FISHES 19 



vex those who live too long in cities. To a hundred trout in the Au Sable and ate 



hear the elk's whistle and the ouzel's call, them all you were fortunate. They helped 



the whirr of the grouse's wings and the out your store of provisions, and trout 



rush of the water in the canyon, will get are very fair eating when properly fried, 



out of your brain the shriek of cable cars, But don't brag about it. It interests the 



the rattle of the elevated railway, and all rest of us no more than if you boasted of 



the unwholesome jangle of men who meet catching ten frogs, or eating a hundred 



to make money. chickens in a hundred consecutive days. 



So there is a third reason for going The matter of fish as food belongs to 



a-fishing not so good as the first two, economics or some other dismal science, 



but still very noble. We may fish for rest By eating trout or bass you can never get 



or exercise, which is but another form of "on the good side of the man who knows 



rest. We may fish placidly in the placid fish." 



brooks as Walton did, for chub and dace, There remains one reason for going 



till our thoughts flow as placidly as the fishing which is positively horribly, dis- 



Charles, or the Suwanee, or the Thames. gustingly bad that is, to see how many 



Or we may fish in the rush and roar of fish you can catch, just for numbers' sake, 



the Des Chutes or the Buttermilk, tramp- This is called "hog fishing," and whether 



ing high through the pines to Agua Bo- your purpose be to brag over the size of 



nita, or far across the desert to Trapper's your basket or to lie about the catch, or 



Lake, or struggling through the wooded both, it is bad bad for the fish, bad for 



reaches to the Saranac. We may come the rivers, bad for your neighbors, bad 



back at night tired enough to lie flat on for you. The good man will never slay 



the floor and "drip off the edges" of it, fish wantonly. We creatures of God on 



but withal at peace with all the world the earth together should enjoy each 



it matters not whether we have fish or other, and the beautiful world, which is 



not. ours alike. 



There is one reason for fishing which is Because man is the wisest of all, with 



wholly indifferent that is to go a-fish- greatest power of knowledge and capac- 



ing for the meat which is in the fish. This ity for happiness, it is all the more in- 



is pan-fishing or pot-fishing. If you get cumbent on him to preserve the world as 



your living by it, that is your business. fair as he found it, and to respect the 



It is frequently an honest business. But rights so far as may be 'of every other 



it is not a matter of pride. If you caught man and beast. 



