Quaint SATs aT CaANARSsIE. 91 
our host orders Captain Abrams to bring his yacht along the 
dock. It was amusing, when I first inaugurated rod-fishing 
for sheepshead, to perceive the members of the hand-line-com- 
mittee cast furtive glances at me as they winked knowingly 
to one another, as much as to say, “ All’s fish as comes to our 
> The clamwn- 
rakers and crab-catchers, whose small sail and row boats dot 
net, and a ereenhorn is as good as any, if he pays.’ 
the shores and shoals of Jamaica Bay as they saunter about 
barefooted and clad in a red shirt and rolled-up trowsers, also 
beheved that anglers for sheepshead with rod and reel were 
Monomaniacs; and though they freely took my money for 
bait, they frankly advised me to use a hand-line for “ head.” 
This want of faith, however, lasted no longer than did the 
gibes and sneers of the shad-fishermen at Holyoke when Seth 
Green stated that he could hatch a million of shad a day, and 
within a week he hatched six times that number daily. So 
the members of the hand-line-committee and pait-catchers 
soon became not only civil, but vied with each other in sec- 
onding my wishes by taking pains to procure me peculiar 
baits, ete., concluding finally that angling with a rod and reel 
may be as respectable as fishing with a hand-line. 
SECTION FOURTH. 
ANGLING FOR SHEEPSHEAD. 
he saline air is invigorating, and a sheht haze protects us 
from an unwelcome giare cf the sun. The gulls scream as 
they dip and sweep over shoals of young herring and men- 
haden. Members of the hand-line-committee are out in full 
force, and sixty clinker-built and copper-fastened tiny sail- 
boats, with poles lowered and sails wrapped round them, are 
anchored along the banks of mussel-beds, intent on baiting 
with clams, and casting their heavy sinkers—catchung ! ca- 
lung! Our captain rounds our craft to as if he intended to 
swamp halfa dozen tiny eraft; but all is serene and the an- 
chor cast, when the captain falls to opening shedder crab and 
soft-shell clams, and throwing the shells overboard at the bow 
