366 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATEKS. 



tecting fisheries by laws, and increasing the numbers of fishes 

 by aqua-culture and fish-culture, are due to the efforts put 

 forth by sportsmen's clubs, scattered throughout the United 

 States as offshoots from the parent New York Sportsmen's 

 Club. Too much praise can not be awarded those benevo- 

 lent institutions, united solely for the public good, for which 

 they shun no duty through fear of the poacher's hatred or 

 the malevolence of dealers in stolen goods. The poacher 

 both hates and fears them, while they are the principal reli- 

 ance for guaranteeing the public that the laws for the pro- 

 tection of fish and game will be sustained. 



If the national and state governments will unite in stock- 

 ing and protecting the fresh waters, they will soon arrive at 

 truths sufficiently luminous from which to form data for laws 

 adequate to govern the whole question. To the ignorance 

 of legislators may henceforth be attributed the lack of suit- 

 able laws for the protection and stocking of water-farms of 

 millions of acres, which might be rendered a means of recre- 

 ation for the improvement of health, while offering cheap and 

 luxurious food to the million. 



CUTTLE-FISH. Sepia officinalis. 



