18 FISHING GOSSIP. 
extent, have doubtless much to do with his health 
and happiness. Shingle beaches, marly bottoms, 
precipitous rocks, fathomless water-valleys, and cor- 
responding elevations of sharps or sunken islands, to 
which in the summer months he resorts to have a 
charge at the sticklebacks, or a tumble at his favourite 
Ephemeridx, constitute some of the domestic requi- 
sites for his full development. As a variety he has 
no objection to a certain amount of bog-shore ; but 
it is obvious it does not agree well with his constitu- 
tion—his fine colours suffering there, and his whole 
physiognomy becoming bilioug and jaundiced. If 
brooks or rivers are not at hand, he and madam feroxz 
provide heirs to the estate in some nice gravelly or 
sandy creek of the lake. For this I can answer, 
having frequently been a witness of their connubial 
happiness, standing with hymeneal torch in hand 
over the nuptial bed on a dark November -night. 
How many seasons the amiable couple may live to . 
visit the gravel beds is rather a difficult question to 
answer. ‘The registry of births, deaths, and marriages 
in such remote and obscure places as the depths of a 
“oreat lake” furnishes but doubtful data for the sta- 
tistics of the ages of the population. Neither have 
we, in this case, the “equine marks” of the teeth, or 
the “ annual vegetable rings” to appeal to. The pro- 
bability is that the happy pair live to a good round 
-age, though it might be imprudent to reduce it to 
