FALLACIES AND FACTS. 197 



present circumstances are considered, left behind 

 simply to say which way the heavy old coaches 

 and broad- wheeled waggons had been used to plod 

 along those weary ways, now fumed over by 

 roaring railroads — those modern improvements in 

 locomotion which, in some timid minds, seem to 

 point to the world's approaching dissolution. 



Almost all our books on natural history were at 

 one time compiled on hearsay evidence, gathered 

 from the country people, or written after mere 

 superficial glances at the objects described, the 

 design of Nature guessed at by the brain of the 

 intended historian. This sort of guesswork has 

 been more or less indulged in down to the present 

 day, and quite recently we have evidence of it in 

 the institution of the staircases, or ^^salmon-ladders," 

 placed in such positions that no salmon instincts 

 would teach the fish to look for them, and which no 

 salmon, as the ^^ ladders" were first established, 

 Avould ever dream of ascending unless spawned 

 with legs! 



Adventurers invented, through the salmon-ladders, 

 a means of gulling the Legislature, of misleading 

 the public, and, for themselves, an ascent to the 

 higher waters of popularity! For a time the 



