308 FISHING GOSSIP. 
where,how? Have we not our noble river, the Thames, 
close at hand, and are there not thousands of fish in 
it whose destiny, sooner or later, is to be caught? A 
small sum expended will take the angler to Richmond, 
Teddington, Sunbury, Kingston, or Windsor, where 
fishing may be had in abundance. I do not say the 
angler will return with a ten-pound trout every day, 
but if he has luck he may get a good basket of pike, 
perch, or gudgeon. — 
Angling, moreover, especially Thames angling, is 
most admirably suited for ladies. It requires no 
exertion, no moving about—simply neatness of finger 
and quickness of eye; and I therefore cordially re- 
commend it to the. notice of the ladies. 
Now the first attempt at angling will probably 
prove a failure ; it is an art, a science, that requires 
ingenuity, neatness, quickness of thought and action, 
and, above all, patience. If we listen to a lecture 
from a learned professor upon the brains of animals, 
he will point out the human brain as being at the 
highest end of the scale, the brain of the fish at the 
lowest. Holding up the brain of a fish, beautifully 
prepared in spirits of wine, he will say: “There, 
gentlemen, is an example of a badly-developed brain. 
The creature to which it belonged is proverbially dull 
and stupid.” Yet the next day, if we look over Rich- 
mond-bridge, we may behold the same learned but 
sportless professor puzzling his well-developed brain 
