OP THE UNITED STATES. 931 



" Their plenteous streams a various race supply : 

 The bright eyed perch, with fins of Tyrian dye, 

 The silver eel, in shining volumes rolled, 

 The yellow carp, in scales bedropped with gold, 

 Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains, 

 And pikes, the tyrants of the watery plains," 



but we have, in addition, almost innumerable objects of sport. 

 For the lover of the breezy ocean there is the invigorating 

 pastime of trolling for blue fish, or of drawing from its 

 populous depths the valued sea basse, porgie, and tautog. In 

 our larger rivers and lakes abound the mighty muskellunge, 

 or ponderous cat-fish, and buffalo ; and last, though not least, 

 is the never-to-be-forgotten red-fish, which tenants the bays 

 and mouths of our southern rivers. Happy and grateful then 

 should our angler be that his lot is cast in such a land ! 



Surrounded by such abundance and variety of " finny 

 attractions," is it wonderful that the angler falls into ecstasies, 

 expatiating on his favorite subject 1 But we would moderate 

 any pride of superiority we indulge in over our transatlantic 

 brethren in respect to the quantity and quality of our game, by 

 reasoning with ourselves and inquiring, Are our advantages to 

 last, can they always be 1 You who have trod the mossy 

 bank in pursuit of trout, and warred against the swift current 

 when the striped basse was the object of your sport, will 

 answer emphatically no. You are painfully assured that the 

 well known haunts wherein in happy boyhood you took many 

 a " silver side," are deserted, and the overarching banks of your 

 favorite streams conceal your spotted friends no longer. You 

 know that at your basse grounds you take few and still fewer 

 fish, and that some of your former places are now never 

 visited by the sought for game. It is the commonest complaint 

 of the old anglers that fishing nowadays is uncertain ; that 

 it is much more difficult to take a mess of fish ; there are too 

 A* 



