496 Fisuing 1x AMERICAN WATERS. 
consumes. The gurnard and channel-crabs are the greatest 
annoyances to anglers on Jamaica Bay or the Great South 
Bay; for when paying three dollars a dozen for shedder-crab, 
to have them destroy a couple of dozens in a day, and oblige 
the angler to retire from the contest minus a mess of fish, it 
is rather trying to the patience. Anglers have many trials 
of patience, and they sometimes serve as lessons. Gurnards 
are generally bottom-biting, and their thefts of bait teach 
the angler to fish with a moving bait. The angler with rod 
and reel, if he fishes with still-bait on the bottom, is no more 
an angler than is a member of the Hand-line Committee. 
There are some very game fish which are always bottom- 
biters, such, for example, as the sheepshead. For such fish 
you should let your sinker feel along over the feeding-ground, 
not letting it rest more than a half-minute in a place. Still- 
baiting from a boat in bays and estuaries is beautiful sport ; 
for, being away from shore on the water, there are no con- 
fused noises to disturb meditation, and the sights of the 
shores and waters are more enchanting than when viewed 
from any other position. 
‘* Now fleecy clouds, and gently warming beams, 
Alternate, overshade and gild the streams: 
And, like the wicked, fish unalarm’d view 
Their fellows perish, and their path pursue. 
Fish have their various characters, defin’d 
Not more by form or color than by mind; 
We cheat the finny fools, ourselves as blind, 
Fools, in our turn, are cheated by our kind!” 
