18 FISHING GOSSIP. 



extent, have doubtless much to do with his health 

 and happiness. Shingle beaches, marly bottoms, 

 precipitous rocks, fathomless water-valleys, and cor- 

 responding elevations of sharps or sunken islands, to 

 which in the summer months he resorts to have a 

 charge at the sticklebacks, or a tumble at his favourite 

 Ephemeridse, constitute some of the domestic requi- 

 sites for his full development. As a variety he has 

 no objection to a certain amount of bog-shore ; but 

 it is obvious it does not agree well with his constitu- 

 tion his fine colours suffering there, and his whole 

 physiognomy becoming bilious and jaundiced. If 

 brooks or rivers are not at hand, he and madam ferox 

 provide heirs to the estate in some nice gravelly or 

 sandy creek of the lake. For this I can answer, 

 having frequently been a witness of their connubial 

 happiness, standing with hymeneal torch in hand 

 over the nuptial bed on a dark November night. 

 How many seasons the amiable couple may live to 

 visit the gravel beds is rather a difficult question to 

 answer. The registry of births, deaths, and marriages 

 in such remote and obscure places as the depths of a 

 "great lake" furnishes but doubtful data for the sta- 

 tistics of the ages of the population. Neither have 

 we, in this case, the " equine marks" of the teeth, or 

 the " annual vegetable rings" to appeal to. The pro- 

 bability is that the happy pair live to a good round 

 age, though it might be imprudent to reduce it to 



