212 AUDUBON 



"What a delightful thing is fishing! " have I more than 

 once heard some knowing angler exclaim, who, with " the 

 patience of Job," stands or slowly moves along some rivu- 

 let twenty feet wide, and three or four feet deep, with a 

 sham fly to allure a trout, which, when at length caught, 

 weighs half a pound. Reader, I never had such patience. 

 Although I have waited ten years, and yet see only three- 

 fourths of the " Birds of America " engraved, although some 

 of the drawings of that work were patiently made so long 

 ago as 1805, and although I have to wait with patience 

 two years more before I see the end of it, I never could 

 hold a line or a rod for many minutes, unless I had — not 

 a "nibble" but a hearty bite, and could throw the fish at 

 once over my head on the ground. No, no — if I fish for 

 trout, I must soon give up, or catch as I have done in 

 Pennsylvania's Lehigh, or the streams of Maine, fifty or 

 more in a couple of hours. But the trot-line is in the 

 river, and there it may patiently wait, until I visit it 

 towards night. Now I take up my gun and note-book, 

 and accompanied by my dog, intend to ramble through 

 the woods until breakfast. Who knows but I may shoot 

 a turkey or a deer? It is barely four o'clock, and see 

 what delightful mornings we have at this season in 

 Kentucky ! 



Evening has returned. The heavens have already 

 opened their twinkling eyes, although the orb of day has 

 yet scarcely withdrawn itself from our view. How calm 

 is the air! The nocturnal insects and quadrupeds are 

 abroad; the Bear is moving through the dark cane-brake, 

 the land Crows are flying towards their roosts, their aquatic 

 brethren towards the interior of the forests, the Squirrel 

 is barking his adieu, and the Barred Owl glides silently 

 and swiftly from his retreat to seize upon the gay and 

 noisy animal. The boat is pushed off from the shore; 

 the main line is in my hands ; now it shakes, surely some 

 fish have been hooked. Hand over hand I proceed to the 



