230 



THE FISH AND FISHING 



sporting advantages of your own ; for it would occupy an 

 ordinary lifetime, were a man, with angling implements, 

 merely to explore the waters and make acquaintance with 

 every variety of fish that has " a local habitation and a name" 

 within its extended boundaries. 



As the state of natural science in regard to the history and 

 habits of our fishes is in its infancy, so also are the contrivances 

 and arts employed in taking them, yet rude and undeveloped. 

 But we are rapidly increasing our knowledge and refining our 

 methods ; as we must do when pleasure, and not profit, is the 

 object of our pursuit, and the fish, constantly sought, become 

 wary, and yield only to the utmost address of the angler. 



Much certainly might here be said of the ordinary and ex- 

 traordinary game fish inhabiting the waters of both hemi- 

 spheres, which have long furnished themes to cultivated anglers 

 and practical studies of the art. But much especially deserves 

 to be said of the finny inhabitants of our own bright streams, 

 which are unhappily unknown to our brotherhood in the old 

 world. Who that ever took a striped basse or squeteague 

 of five or ten pounds' weight can ever forget the pleasur- 

 able excitement and ecstasy of the moment ; or what man, 

 worthy the name, whose fortune has been cast among the 

 northern lakes, can fail, even in his dreams, to remember the 

 intense enjoyment that thrilled his soul and senses as he trium- 

 phantly drew from its pellucid waters, after a long skirmish 

 and a doubtful struggle, a three foot trout or a large black 

 basse 1 Who, too, that has made one of a party in the briny 

 bay, and captured a mess of lively barb, or the noble sheeps- 

 head, after a vigorous contest and a beautiful play with rod 

 and reel, wonders at the enthusiasm of the American angler, 

 surrounded by such opportunities of enjoyment ? The salmon, 

 the trout, and the pike are almost the only game fish of Europe, 

 It is true, 



