18 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
inhabitants, petitioning for the protection of the game of 
their neighbourhood. These laws are only noxious to un- 
principled gunners, for, the man who hunts for recreation, 
and is satisfied with a moderate quantity of game, is ever 
pleased with wholesome laws; and such can mostly find a 
welcome among the farmers of the hospitable state of 
New-Jersey at all times, when the objects of his sport are 
not wantonly destroyed, and his privileges abused by un- 
gentlemanly conduct. I. 
New-Jersey , January 4, 1S32. 
From the New-England Galaxy. 
SOME PASSAGES FROM THE DIARY OF A 
SPORTSMAN. 
'It has been wisely said by men of olden time, that a 
poet must be a poet by birth, and that no education can 
communicate to him that inspiration which nature herself 
has neglected to infuse into his mind. It is not our pro- 
vince at this time to support or deny the truth of this posi- 
tion, but simply to advance another, viz. that a sportsman 
also is such only by birth. The propensity to indulge in 
field-sports, must develope itself in his very childhood; it 
must be to him as a sort of second nature; it must be a free, 
spontaneous impulse, which cannot be resisted or con- 
trolled; which shall lead the mind imperceptibly to fasten 
itself upon the enjoyments to be received in the fields, or 
on the flood; and render the body impatient and comfort- 
less when restrained from its favourite pursuit. 
We are firmly satisfied of the correctness of this belief, 
from observing how very decided is the aversion to field- 
sports in one part of the community, while the other is 
equally sincere in its love for them. And this dislike, or 
this partiality, does not appear to vary, in any one indivi- 
dual, in their degrees of strength; but in nearly every in- 
stance, continue the same at all times, — undergoing no 
material alteration. If they do suffer change, the par- 
tiality is only confirmed, and the dislike augmented. 
Our own fondness for Sporting, first manifested itself 
in an ardent love for Angling. And here we would re- 
mark, that we shall employ the term Sporting, as equally 
applicable to the use of the rod as the gun. Our first 
acquaintance with the rod, (we mean the angling rod,) 
commenced during our school-boy days, and bears even 
date with our earliest and happiest recollections. It was 
then our chief, and only unalloyed amusement, and served 
to sweeten many a tedious task, and many a heavy hour of 
scholastic slavery. If at any time we were degraded to 
the foot of the class, and our head disgraced with that vile 
badge, the “ fool’s cap,” we would console ourself with 
the delightful reminiscences of the rod and line, and com- 
fort ourself accordingly. If at any time the master’s rod 
visited upon our poor back the iniquities and deficiencies 
of the head which surmounted it, that same head would be 
busily at work, with delicious thoughts of a much longer 
and less painful rod, and compensate thereby the poor 
body for the anguish it had caused it. If a neglected 
lesson occasioned a temporary imprisonment in a dark 
room, our fancy would beguile the dreary hours, and 
chase away the gloom, with the anticipated Saturday af- 
ternoon, and the overflowing basket of shining fish. 
But our reminiscences of those holidays, are overcast by 
one gloomy cloud, which will for ever remain above the 
horizon of our existence, and will cast its shadow upon 
many bright hours to come, as it has done on many a 
blessed hour that hq t s past and gone. The thought of the 
painful accident which we are about to record, will often 
obtrude itself upon our mind when its reception is least 
welcome and least anticipated. In the very midst of our 
pleasure and hilarity, it will mingle itself with our 
thoughts, like the abrupt visitation of death into a happy 
and rejoicing family circle. 
Charley our earliest friend and school-mate, was 
a noble, high-spirited little fellow, with a thousand good 
qualities, and no evil ones, that ever we could discover. 
He seemed to acquire the most difficult task as if by intui- 
tion, and while we were slowly bungling over its first pa- 
ragraph, he would nimbly run it through to the end, and 
then lend a helping hand to extricate his friend from the 
quagmire of learning. He was in short a kind of admira- 
ble Critchon, and sustained the lead in every tiling. He 
was not only the best scholar, but also the staunchest 
champion, the fleetest runner, and, (what I considered to 
be the most praiseworthy, ) the most adroit angler in school. 
Some how or other he seemed to exercise a charmed influ- 
ence over the fish, for they would at times, leap at his 
hook with avidity, while they would turn up their honoura- 
ble noses at our own, as if they scorned to perish by any 
other hand than his. 
One bright Saturday afternoon in Summer, we were 
together as usual, at our old fishing-station, under the an- 
cient rope-walks (now removed) at the foot of the Com- 
mon, regardless of every thing in the universe, excepting 
the glorious nibbles which were constantly twitching the 
buoys of our lines under water. The prey was uncom- 
monly plenty, and we protracted our diversion hour after 
hour, till at length the evening shadows that began to 
creep densely over the waves, admonished us to be gone* 
We were in the very act of departing, when to my unut- 
terable agony, I heard one heart-rending scream, a plunge 
