20 



THE SALMON. 



ture" we quit the easy- chair in which you loll whilst 

 your lamb is writhing in the shambles, traverse hill 

 and dale, plunge into the stream, and set our instinct 

 against the instinct of the intended prey our ingenuity 

 against his cunning our patience against his shyness ; 

 in short, give him fair play, letting him pit all his powers 

 of escape against our powers of capture. And we select 

 for our purposes those fish that are most scarce and 

 most difficult to snare, unlike you, who select the kinds 

 of animals that cover a thousand hills, and that nature 

 has left helpless. 



Again ; while your lamb, when seized, was harmlessly 

 and helplessly " cropping the flowery food," what was our 

 fish doing when sna.red ? Seeking to compass the death 

 of a pretty and innocent insect ; and doing so, there is 

 reason to believe, from a motive very similar to that 

 which led us to compass his death more for sport than 

 for victuals. He was caught in the act. As much right 

 as he had to come into our element in cruel pursuit of 

 our fellow earth-born, had we to go into his. A brother 

 of the trade has only done for him what he has done for 

 ' myriads and what he would have done for hundreds or 

 even thousands more before nightfall of the very day on 

 which we took him into custody. It is a trade established 

 by nature, doubtless for wise, nay, obviously for neces- 

 sary purposes. The small are fed on by the great, and 

 these again by the greater still, in unbroken succession 

 and perfect harmony through all creation, " the diapason 

 closing full in man ;" except, indeed, in those exceptional 

 and objectionable cases where a lion or tiger mars the 

 harmony by adding another note. 



