PiSClCL'LTURt WITH ReFEREN'CK TO P^ARMING. 401 



favorable, but owing in a great measure, perhaps, to causes 

 which are beyond control, our streams and rivers are almost 

 barren of tlie finer varieties of game fish. Even the Speckled 

 Trout, the most beautiful and the gamiest of all game fishes, 

 has barely esca})ed extermination. Man, not contented with 

 pursuing and capturing it for tood, has encouraged the 

 destruction of the tiny troutlet for no other purpose than 

 the amusement of juvenile anglers, seemingly determined 

 on the entire destruction of its species. I have known fath- 

 ers to commend their boys for catching young trout just for 

 fun, and throwing them away as if they were a pest and a 

 nuisance- Man has done more than this. Ignorantly, per- 

 haps, but none the less effectually in the way of extermina- 

 tion, he has introduced the bold and fierce Pickerel, that 



'* Tyraut of the watery plaiu," 

 into waters where it never would have abounded but for 

 man's aid. This has residted in the complete extermination 

 of all the Salmonidae in those waters, and in their Ijecoming 

 stocked with Silurids and Cyprinids, or, in other words, with 

 the hideous Catfish species, and the different varieties of the 

 Carp family, which are mostly unworthy of the notice of the 

 pisciculturist, and of no account except as food for other 

 fish. Yet in spite of all, the Speckled Trout has not yet 

 become extinct, and the fact that it still lives and flourishes, 

 in the face of all these discouraging circumstances, proves 

 that there is none hardier, and that with a moiety of care 

 and protection, our ponds may again swarm with this beau- 

 tiful and valuable fish, and that it may again approach to 

 something near its former magnificence. At any rate, our 

 streams are so barren that it is not probable that any of us 



