THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



of intense cold, it is, as a mle, the reverse, and in summer, instead 

 of the stunted and woebegone verdure of the Labrador latitude, 

 we find one of the garden spots of the world, unexcelled in its 

 rare and radiant landscapes, the joy of Constable and Turner ; 

 beautiful rivers and streams which have lured men and warriors 

 for a thousand years. The reason for this is the Gulf Stream, 

 which comes up the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of Mexico and 

 beyond, flows offshore on the American coast, not influencing it 

 materially, sweeping across the ocean and giving the British 

 Islands sufficient warmth from the Tropics to assure them a 

 climate more like that of South CaroKna and Georgia than what 

 we might expect in the latitude of Labrador. This, naturally, 

 has affected the fishes, and we find in England a much greater 

 variety than in the same latitude in Canada, Eussia, or any country 

 in the same latitude. 



I think the features piscatorial which most impress the 

 stranger in England are the seriousness with which the people 

 take their sports, the marvellous number of books on angling, 

 which have been written from the time of Walton and Juliana 

 Berners down to to-day, and lastly, the extraordinary attention 

 to the details of tackle shown in the EngUsh books and the interest 

 displayed in every feature of the sport. This is shown in the press 

 devoted to angling. The journals I am familiar with have a 

 large personal following or clientele, which discuss their wants, 

 likes and dislikes in columns and pages. Then there are numer- 

 ous firms devoted to tackle, bait, and this and that, to a much 

 greater extent than in America. But it is in the detail of tackle 

 that England shines particularly. As an illustration, I find 

 in the fascinating and useful work of ' John Bickerdyke,' the 

 Boole of the All-Bound Angler, what to me are amaziag descrip- 

 tions of tackle of different kinds, which have been studied out 

 with the greatest care, in fact, the maldng of which and putting 

 it in practice is an exact science suggestive of the earnestness and 

 thoroughness with which Englishmen conduct all their sports. 

 If we go over the lists of books in the Fly Fishers Club, or the 

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