18 THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



these qualities, not by the comparative value of his flesh, is his rant 

 decided. 



For though of all field sports the motive* and origin is to kill for 

 the table, and not to kill for the sake of killing, still the sport to be 

 derived from them lies in the excitement of pursuit, and difficulty of 

 capture not in the number or value of the game. 



Wanton butchery of useless brutes, and greedy pot-hunting are the 

 Scylla and Charybdis, between which the true sportsman, and he only, 

 steers intermediate. 



It is the wariness, the subtlety and the caution of the Salmon, ren- 

 dering it necessary to use materials of the slenderest and most delicate 

 nature, and to apply them with the utmost nicety, which makes the 

 triumph over him so far more enthralling to the real fisherman than 

 that over the Pickerel or Mascalonge of equal weight, whose greater 

 voracity and inferior intellect permits the use of a gimp hook-length, 

 and a silken or flaxen line, instead of the fine gut, tinctured to the very 

 color of the water, and the casting-line of almost invisible minuteness. 



The same is the superiority of rod and reel-fishing to the use of the 

 hand-line, whether in trolling or in deep-sea fishing ; because in both 

 these the sport is at an end, so soon as the fish is hooked ; it being a 

 mere question of brute strength whether the victim shall be conquered 

 or not, when once fast at the end of a line capable of pulling in a year- 

 ling bullock. 



On the contrary, it is not the wariness and cunning, but the vigor, 

 the speed, the fierce courage and determined obstinacy of the true 

 Salmon, the Brook Trout, when of fine size and well-fed, the various 

 kinds of larger Pike or Pickerel, the Bass, and some others, which 

 gives such a zest to their capture, as compared with the smaller and 

 duller fish which may be pulled out as fast as a hook can be baited and 

 thrown in ; or the larger and more torpid fish, such as the Lake Trout, 

 the Carp, and the Pearches, some of which, after a single boring 

 plunge, resign themselves almost without a struggle, and are mastered 

 with no resistance save that occasioned by their own dead weight. 



I have said, above, that it is upon these qualities of boldness and 



NOTE TO REVISED EDITION. The killing of dangerous carnivora, as a matter of 

 defence, is not here considered, because in this country, as in Europe, the practice 

 and the necessity have long passed away. 



