CHAPTER I 



Men and Fish 



DO fish sleep? Can they distinguish color? Can they hear? 

 Do they suffer pain? 



These are questions which fishermen have been discussing 

 since the days of Isaak Walton. They have sat under bridges 

 on the Test while waiting for the rain to stop, and thought 

 about them. They have lain beside camp-fires in the Maine 

 woods and in the High Sierra, and argued them. They have 

 dozed under the hot sun in small boats, trailing their lines 

 in the Gulf Stream or across the waters of Catalina, and 

 dreamed about them. Why is it that after all this time they 

 are still uncertain about the answers? It is because they have 

 had to learn by observation, helped only by trial-and-error 

 experiments. 



They have by these methods discovered a great many 

 interesting and important things. They have discovered what 

 waters different kinds of fish inhabit, what lure to use for 

 each kind, and at what season or what state of the tide to 

 fish for them. They have learned how to catch fish, and 

 that is a prime requisite to knowing anything else about 

 them. 



Another group of people who ask questions are the 

 aquarists. They keep brightly colored little fish from all 

 parts of the world in glass tanks, and feed them and care 

 for them and watch them fight and make love and have 

 homes and wives and children. They lack the anglers' op- 

 portunities to see the animals in their native waters, but 



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