At an early hour of a bright morning | did we set forth upon our mad-cap expedition, and after some three or four hours of vigorous exertion, found ourselves heaven knows where. The thicket seemed to grow more dense at every step, until at last we reached something that resembled a new made path. The thick tall cane had been trampled and crushed so that for a time we made famous headway. As we were pressing onward, a rattling of cane caught our ears, and peering into the thicket,, we saw something that we were convinced at a glance must be either a clergyman, a chimney sweep, or a bear, and as there was not the slightest probability of either of the former gentry being in such a latitude, we conjectured, and rightly, that it must be no less a personage than his eminence Sir Bruin himself. At the identical moment when we made the discovery, our friend also had ascertained our proximity, and not knowing but that we might be fair game for him, wheeled in his track, and returned.

Totally unarmed save with a large hack knife, we stepped aside to a huge tree, and placing our back against it, awaited his coming. It was but a moment, the cane parted, and there he stood, but stood not long. We have before in our lives made some noise, yet it was surely but as silence when compared to the yell with which we greeted him-which of us was the more alarmed we know not, but the victory was with us. Bruin with a snort resembling that of a plethoric specimen of the porcine genus, in a state of excessive alarm abandoned the field.

Our joy at his departure was much increased by the discovery that the tree where we stood was upon the bank of the bayou, which we now determined to keep in sight until the end and aim of our journey was attained. In a few minutes we fell in with a path newly cut in the dense cane, and we passed onward with renewed vigor.

Presently we came to a tree which bore so striking a resemblance to the one which stood upon the scene of the bear's stampede, that we paused to look at it, but remembering that it was no phenomenon to find two similar trees in the forest, we resumed our course.

After the lapse of a short interval, we passed a third, then a fourth, and finally a

fifth tree, all alike, and for the first time the many tales we had heard of lost travellers moving round and round in a circle, from which there seemed no escape, flashed upon our mind.

But no; this might not be, we had kept the banks of the bayou on our right, and must be going down stream. However, for our satisfaction, we determined to mark the tree with a "blaze"-did so, and went In a short time our vegetable "old man of the sea" again hove in sight, and upon examination, there was the "blaze" we had so lately cut.

on.

It was perfectly inexplicable. Had we gone mad? Was this some illusion of the senses? We thought, and with a shudder of a certain old, withered, parchment-faced African negress, a privileged character in Joe's settlement, whose hitherto undisputed claims to the possession of magic power we had seen fit to call into question, and ridicule, only the previous evening, to the manifest alarm of the listeners.

A moment's reflection, however, banished all this, and laughing at our singular situation, we determined coute qui coute, to escape from this modern labyrinth. Down the precipitate banks of the bayou we dashed, and made our way now upon one side of the nearly dried up stream, now upon the other, and now in the shallow water. Once more, and for the last time, our tree was seen, we passed it, and the mystery was solved. It appears we had stumbled upon a peninsula formed by the bayou's doubling upon itself. The entrance was but a step from bank to bank, and when once in, our chance of finding our way out by the same isthmus was but small. By the time we reached the river, the sun was declining, and the threatening clouds warned us to make the best of our way homeward. Without any very serious mishap we arrived in safety, perfectly satisfied with our exploit, and willing in future to await Joe's motions.

At last behold us fairly located upon the banks of the river, where Joe had selected a fine hard shingle beach upon which to pitch our camp. The said camp was an extemporaneous affair, a kind of al fresco home, formed by setting up a few crotchets to sustain a rude roof of undressed shingles, there known as boards, supported upon diminutive rafters of cane.

This done, a cypress suitable for a canoe, or dug out," was selected, and in two days shaped, hollowed out, and launched. Fairly embarked now in the business, I found but little difficulty in obtaining a supply of the green trout, and divers other kinds of river fish; but the huge "cats," where were they? We fished at early morn and dewy eve, before the light had faded out from the stars of morning, and after dame nature had donned her nocturnal mantle-all was vain.

Joe counselled patience, and remarked that the larger species never run but during a rise or fall in the river, and must then be fished for at night.

One morning heavy clouds in the north, and the sound of distant thunder, informed us that a storm was in progress near the head waters of our stream. Our rude tackle was looked after, and bait prepared in anticipation of the promised fish, which the perturbed waters of the river were to incite to motion.

Night came, and we left for a spot which we were sure the "cats" must frequent; a deep dark hole, immediately above a sedgy flat. Our patience and perseverance at length met with their reward. We felt something very carefully examining the bait, and at last tired of waiting for the bite, struck with force.

We had him, a huge fellow too; backwards and forwards he dashed, up and down, in and out; no fancy tackle had we, but plain and trustworthy-at least so we fondly imagined.

