116 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 
feed, is to be after them early in the morning, and again to- 
wards night-fall, or evening. 
When live minnows, or any other small fish, are used for 
bait, the angler should frequently change the water in the 
kettle, and take the bait out with a very small net, similar 
to those used in removing gold and silver fish, only of a 
smaller mesh; or, if it is made of coarse gauze, it will do, 
because, putting a hot hand in the kettle distresses and 
alarms the bait, and frequently is the cause of several 
of them dying, which sometimes is an irreparable loss for 
the day, therefore it is necessary to provide against it. 
When fishing for perch, (or where they are small) with a 
worm bait, when they bite, let them run about the length 
of a yard or two, and then strike smartly: place the float 
on the line so that the bait should swim or hang about a 
foot from the bottom. The best baits for perch are, live 
minnows, or shrimps, the red earth-worm, grubs found 
among dung, and at the roots of cabbages, and young wasps. 
CHUB-fishing is rendered unpleasant from the circum- 
stance of their inhabiting inland streams, in the midst of 
rocks, stumps, and waters overgrown with bushes and 
trees, and, although beautiful fish, are not very choice food, 
and are seldom sought for, unless, indeed, in the absence 
of most other fish ; but the well known 
SUN fish, the inhabitant of every stream, and pond, is the 
first fish to which youth apply their dexterity. This beauti- 
ful little fish is not only sought after eagerly by the school- 
boy, but the more experienced angler oft times, on the 
margin of some lonely stream, enjoys a satisfaction peculiar 
to this kind of fishing, where, on the sandy beds beneath 
his feet, he carefully watches every motion of this little 
fish, sometimes eager to seize the fatal bait, and then sus- 
picious of the strange food, smells and darts back ever and 
anon, as though conscious his fatal enemy was lurking near 
to lure him to destruction. 
For Sun fishing, the float line is used altogether, with 
very small hooks, say No. 8 or 9, baited with earth 
worms, and suffered to hang near the bottom of the water. 
They inhabit still waters, altogether, and are to found in 
ditches, on the margin of most brooks, and shallow rivers, 
with sandy bottoms, mill and other ponds, and the shady 
coves of creeks. 
A beautiful writer describes angling thus: 
“ As to its practical relations, it carries us into the most 
wild and beautiful scenery of nature; amongst the mountain 
lakes, and the clear and lovely streams, that gush from the 
higher ranges of elevated hills, or make their way through 
the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful, in the 
early spring, after the dull and tedious winter, when the 
frosts disappear, and the sunshine warms the earth and 
waters, to wander forth by some clear stream, — to see the 
leaf bursting from the purple bud, — to scent the odours of 
the bank, perfumed by the violet, and enamelled, as it 
were, with the primrose and the daisy; — to wander upon 
the fresh turf, below the shade of trees; — and, on the sur- 
face of the waters, to view the gaudy flies sparkling, like 
animated gems, in the sunbeams, while the bright, beautiful 
trout, is watching them from below; — to hear the twitter- 
ing of the water birds, who, alarmed at your approach, hide 
themselves beneath the flowers and leaves of the water- 
lilies; — and, as the season advances, to find all these objects 
changed for others of the same kind, but better and brighter, 
till the sw'allow and the trout contend, as it were, for the 
gaudy May-fly; and till, in pursuing your amusement in 
the calm and balmy evening, you are serenaded by the 
cheerful thrush, performing the offices of maternal love, in 
thickets ornamented with the rose and woodbine.” 
“There is, indeed, a calmness and repose about angling 
which belongs to no other sport, — hardly to any other ex- 
ercise. To be alone and silent, amid the beauties of nature, 
when she is just shaking off the last emblems of the win- 
ter’s destruction, and springing into life, fresh, green, and 
blooming, — that, that is the charm. The osier bed, as the 
supple twigs register every fit of the breeze, display the 
down on the under side of their leaves, and play like a sea 
of molten silver, for the production of which no slave ever 
toiled in the mine; and at that little nook where the stream, 
after working itself into a ripple through the thick matting 
of confervx and water-lilies, glides silently under the hollow 
bank, and lies dark, deep, and still as a mirror, is made ex- 
quisitely touching by the pendent boughs of the weeping 
willow that stands ‘mournfully ever,’ over the stilly 
stream.” 
REJOINDER TO I. T. S. 
Messrs. Editors, 
I read, with much attention, the reply of I. T. S. to the 
remarks submitted by me in a former number on his mode 
of Duck Shooting. The arguments used to illustrate his 
views on the subject, however convincing to himself, I 
must confess have not had sufficient weight with me to 
change my way of thinking. A practice of many years at game 
of every description, from the snipe to the duck (notwith- 
standing the belief of your correspondent to the contrary, 
with respect the latter bird) has fully satisfied me, that the 
correct principle of shooting is not in advance of, but at 
the bird, with a swing of the gun proportionate to its flight, 
and that the mode adopted by him can never be depended 
on with certainty, as it is impossible to lay down any rule 
