FISHES AND MANKIND 411 



to be deprecated in view of the urgent need for national economy. 

 Such reasoning is distinctly unfair, for it leaves out of account 

 one very important aspect of the matter, and one which was 

 emphasised very ably and forcibly by Mr. H. G. Maurice of the 

 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to a recent meeting ot the 

 Freshwater Biological Association of the British Empire, an 

 association which, if sufficient support is forthcoming, it is hoped 

 will fulfil the same function for fresh-water biology as does 

 the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth for the biology 

 of the sea "I hope," said Mr. Maurice, " that there are in this 

 room a considerable number of persons who represent what 

 I will call the anghng community. One of the principal 

 reasons, and a very justifiable one, for taking care as well as 

 we can of the fisheries of our streams is not their commercial 

 but their recreative value. There is an enormous body ot 

 freshwater fishermen in this country, working class anglers, 

 who find their recreation in fishing. The rivers ought to be 

 their playground, and it is our business, if we possibly can, to 

 maintain them as such." It is no part of the purpose of a book 

 of this nature to deal with the various methods of angling, a 

 subject which possesses a voluminous hterature of its own; 

 nor is it possible or even necessary to justify the sport as a means 

 of what Professor Jordan has called "physical and moral 

 regeneration." Angling for food must be accounted one of 

 the earliest of human activities, and certainly dates back to 

 the Stone Age. Its development as a sport or cratt is com- 

 paratively speaking, recent, but as such provides healthy 

 recreation for a large percentage of the population of civilised 

 countries. It has been estimated that m England and Wales 

 alone probably some four hundred thousand persons make a 

 regular hobby of anghng, and in the county of Yorkshire, before 

 the war, there were no less than forty thousand anglers 

 belondn^ to recognised societies out of a total population ot 

 some four millions. In the Trent Fishery Board area, to mention 

 one region well known for its fishing prospects, seventy-three 

 thousand hcences were taken out for anghng in 1929.^ Un- 

 fortunately, the great increase that has taken place m the 

 number of fishermen has led to a corresponding rise in the 

 value of rivers and other stretches of water, particularly those 

 famous for their game fishes, so that anghng at least for Salmon 

 and Trout, is fast becoming a pastime for the rich alone. 

 Enough has been said to emphasise the value of the sport to 

 the general welfare of mankind, and this has been well summed 



