A tnerican. Game-Fishes 



same circumstances, to the Atlantic fish, 

 and probably would be his peer as a game- 

 fish if they could be persuaded to rise to 

 a fly. As it is, they generally are trolled 

 for in bays and estuaries with hand-lines 

 and tackle so robust that even their gal- 

 lant fight can avail little. Such noble 

 fish deserve fairer handling. The supply 

 has seemed inexhaustible, but the unre- 

 strained destructiveness of nets and wheels 

 is beginning to tell. The experience of 

 the Eastern States and still older countries 

 ought easily to show our quick-witted 

 Western brethren where the trouble lies, 

 and where the cure is found. 



Let us go back to our Eastern fish and 

 our Eastern rivers. Probably the yield of 

 a season would be counted a poor day's 

 haul on the Columbia, but the taking of 

 each fish is an event. Long before the 

 snow-water on his gills wakened in the 

 fish the recollections of his native stream 

 the angler had made his plans for the 

 encounter, and arranged the details of his 

 preparations with loving care. At length 

 he is upon the river. That alone would 

 be an experience worth the pains, but for 

 the haunting expectation of that salmon's 

 rise. Out of the forest on the flanks of 

 the low mountains comes the stream 

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