60 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



ence" in the smallest degree ; but the deduction which he 

 draws that the practice of angling conduces to deliberate 

 thought is one that should commend its practise to par- 

 ents as the best of all sports for their sons. The murder- 

 ing instincts of a boy are often satisfied with the death of 

 a low form of animal life which cannot suffer as much 

 pain as mammals or birds, under any circumstances, be- 

 cause their nervous organizations are lower. Shake- 

 speare was greatly in error when he wrote, in effect, that : 

 "The poor beetle that we tread upon in corporal suffer- 

 ance finds a pang as great as when giant dies." Suffer- 

 ing is entirely a matter of nerves. A worm which can be 

 cut in two and go on living, and perhaps grow into two 

 worms, cannot suffer much. Pull a lobster's claw from 

 its body and a new one grows ; pull a limb from a mouse 

 and the animal dies. 



Under date of July 3, 1878, Mr. Dawson wrote me: 

 "No pastime is so attractive to me as angling, and when 

 not at it I greatly like to talk and write about it, ethically, 

 not scientifically, for I have never been able to master an 

 'ology' of any kind," and then he goes on to ask about the 

 details of grayling fishing. Some time before this I called 

 on him and enlarged on the pleasures of a trip to the Au 

 Sable River, Michigan, with Mr. Daniel H. Fitzhugh, of 

 Bay City, and of the capture of the gentle grayling. He 

 listened a while and then asked : 



"How large do grayling grow?" 



"Those we took were fish that would weigh from 

 three-quarters to one and a half pounds, but some have 

 been taken that would weigh as much as two pounds." 



"My boy" he seemed to be fond of addressing me in 

 this way, perhaps because of the fact of the great disparity 

 of years when we first fished together back of Kinderhook 

 Landing, or because his son, George S., was my school- 



