With and ^Against tbe Grains 19 



shark ashore with winch and chain tackle ; in loll- 

 ing upon a wharf and taking slimy catfish, or other 

 ignoble prey ; or even in the lawless method of ex- 

 ploding a dynamite cartridge under water and lazily 

 picking up a few of many fish destroyed. 



I make no attempt to decide the merits of these 

 many opposing claims. Each supporter is partly 

 right and partly wrong. Fishing of any kind (bar- 

 ring the dynamite) is good enough for me, and in 

 my humble opinion, whatever kind fate allows one 

 to enjoy, is, or should be, the best of all while it 

 lasts. 



One method of fishing, almost invariably sneered 

 at by anglers of high degree, is spring spearing ; 

 yet it frequently affords a deal of fun and requires 

 no small measure of skill on the part of its success- 

 ful votaries. 



I have heard men who had no aversion to spear- 

 ing through the ice rail against spring spearing as 

 unworthy of any decent man's attention, yet they 

 never mentioned the one good argument, i.e. that 

 the sport encouraged the destruction of fish while 

 on their way to the spawning beds. Undoubtedly 

 spring spearing is not beneficial to the fish speared, 

 nor is the killing of a roe-laden fish on her way to 

 spawn calculated to increase the number of young 

 fry. 



But the decriers of spearing overlooked this and 

 contented themselves with rash statements to the 

 effect that it required no science and was merely 

 " slopping about " anyway. The true causes of 

 their dislike were, that the successful spearer must 

 travel long distances over wearisome, muddy foot- 



