90 Fishing in American Waters. 



blackfish, and an occasional 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 grouped the implements — except the necessary one 

 of a large landing-net, of heavy brass rim and large meshes 

 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 lies through a labyrinth of flower and vegetable gardens, 

 forming a landscape dotted here and there with (chateaux 

 whose surroundings prove the menage to have been designed 

 with a view to uniting comfort with elegance. Those old 

 oaks, cherry-trees, and black walnuts, together with the ser- 

 pentine 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 -^ight shall do their duty. 

 ******* 



Yes, judge, we are already at Canarsie, and- 1 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 wafted, 

 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 



