118 FISH AND GAME PRESERVATION IN AMERICA 



Supposing this to be a faithful account of the capture 

 of Sunapee trout (Salvelinus alpinus aureolus), a most 

 desirable kind of char, which runs up to twenty pounds 

 in weight, it is not surprising that the successful angler 

 should enthuse a little wildly. Nevertheless, should a 

 passage in the same tropical style occur in the Annual 

 Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests, there might be talk of proceedings de lunatico 

 inquirendo, yet the quotation is from an official paper 

 issued by Government, which is reckoned one of the 

 most business-like in the world. Instead of mono- 

 tonous columns of print, covered in paper suggestive 

 of groceries, such as those the publications ' presented 

 to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her 

 Majesty/ here we have 500 quarto pages, of which about 

 one-fourth contain tabulated returns, the remainder 

 being filled with papers on sport and natural history, 

 profusely and beautifully illustrated, and the whole 

 bound in buckram boards most delicious to the touch. 



The object of a public department in propagating the 

 love of field sports by such papers as the one quoted 

 from above may not be quite clear until it is understood 

 that the State of New York is an immense landowner, 

 and nearly the whole of its estates are devoted to the 

 preservation of game and sporting fish, which may be 

 pursued by the public free of charge, but under strict 

 regulations as to close time. 



Now when we consider the haphazard, hand-to- 

 mouth manner in which the freshwater fishings of Great 

 Britain and Ireland are managed, when we remember 



