160 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 



streams not only requires a vast amount of skill and 

 judgment, a nice adjustment of tackle, and a dexterous 

 manipulation of the rod ; but also an intimate ac- 

 quaintance with the nature and habits of the fish. 

 This proficiency is only to be acquired by time and 

 practice, and it is seldom our lot to come in contact with 

 a thorough crack worm-fisher, who has not seen some 

 forty or fifty summers pass over his head. 



CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 



Men of tender feelings object to worm-fishing from 

 its apparent cruelty, and the rather revolting operation of 

 baiting the hook ; and in this respect, it is certainly 

 neither so cleanly nor pleasant as fishing with either the 

 fly or the minnow. But a little soap and water will 

 speedily remove every stain of dirt from the fingers of the 

 most fastidious ; while a little sober reflection and in- 

 quiry into the physical organisation of the lower orders of 

 animals will absolve the apparent barbarism. When a 

 worm is impaled upon a hook, it evidently must suffer 

 a certain amount of pain, as is evinced by its writhings, 

 which are induced, in my opinion, more from pain than 

 from any merely instinctive efforts to escape, as some 

 writers maintain : yet we may safely infer that the 

 amount of suffering endured cannot be very intense. 

 It is well known that in the mammalia and warm- 

 blooded animals, the higher the grade or the more 

 perfect the physical organisation, the more perfectly de- 

 veloped are their nervous systems and sensitiveness 



