ABOUT BASS. 



When time, which steals our years away, 



Shall steal our pleasures too, 

 The memory of the past will stay, 



And half our joy renew. Moore. 



ABOUT BASS. 



HpHE most highly esteemed member of our coterie devotes 

 -* his leisure in angling for bass. He was born on the 

 banks of the St. Lawrence, and before he had mastered his 

 alphabet or shed his short-clothes he had become familiar 

 with the haunts if not with the habits of this gamy fish. 

 Indeed, although he has passed his three score years, his 

 "memory runneth not to the contrary" when he would not 

 rather fish than eat. The implements he used were primi- 

 tive but effective of just the form and calibre of those we 

 often now see in the hands of oar juvenile Waltons less 

 ornamental than uselul, and intended not to ' 'play" a fish 

 but io "yank" him, witli the least possible ceremony, from 

 his aqueous element. It is not strange, therefore, that he 

 is passionately fond of the pastime and as eager, new that 

 ' 'his hoary head is hid in snow, " as when, ' 'in the morn and 

 liquid dew of youth," he gladly accepted the task of keep- 

 ing the family table supplied with the results of his infantile 

 labors. 



There are few busier men in the marts of trade to-day and no 

 man anywhere less likely, from habit or temperament, to 

 squander either time or fortune. He never turns the back 

 of his hand to a friend nor the back of his coat to an enemy, 

 and would sooner lose the best customer on his long list 

 than forego his visits to bass waters in July and October. I 

 never knew a man with a more perfectly balanced double 



