270 ANGLING 



dwell upon districts within a reasonable and approach- 

 able distance from their own homes. 



Now, to commence near our own door, France is a 

 country possessing great angling capabilities, and where 

 there has been a considerable portion of British enter- 

 prise in this line for the last forty years. But it is an 

 extensive country, and possesses great and numerous 

 rivers, which it would be impossible for us here to 

 describe. All we can do is merely to point out 

 certain districts of the kingdom where rod-fishing will 

 readily be met with, and leave the tourist to his own 

 resources. 



The department of the Pas de Calais, which embraces, 

 among others, the towns of Calais, Dunkerque, Boulogne, 

 and St. Omer, is a great rendezvous for British anglers — 

 not that they make the " gentle art " a primary object, 

 but they carry it with them to eke out the paucity of 

 enjoyments for their stirring and excitable temperaments. 

 But this section of France is not anything like a first- 

 rate fishing locality. There is bottom-fishing, but not 

 good river fly-fishing. There is a want of the mountain 

 streams for this purpose. The country all the way to 

 Paris being comparatively flat, the rivers are thick, 

 puddly, and sluggish. But the English, when they go 

 to the Continent, practise bottom-fishing much more 

 frequently, and with a keener relish, than they do in 

 their own country. This may partly be accounted for 

 on the principle of necessity, for our national partiality 

 for all kinds of manly outdoor sports makes us rush 

 into everything productive of excitement, without 

 scanning very fastidiously the exact bearings or nature 

 of the thing itself. 



There is good bottom-fishing in the vicinity of Calais. 

 A few years since we counted, within eight miles of 

 this town, on the banks of the canal to St. Omer, 

 twenty-three English anglers in one day, zealously 

 prosecuting their calling. All were fishing for pike 

 or perch. On New Year's Day 1843, a friend of ours 

 caught nine pike of eight pounds and upwards each. 

 They have been taken out of this and the Dunkii-k 



