si i AX AXGLKR'S REMINISCENCES. 



praise which belongs to those progressive men in the early decades of the present 

 century, who blazed a warpath into the fallow field of New World ichthyic science. 

 There were Lewis and Clark, partners in exploration beyond the Rockies, who 

 discovered the mountain trout and whitefish in 1809; Rafinesque, whose synoptical 

 report of the "Fishes of the Ohio River and Its Tributaries," printed in 1820, was 

 the first American publication in the interest of ichthyology; Dr. Kirtland, who 

 followed with his "Fishes of the Ohio," in 1828; Professor Edward Hitchcock, 

 on "Massachusetts Fishes," in 1835 ; Storer, on the "Ichthyology of Massachusetts," 

 in 1839; Agassiz, on the "Embryology of the Salmon," in 1842; DeKay, on 

 "Fishes of New York," admirably illustrated with plates, in 1842 ; Storer, on 

 "Fishes of North America," in 1846, an ambitious, but really comprehensive, 

 work; and, finally, a general treatise on "Fish Culture," by Theodatus Garlick, 

 in 1848. These admirable text-books furnished a sufficient groundwork for 

 intelligent prosecution of the study, and no doubt stimulated the pursuit of 

 angling, for thenceforward angling books appeared in gradually increasing num- 

 bers, the field broadening as the area of the country extended. English publica- 

 tions, which had hitherto served as the angler's vade mecum, began to be dis- 

 carded, or they were revamped and adapted to what gradually came to be dis- 

 covered as American wants and American ideas. Such were Smith's "Observa- 

 tions on Angling," printed in 1833 ; the "American Angler's Guide," printed in 

 1846; Bethune's "Walton," in 1848; and Frank Forester's "Fish and Fishing," 

 in 184U. The first strictly indigenous native American b'ook was John G. Brown's 

 "Angler's Gu'de," which appeared in 1849. It marked a new era. But Brown 

 was only a poor tackle maker, without classical education or social position, and 

 how should he be expected to know anything? The critics rated him unmerci- 

 fully. Nevertheless, his was a very complete and trustworthy guide to salt and 

 fresh water fishing for the time, and well illustrated. Yet we are surprised to 

 note its deficiencies. There is not a word about Canadian salmon, or grayling, 

 or striped bass, or the fifty other principal kinds of fish which afford sport now. 

 Fly fishing itself was then a new art. Up to 1845 it was scarcely known, and 

 little practiced. Americans never knew how to fish for salmon until 1850. 

 Lanman was the only angler among them who had been initiated, and he was 

 not proficient. A meagre twelve lines on page eighty is all that Frank Forester 

 devotes to salmon in America, and Forester was thought to be an advanced writer. 



I have said that Englishmen were foremost to discover the unusual attrac- 

 tions of our virgin salmon streams. So also they were the first to divulge them 

 to the world in books. One by one those who had fished began to reveal the 

 secrets of the primeval penetralia into which they had ventured years before. 

 "Chiploquorgan," by Capt. Dashwood, and "Forest Life in Acadia," by Capt. 

 Hardy, both British officers, printed in 1858, are incomparable sketches of scenes 

 which no hearth rug knight of the quill would dare attempt to portray. "L'Acadie," 

 a London book printed in 1849, is a delightful idyl of the Canadian woods. 

 Latrobe's "Rambles in North America" (1835) contains something about fishing. 

 Though of materials essentially American, these books were English in sentiment 

 and emotion. They lack the amour propre of one who "treads his native heath." 

 Long we have waited for such a book, but I doubt if it has ever yet been written. 



In 1850 the indefatigable Storer, of Massachusetts, wrote up the "Fishes of 

 Nova Scotia and Labrador." Dr. Gilpin, Matthew Jones, of Halifax, U. S., and 

 Rev. M. Harvey, of Newfoundland, were also industrious pamphleteers. In 

 1852 Girard published his "Fresh Water Fishes of North America." In 1855 the 



