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dropped, and in the morning, by day-break, proceed in 

 the boat to take your hooks up. For this purpose you 

 should go to the marked spot, and with your boat-hook, 

 feel for your cord ; if you have a garden rake at hand it 

 Is preferable , generally getting your cord with far less 

 trouble. 



You must not be surprised if you do not find your 

 hooks where you set them ; for large fishes, especially 

 els, will drag them, bricks and all, to some distance, and 

 twist them into such a confused mass, as will call forth 

 all your patience to unravel. 



For this reason stakes are far preferable to- bricks ; but 

 they cannot be so well concealed ; and, as all who lay 

 night-lines are, to a certainty, watched by various classes 

 of idlers, and especially by the professional fishermen, 

 who cannot bear to gee a fish but in their own nets, it is 

 an object of some moment, to adopt such measures as 

 inay counteract the wiles of the vulgar. 



I have often found my cord one or two hundred yards 

 down the stream, with several eels and other fishes 

 fast on my hooks 5 and sometimes I have had the mor- 

 tification to find my whole apparatus laying on the shore j 

 no doubt robbed by the fishermen, who watched my mo- 

 tions, and got up time enough to be before me. 



Once indeed, I was eased altogether of my cord and 

 lines, but had the satisfaction to learn, that the thief, who 

 often gave cautious hints of his trick, was sent to display 

 his dexterity to better purpose at Botany Bay. 



All things considered, I look upon the laying ofnigkt- 

 lines, except in protected waters, as being a very hazard- 

 ous affair ; and should recommend single lines in pre- 

 fereace to many an a eord. If good tackle be used, it 

 H 3 proves 



