2O An Anglers Paradise. 



he fights, leaps, rushes, and lies panting in the net, then in the 

 creel. 



But why the change from fingerlings to what you may call 

 fish? 



It is because that wonderful provision long ago designed by 

 Nature for mankind, giving him dominion over all her creatures, 

 whether beast, or fish, or fowl, has been made use of, by which 

 the water of a simple moorland rill can now with human aid 

 produce enormously. 



It must be quite apparent, even to the most casual observer 

 of the laws of Nature, that there exists a wonderful balance of 

 animal and vegetable life, which has been kept up for ages, by the 

 destruction of one species by another. Man has the power given 

 to him of altering that balance, and of adjusting Nature's laws to 

 meet his own requirements. Interference with Nature's balance, 

 however, is a matter which should receive serious consideration 

 before action is commenced. Experience teaches us undoubtedly 

 that where man thoughtlessly interferes with it the result means 

 loss to himself, and as an example of this we may take the rabbit 

 pest at the Antipodes. 



Where thoughtfully done, however, the result is often one of 

 great benefit. Of this there are a good many examples, both in 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The axiom we know applies 

 very largely to the cultivation of the land, and it also applies 

 in an even greater ratio to the cultivation of the water. Man 

 has now the means of dealing with it in such a manner, that 

 it is quite practicable to utilize the small rills of our mountain 

 or lowland valleys, and make them produce an abundance of 

 large fish, where the merest dwarfs existed before.* It has 

 been done most successfully, and may be done in thousands 

 of other places in this country, and often at a comparatively 

 trifling cost. 



*In the case of many streams there is, unfortunately, a very bad reason for the fish 

 never or only rarely exceeding a certain size ; and that is that nearly every one above, say, 

 a quarter of a pound in weight is taken out by the poacher. He fishes chiefly with a net 

 which will not take the smaller fish, but which is most destructive amongst large ones. 

 Often have I come across him, or his shadow, out at night, but as long as the law winks 

 at such proceedings, by imposing penalties, when caught, at which he chuckles, so long 

 will he continue to depopulate our streams. The net used in this part is usually the 

 shackle or bag-net. I have sometimes used one for obtaining spawners from a stream, 