At last we had trailed the gentleman upon the sedge, and were upon the eve of wading in and securing him, when a splash in the water which threw it in every direction, announced that something new had turned up, and away went we, hook and line, into the black hole below. At this moment our tackle parted; the robber, whether alligator or gar we know not, disappeared with our scarce captured prey, and we crawled out upon the bank in a blessed humor.

Our fishing was finished for the evening; but regaining the tackle as best we might, casting the line again into the pool, and fixing the pole firmly in the knot-hole of a fallen tree, we abandoned it to fish upon its own hook.

When we arose in the morning, a chill

cold norther was blowing fiercely, and the river had risen in the world during our slumber. The log to which our pole had formed a temporary attachment had taken its departure for parts unknown, and was in all human probability at that moment making an experimental voyage on account of "whom it may concern."

The keen eyes of Joe, who had been peering up and down the river, however, discovered something on the opposite side that bore a strong resemblance to the missing pole, and when the sun had fairly risen we found that there it surely was, and moreover its bowing to the water's edge, and subsequent straightening up, gave proof that a fish was fast to the line.

The northern blast blew shrill and cold: the ordinarily gentle current of the river was now a mad torrent, lashing the banks in fury, and foaming over the rocks and trees, that obstructed its increased volume.

Joe and ourselves looked despairingly at each other and shook our heads in silence and in sorrow.

Yet there was the pole waving to and fro at times when the fish would repeat his efforts to escape; it was worse than the cup of Tantalus, and bearing it as long as we could, we prepared for a plunge in the maddened stream. One plunge satisfied us; we were thrown back upon the shore, cold and dispirited.

During the entire day there stood and swung to and fro the wretched pole, now upright as an orderly sergeant, now bending down, and fairly kissing the waters at its feet.

The sight we bore until flesh and blood could no more endure. The sun had sunk to rest; the twilight was fading away, and the stars were beginning to peep out from their sheltering places enquiringly, as if to know why the night came not on, when we, stung to the soul, determined at any hazard to dare the venture.

Wringing Joe's hand, who shook his head very dubiously, up the stream bent we our course, until we reached a point some distance above, from which the current passing dashed with violence against the bank, shot directly over to the very spot where waved and wagged our wretched rod, cribbed by the waters, and cabined and confined among the logs.

We plunged in; and swift as arrow from

the bow, the water hurried us on, a companion to its mad career. The point was almost gained, when a shout from Joe called our attention to the pole: alas, the fish was gone, and the line was streaming out in the fierce wind.

That night were we avenged; a huge cat was borne home in triumph. How we took it, or where, it matters not; for having employed so much time in narrating how we did not, we have none remaining to tell how we did.

The next point was to decide as to cooking him. Joe advised a barbecue, A fine fellow he said like that, with two inches of yellow fat upon his back bone, would make a noble feast. Let not the "two inches of fat" startle the incredulous reader, for we have heard that in that country of lean swine, cat fish are used to fry bacon in.

"We cooked him that night, and we cooked him next day,

And we cooked him in vain, until both passed

away."

He would not be cooked, and was in fact worse, and not half so honest as a worthy old gander, once purchased by a very innocent friend of ours, that was found to contain in its maw a paper embracing both his genealogy and directions with reference to the advisable mode of preparing him for the table; of which all that we remember was, that parboiling for sixteen days was warmly recommended.

Sixteen days parboiling we are convinced would but have rendered our friend the tougher. We tried him over a hot fire, and a slow one-we smoked him, singed him, in fact tried all methods in vain, and finally consigned him again to the waters. The moral of our tale, dear reader, is simply this. Waste not your precious time in taking cats, but if taken, dream not of barbecuing them, but return them unsinged to the stream, and so shall a great waste of time and patience be spared. But to proceed more seriously.

There is probably no part of the world whose waters teem with the finny tribe as do those that bound or intersect the northern portion of the western continent; and yet until very lately they have been almost totally neglected by the icthyologist and naturalist. A Dr. Smith has compiled an account of the fish of his own state, Mas

sachusetts. Dr. De Kay has given us the Fauna of the State of New York. Dewitt Clinton and Dr. Mitchell contributed much valuable and scientific information upon the subject; yet the whole ground, or anything approaching it, has never even been attempted to be covered until the issue of Mr. J. J. Brown's practical, and Mr. Herbert's scientific work.

A man may be an able ichthyologist, and yet not a successful angler, or mutatis mutandis, a successful angler, and yet be ignorant of the scientific names and correct classification of his prey-and a careful examination of the two works before us has induced the belief that Mr. Brown is a thorough angler, and Mr. Herbert a correct naturalist, and yet that each is the other's inferior in that other's particular forte.

