\e 
3 
ARROW FISHING. 67 
The shaft is then gone after, picked up, and thrust into 
the spear; the cord is again adjusted, and the canoe 
moves towards the merry makers of those swift ascend- 
ing bubbles, so brightly displaying themselves on the 
edge of that deep shade, cast by yonder evergreen oak. 
There is much in the associations of arrow-fishing 
that gratifies taste, and makes it partake of a refined 
and intellectual character. Beside the knowledge it 
gives of the character of fishes, it practises one in the 
curious refractions of water. Thus will the arrow-fish- 
erman, from long experience, drive his pointed shaft a 
fathom deep for game, when it would seem, to the nov- 
ice, that a few inches would be more than sufficient. 
Again, the waters that supply the arrow-fisherman 
with game, afford subsistence to innumerable birds, and 
he has exhibited before him, the most beautiful displays 
of their devices to catch the finny tribe. 
The kingfisher may be seen the livelong day, acting 
a prominent part, bolstering up its fantastic topknot, as 
if to apologize for a manifest want of neck; you can 
hear him always scolding and clamorous among the low 
brush, and overhanging limits of trees, eyeing the min- 
nows as they glance along the shore, and making vain 
essays to fasten them in his bill. 
The hawk, too, often swoops down from the clouds, 
swift as the bolt of Jove; the cleft air whistles in the 
flight ; the sportive fish, playing in the sunlight, is 
snatched up in the rude talons, and borne aloft, the 
