90 Fisuiye iv American WatERS. 
blackfish, and an oceasional sheepshead, until the tide again 
serves on the mussel-beds, which generally border the main 
channel. 
At the right times of tide, the locations of the mussel-beds 
are plainly indicated by a fleet of from twenty to fifty small 
sail-boats of hand-line fishermen. Many of them are farmers 
who reside near the shore of Jamaica Bay, and employ the 
interregnum between hay and grass to unite pleasure and 
profit by earning from three to ten dollars a day at fishing 
for sheepshead. There is always ready sale for the fish at a 
price nearly equal to that obtained for salmon. 
Having 
of a large landing-net, of heavy brass rim and large meshes 
grouped the implements—except the necessary one 
of strong twine—suppose we drive down seven miles to Ca- 
narsie, and go out from there to try the “ head” for one turn 
of tide? 
Crossing the ferry from New York, our drive from Brook- 
lyn hes through a labyrinth of flower and vegetable gardens, 
forming a landscape dotted here and there with chateaux 
whose surroundings prove the ménage to have been designed 
with a view to uniting comfort with elegance. Those old 
oaks, cherry-trees, and black walnuts, together with the ser- 
peutine windings of a couple of trout brooks, are the only 
marks left of that antiquity which antedates our Revolution- 
ary War for Independence; but the gardens, lawns, fruit- 
trees, and margins of flowers, forming the landscape into a 
picture of beauty, and loading the air with perfume, demand 
that the senses of smell and sight shall do their duty, ° 
* a Ba * % Pa * 
Yes, judge, we are already at Canarsie, and I do not won- 
der at your surprise that in less than one hour we should 
have left urban blocks of brick and marble, and been watted, 
as it were, through seven miles of flowers, to be set down on 
the margin of the sea, with all its aquatic views breaking 
upon us like a startling pun or paradox. Be pleased to step 
upon the piazza of the hotel and take a look seaward, while 
