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FISHING IN THE OHIO. 



It is with mingled feelings of pleasure and regret that I recall to my 

 mind the many pleasant days I have spent on the shores of the Ohio. 

 The visions of former years crowd on my view, as I picture to myself 

 the fertile soil and genial atmosphere of our great western garden, Ken- 

 tucky, and view the placid waters of the fair stream that flows along its 

 western boundary. Methinks I am now on the banks of the noble river. 

 Twenty years of my life have returned to me ; my sinews are strong, and 

 the " bowstring of my spirit is not slack ;" bright visions of the future 

 float before me, as I sit on a grassy bank, gazing on the glittering wa- 

 ters. Around me are dense forests of lofty trees and thickly tangled un- 

 dergrowth, amid which are heard the songs of feathered choristers, and 

 from whose boughs hang clusters of glowing fruits and beautiful flowers. 

 Reader, I am very happy. But now the dream has vanished, and here I 

 am in the British Athens, penning an episode for my Ornithological Bio- 

 graphy, and having before me sundry well-thumbed and weather-beaten 

 folios, from which I expect to be able to extract some interesting particu- 

 lars respecting the methods employed in those days in catching Cat-fish. 



But, before entering on my subject, I will present you with a brief 

 description of the place of my residence on the banks of the Ohio. When 

 I first landed at Henderson in Kentucky, my family, like the village, was 

 quite small. The latter consisted of six or eight houses ; the former of my 

 wife, myself, and a young child. Few as the houses were, we fortunately 

 found one empty. It was a log-cabin, not a log-ZioM.se ; but as better 

 could not be had, we were pleased. Well, then, we were located. The 

 countiy around was thinly peopled, and all purchasable provisions rather 

 scarce ; but our neighbours were friendly, and we had brought with us 

 flour and bacon-hams. Our pleasures were those of young people not 

 long married, and full of life and merriment ; a single smile from our in- 

 fant was, I assure you, more valued by us than all the treasures of a 

 modern Croesus would have been. The woods were amply stocked with 

 game, the river with fish ; and now and then the hoarded sweets of the 

 industrious bees were brought from some hollow tree to our little table. 

 Our child's cradle was our richest piece of furniture, our guns and fish- 

 ing-lines our most serviceable implements, for although we began to cul- 



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