K A THOUSAND foes the finny people chase, 

 Nor are they safe from their own kindred race ; 

 The pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain, 

 With rav'nous waste devours his fellow train ; 

 Yet howsoe'er with raging famine join'd, 

 The tench he spares, a salutary kind ; 

 Hence too the perch, alike voracious brood, 

 Forbears to make this gen'rous race his food ; 

 Though on the common drove no bound he finds, 

 But spreads unmeasured waste o'er all the kinds. 

 Nor less the greedy trout, and glutless eel, 

 Incessant woes and dire destruction deal ; 

 The lurking water-rat in caverns preys, 

 And in the weeds the wily otter stays ; 

 The ghastly newt in muddy streams annoys, 

 And in swift floods the scaly snake destroys ; 

 Toads, for the swarming fry, forsake the lawn, 

 And croaking frogs devour the tender spawn ; 

 Neither the habitants of land nor air, 

 So sure their doom the fishy numbers spare : 

 The swan, fair regent of the silver tide, 

 Their ranks destroys and spreads their ruin wide ; 

 The duck her offspring to the river leads, 

 And on the destined fry insatiate feeds : 

 On fatal wings the pouncing bittern soars, 

 And wafts her prey from the defenceless shores ; 

 The watchful halcyons to the^eeds repair, 

 And from their haunts the scaly captives bear ; 

 Sharp herns and cormorants their tribe oppress, 

 A harass'd race, peculiar in distress ; 

 Nor can the muse enumerate their foes, 

 Such is their fate, so various are their woes." 



BEST'S Art of Angling. 



