2.1 THE SALMON. 



cutting off every fish in early youth. Would that be 

 more humane ? Is the death of a few, by a somewhat 

 less painless process, not more kind than the destruction 

 of a great multitude or of all ; more in accordance with 

 the great principle which reason and philosophy sanction 

 " the greatest happiness of the greatest number ?" In 

 some other cases, perhaps the majority, the fish caught by 

 angling are not to be caught by net the so-called more 

 humane mode. And here let it be noted also, that kill- 

 ing by net is not, generally speaking, more humane than 

 hook and line. Even with the sweep-net, a fish, in a 

 moderate-sized river, is as long in being brought ashore 

 as a moderate- sized fish usually is with good angling 

 tackle ; while in all the other kinds of net, he undergoes, 

 literally, the process of being hanged by the neck during 

 several hours. But, passing from that, we have proved, 

 first, that fish were made to be killed ; second, that 

 ours is often the only and generally the most humane 

 mode of killing them. It was suggested by Macaulay, 

 and by somebody else long before him, that the objec- 

 tion of the Puritans to the practice of bear-baiting was 

 founded rather on the pleasure derived by the spectators 

 than the pain accruing to the bear ; for the reasons above 

 imperfectly stated, we venture to suggest that some 

 people may object to fishing more for the delight it 

 yields to the fisher than for the annoyance it may inci- 

 dentally inflict upon the fish. 



It is of no use to argue that there must be something 

 more than annoyance, seeing that a hooked fish resists, 

 and, by inference, suffers. To say nothing of the fact 

 that a fish resists quite as violently when he finds his 



