26 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



his rights, or think of going to bed hungry with 

 such an appetizing morsel impudently flopping his 

 tail at him., than he would of turning either the 

 back of his hand to a friend or the back of his coat 

 to an enemy. And this, not because he would be 

 oblivious of the propriety of preserving the fish 

 from extermination, but because he would demon- 

 strate to his own satisfaction not only that " self- 

 preservation is the first law of nature," but that 

 " necessity knows no law," and that when salmon 

 thus generously say to him, " Come and take me," 

 no government has a right to say, " You shan't do 

 it." Superadded to this would be the antagonism 

 excited by the reflection that, in this case, the pro- 

 hibition is against nature and the right which every 

 man has to the waters and all that is therein in 

 front of his own premises. Many even here, who 

 are not Yankees, believe that if this right were 

 asserted it would hold good unless it had been 

 voluntarily surrendered or otherwise legally secured 

 by the government. Fortunately, however, on 

 most of the salmon rivers, the government is the 

 principal owner of the lands on either side of them ; 

 and where it is not, if the question were raised, 

 some mode would be devised to effect the benefi- 

 cent ends sought by this law of inhibition, with- 

 out wholly ignoring this ancient right. 



So far as the people here are concerned, they 



