ANOTHER VIEW OF FISHING. 



139 



31. ANOTHER VIEW OF FISHING. 



THERE are some people who conscientiously think 

 that fishing is a cruel amusement. While we should 

 never, needlessly, inflict pain upon any living creature, 

 it is well to reflect that the world of fish is any thing 

 but a paradise of peace. It is a scene of constant 

 war and fighting. Fish have no sympathy or tender- 

 ness. Big fish eat little fish when they can catch 

 them. Great fish enter into combats, one with an- 



Black Bass. 



other, like fierce tigers. Even pet fish in the aqua- 

 rium occasionally turn on their companions and de- 

 vour them. 



It is well, also, to know that all cold-blooded ani- 

 mals have no very keen sense of pain, and that the 

 water-breathing fish, jerked into the air, dies by air- 

 drowning as easily as an air-breathing animal dies by 

 water-drowning. There are some who think fishing 

 an idle and foolish amusement. Such .will take com- 

 fort from Dr. Samuel Johnson, a distinguished English 



