308 FISHING GOSSIP. 



where, how ? Have we not our noble river, the Thames, 

 close at hand, and are there not thousands of fish in 

 it whose destiny, sooner or later, is to be caught ? A 

 small sum expended will take the angler to Eichmond, 

 Teddington, Sunbury, Kingston, or Windsor, where 

 fishing may be had in abundance. I do not say the 

 angler will return with a ten-pound trout every day, 

 but if he has luck he may get a good basket of pike, 

 perch, or gudgeon. 



Angling, moreover, especially Thames angling, is 

 most admirably suited for ladies. It requires no 

 exertion, no moving about simply neatness of finger 

 and quickness of eye ; and I therefore cordially re- 

 commend it to the notice of the ladies. 



'Now the first attempt at angling will probably 

 prove a failure ; it is an art, a science, that requires 

 ingenuity, neatness, quickness of thought and action, 

 and, above all, patience. If we listen to a lecture 

 from a learned professor upon the brains of animals, 

 he will point out the human brain as being at the 

 highest end of the scale, the brain of the fish at the 

 lowest. Holding up the brain of a fish, beautifully 

 prepared in spirits of wine, he will say : "There, 

 gentlemen, is an example of a badly-developed brain. 

 The creature to which it belonged is proverbially dull 

 and stupid." Yet the next day, if we look over Eich- 

 mond-bridge, we may behold the same learned but 

 sportless professor puzzling his well-developed brain 



