MORE FISHING NOTES. 253 



their pleasure. I honestly think over-strict preserving 

 is not acting beneficially as regards coarse fish, so called 

 to distinguish other fresh-water fish from the trout. 



In order to promote this game fish, ponds have 

 been cleared of other fish, brooks also. Weeds, 

 the beautiful fresh-water weeds, have been cut or 

 raked off from the bottom : in doing so, Nature's own 

 filters and purifiers, in hundreds of ways, have been 

 destroyed, and food for the fish therewith. None 

 but those who have brought a double armful of bright 

 green weed to the bank, and examined it closely, 

 can form any idea of the various small creatures that 

 live in it, all of them food for the fish that have 

 their habitat in the water where they grow. If the 

 trout flourished in proportion to the trouble taken, 

 there would be something to say for it ; but they 

 do not, so far as I have observed, and other fish 

 suffer from the removal of the natural aquatic 

 growth. Trout, in my opinion, are best left to the 

 care of the connoisseur, who should carefully inquire 

 into the relative merits of the natural and artificial 

 method of stream-purification and of food. I think 

 myself that the care above described is such as the 

 trout does not at all times benefit by. A clever im- 



