186 THE HEARTLESSNESS OF NATURE 



they are eagerly hunted to death on the redds, making 

 one sigh for the common-sense that would apply the 

 money spent in ineffective artificial hatcheries to the pro- 

 tection of the normal operations of nature. Let any one 

 in search of an example of the result of wise administra- 

 tion of a salmon-river take the Aberdeenshire Dee. 

 Twenty years of sagacious management have multiplied 

 by ten the rental of rod-fishings alone, while the remain- 

 ing nets produce as many boxes of salmon as formerly 

 went to the market from the whole river. If Sir Horace 

 Plunkett, who has laboured with such admirable diligence, 

 enterprise, and success for the cause of Irish agriculture, 

 should apply his energy to the regeneration and develop- 

 ment of Irish inland fisheries, he will be working upon a 

 latent source of wealth to his country. But whereas in 

 the first he had a nation of fanners to work with, in the 

 other he will have to encounter a community of poachers, 

 and the task will be proportionately harder. 



XLII 



I have made comment elsewhere, 1 and at some length, 

 The Heart u P on the indifference of Nature to the suffer - 

 lessnessof ings of her children. We are assured that 

 Nature nQt ft S p arrow ^^i f a u to t ^ e g rou nd without 



the Father of nature's sanction; yet we see innocent 

 creatures exposed to suffering so cruel and protracted 

 that, if man were the agent, he would be branded as a 

 heartless monster. It is not merely the perpetual prey- 

 ing by the strong upon the weak that is part of a 

 mighty scheme whereof we see only a small segment, 

 enough to bewilder us ; but from time to time we witness 



1 Memories of the Months, Second Series, p. 4. 