To compose a perfect work, or rather one approaching perfection, an author nent degree; but as perfection is never to should possess both qualifications in an emibe expected, at least not in initiatory attempts, we should receive thankfully and without undue cavilling, such knowledge as we may obtain, and point out those errors that may meet our eye, not with the severe tone of caustic criticism, but with the kindly feeling of one who has received a benefit, and knowing at what expense of time and labor, to the giver addresses a word of mild advice.

In truth here is but little ground for cavilling, as both works are deserving of commendation, and are not only instructive but amusing.

The half a life devoted to the fishing our waters from the great northern Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, with the interstices, such as wet and wintry days, filled up with the examination and comparison of specimens, would not more than prepare an author to thoroughly discuss the subject. He must be a scholar, have not only read, but carefully studied all that has been written upon the subject, from Dame Joanna Berners, a piscatorial petticoat of the fifteenth century, to Yarrel and Agassiz; an excellent draughtsman, a practical and pleasing writer, a thorough naturalist, a man of fortune-for his reward will be fame; and one of iron constitution to enable him to bear the exposures incident to his occupation.

With all of these qualifications, and a sufficient love for science to induce him to bestow the best years of his life upon one subject, he may succeed in perfecting a work, with regard to whose merits envy

herself shall be dumb.

In the meanwhile, until some such selfdenying public-spirited individual can be found, let us gratefully receive such light as may be given us, until a thorough sifting of all that has been written north, south, east, and west, shall enable us to arrive at truth.

Mr. Herbert, whose work we shall first notice, thus commences his subject:

“To deal with a subject so wide as the FISH and FISHING of an extent of country, greater than the whole of Europe, stretching almost from the Arctic Circle to the tropics, from the waters of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific Ocean, may seem, and indeed is, in some respects, a bold and presumptuous undertaking. It were so altogether, did I pretend to enter into the natural history of all or even one hundredth part of the fish peculiar to this continent and its adjacent seas.

"Such however, is by no means my aim or intention. I write for the sportsman; and it is therefore with the sporting fish only that I propose to deal; as, in a recent work of the field sports of the same region, it was with the game animals only I had to do. In the prefatory observations of that work I endeavored to make myself understood as to what constitutes game, in my humble opinion as regards animals of fur and feather. I did not, it is true, expect or even hope to suit the views and notions of everybody, particularly when I looked to the great variety of soils, regions, and climates for the inhabitants of which I was writing; and to the extreme latitude and longitude of ideas concerning sportsmanship which prevail in this country.

"One would suppose it was sufficiently evident that a work of the magnitude of the Universal Encyclopædia, and nothing short of that, would suffice to give an elaborate essay and disquisition on every separate sort of sport which every separate individual of every separate state in the Union may think proper to practice for his own pleasure and profit.

*

"And before I proceed farther, I shall beg gentlemen from remote sections of the north, east, west, and south, not to wax wrathful and patriotically indignant, nor to reclaim (query, declaim ?) fiercely against the author of this work, because they fail to find therein described some singular specimen of the piscine race, known in their own districts, and

there regarded as a sporting fish, but unknown as such to the world at large."

Having thus started upon the broad basis that he will not reproduce the fable of "The Old Man and his Ass," in his work, we have surely no right to find fault with such distinctions and divisions as he—an author upon new and almost unbroken ground-chooses to draw.

As "Game Fish," Mr. Herbert recognizes all those who "will take the natural bait with sufficient boldness and avidity, and which, when hooked, are endowed with sufficient vigor, courage, and rapidity of motion, to offer so much resistance, and give so much difficulty to the captor, as to render the pursuit exciting and agreeable, apart from any consideration of the intrinsic value of the fish."

A question might here arise as to whether Mr. H. may not have gone too far in this last clause, for, without producing above one case in point, we will name the "gar" as a fish that possesses all the above named qualifications, and yet is only mentioned. once as the gar-pike-and that in a very disparaging manner. According to our author, the " game fish" of this country are divided into two general classes, the fresh and the salt water fishes; and these again subdivided: the fresh as migratory, and non-migratory; the salt, into deep-sea and shoal water. Mr. H., however, seems rather unwilling to admit the deep-sea fishes to such honorable society, although granting that much sport is to be had in the capture of the cod, &c., especially when such capture is the prelude to a chowder party.

With regard to the cod, he perhaps may be deemed as too serious a subject to be made game of. A fish, to which almost the entire population of the eastern states owe two meals each week, is surely entitled to serious consideration.

The day upon

In

which the feasts of codfish are held are different in the different towns and states, but each town has its own particular time. New Haven, for instance, Saturday is set apart for this interesting duty. We are not aware of the existence of any law upon the subject at least no legislative or corporative enactment—the law of habit, however, rules supreme.

We beg the courteous reader not to dis