146 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



bass in the Washing Pond, forty in Miacomet Pond, 

 and three thousand small land-locked salmon in Hum- 

 mock Pond. Mr. Joy has lately informed the compiler 

 that the fish have all done well, having 'multiplied and 

 grown rapidly. 



If you like fishing, and don't mind the peeling of 

 your nose or the laceration of your hands, come 

 here to Nantucket, get a lot of jolly fellows together, 

 hire a yacht, and go out for a day's sport, — either 

 bluefishing, sharking, or scupping, or all combined; 

 and if the experience is not a pleasurable one, — es- 

 pecially if it is a goodly company, and congenial, — 

 then are you no lover of the art piscatory. 



Mr. Northrop, the author of that pleasant little 

 book, "'Sconset Cottage Life," — who is himself a 

 keen sportsman and follower of the gentle Izaak, — 

 says, " If you would catch bluefish to your heart's 

 content, go for them in June; a piece of advice not 

 likely to be serenely received by those who must wait 

 until August for their annual vacation. In the leafy 

 month the fish roam over these shoals, as hungry and 

 predaceous as so many sharks. You may satisfy your 

 bloodiest and most avaricious instincts as a fisherman; 

 but after such a debauch of angling, you will never dare 

 to read the pages of the gentle Izaak Walton until 

 you have washed your hands and your heart of such 

 wholesale slaughter." And in regard to sharking, he 

 says, " No summer experience is complete without 

 one ' sharking expedition.'" After giving a very 

 realistic description of the catching of a shark, he 

 continues, " I confess (with a little twinge) that I 

 was never more excited with any sport (!) in my life 



