140 FISHING GOSSIP. 



tween us and the sun ; and in a moment all around 

 the dingey becomes black as a wolfs throat. The 

 little zephyrs too, which reposed so quietly all the 

 morning in the underwood of the islands, by some 

 peculiar sympathy with or signal from the cloud 

 above, come forth, and with inflated cheeks puff the 

 surface of the lake, here and there, into patches of the 

 tiniest ripples. Their playful movements, though 

 refreshing on a hot morning in June, are fatal to the 

 pursuit of sun-spearing while they last. It is one of 

 the advantages of large lakes and their scenery to 

 supply resources of amusement during intervals when 

 eels can't be seen and other fish won't bite. There is 

 Church Island within the length of the spear-shaft 

 from Dingey, in which there is natural history and 

 antiquarianism enough to fill a volume. Or if " in 

 the vein o' it," there are skulls in the old crypt " with 

 mantling ivy clad," one of which may serve to point 

 the moral of a morning homily on the transient 

 glories of men and eels, beginning with, of course, an 

 " Alas, poor Yorick !" The herons, now engaged in 

 the interesting W 7 ork of incubation in the attics of the 

 tall firs above your head, will stretch forth their long 

 necks in evident admiration of your elocutionary 

 essay ; and the grebes and wild ducks, which make 

 the best of claquers, will applaud your hits from their 

 nests upon the benches of the "pit" below. But lo ! 

 there's an interruption of your soliloquy threatened 



