50 Thirtieth Annual Meeting 



that comes from breaking all the conventionalities of daily life : 

 of getting close to the ground, and getting acquainted with its 

 wonderful revelations ; of the health renewing strength that 

 comes in the wind that has swept across leagues of water and 

 miles of forests filled with odors sweeter than any perfume: of 

 the worshipful solemnity of the evening camp-fire, when you 

 feel why fire-worship was the first religion : and you sit and listen 

 to the many eerie sounds that come to your city tuned ears out of 

 the solemn woods, wondering what they are and whence they 

 come. i\-nd then the preparations for sleep that shall "knit up 

 the raveled sleeve of care" for tomorrow. The splash and splut- 

 ter of the brands of the camp-fire as you douse it" so that no 

 stray zephyr shall send a vagrant spark into the tinder dry tent, 

 and turn you out in a blaze of terror, and as you sink into the 

 resillient bed of fragrant hemlock, what is the last conscious 

 thought that engages our attention ? Isn't it "We're going 

 a-fishing tomorrow I" All the other delights are secondary to 

 this. We take them all in, accept them, as though it was all we 

 came for, and yet we know very well that we wouldn't be there if 

 Ave weren't pretty sure that we could catch at least a few fish. 

 Of course we are not "fish-hogs," a dozen trout or half as many 

 big black bass would satisfy us, but we would certainly like to 

 kill a few ! for that is what we came for after all. Xo doubt 

 there are those who could get all that has been described and 

 l)ar the fishing, but I doubt if they ever find their way into 

 societies like this. This brings us face to face with the fact that 

 it is only when we find that these two factors, love of gain, and 

 lo\e of sport have been curtailed through our covetousness or 

 •stupidity, that we begin to search for remedies and to ask for the 

 Why ! and the How ! of things. When commercial fishermen 

 find that the margin of loss and gain, on a trial balance was 

 73erilously near the first item, they began to seek some method to 

 rehabilitate former conditions, and when the disciples of Sir 

 Tzaak began to find that the streams where they fished when boys 

 would no longer respond to the waving of the "magic wand," 

 when they realized that tlie "flashing trout" could no longer 

 ■"rise to the occasion'' for they weren't there. And when they 

 disked the old question, "Wliat shall we do to be saved?" And the 

 r('])ly came back, "Sell all thou hast'' if thou woulds't go a fish- 



