" SUN-SPEARING. " 121 



win the smiles of the adepts in special departments 

 of our art ; but, after running over the whole " chro- 

 matic scale" of the gentle craft, from its highest to 

 its lowest responses, I have arrived at the bold con- 

 viction that a new note may be introduced into the 

 " harmonic circle" of its attractions. To borrow an 

 illustration from the same source, when Guido Are- 

 tino and his successors completed the musical scale 

 by the addition of a seventh, there were doubtless 

 many persons at the time to whose ears the innova- 

 tion sounded superfluous and discordant. An attempt 

 to place SUN-SPEARING amongst the resources of the 

 fisherman's art may, I fear, be exposed to a similar 

 reception. But such has ever been the lot of the pre- 

 cursors of progress. First in the ranks, they are sure 

 to receive the arrows of the opposing crowd. I con- 

 sole myself, therefore, by the reflection, that the 

 philanthropist who would shrink from this kind of 

 martyrdom is quite unworthy of his mission. 



The popular estimate of eels, I am sorry to say, 

 is at par with the prevailing sentiments respect- 

 ing the barbarous weapon with which they are too 

 often tormented. The naturalists, from whom one 

 might expect fair play, are hardly less unjust. They 

 all continue the repulsive name of Anguilla in their 

 systems, as if they really believed that eels had any- 

 thing to do with serpents, or that they were included 

 in the malediction pronounced upon the latter. 



