THE PROTECTION OF FISH. 51 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE PROTECTION OF FISH. 



I AM in receipt of a letter from a correspon- 

 dent, concerning the protection of fish. He says : 

 "I am much interested in your researches. I never 

 caught a fish in my life, but can appreciate the 

 importance of protecting our fish from the unthink- 

 ing or selfish who despoil our rivers and streams." 

 The matter of protecting our fish is a subject which 

 should interest every good citizen, whether he be a 

 fisherman or not; it is a question which concerns the 

 food supply of the country, a matter of vital import- 

 ance to every man, woman and child. 



Now I propose to show how fish are destroyed 

 by the unthinking, or the class of men who do 

 not care whether there are any fish left in the waters 

 or not, so long as they manage to transfer a few 

 paltry dollars to their pockets, which, as a rule, do 

 them little or no good. 



The fishermen who do the most damage are those 

 who take the fish during their spawning seasons. It 

 is at this time that the fish come into shallow 

 water to complete their work of procreation, and are 

 then easily captured. All fish have certain localities 

 to which they resort at the season of the year when 

 their eggs are matured and ready to cast. Different 

 varieties seek different localities; as, for instance, 

 the speckled or brook trout cast their spawn on the 

 gravel; the lake or salmon trout on rocky reefs; the 



