FRANK FORESTER'S 

 FISH AND FISHING 



THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



By Game Fish, we understand all those which will take the natural 

 or artificial 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. 



By these qualities of the hooked fish, corresponding qualities of the 

 fisherman are called forth ; and the greater the wariness and cunning 

 of the fish before he takes the bait, compelling the use of the finest and 

 most delicate tackle, the greater his fury, vehemence and velocity 

 after being struck, requiring the utmost nicety of manipulation, cool- 

 ness of temper, and promptitude of judgment, the higher does he 

 stand in the list of game, and the more animating is his pursuit and 

 capture. 



The truth is, that in all field sports, the pleasure to be derived from 

 them, and the rank in which they stand one to the other, are all in 

 exact proportion, not with the value or the numbers of tlie victims, 

 but with the difficulty of the capture, and the degree of skill, science, 

 courage, or endurance, called forth in the act of takin-r. 



