallj ioud. of the gentle art, but love to eat my fish- 



16 — AOSICU LTtTKB.. 



