OTHER FISH AND GAME 265 



is unintelligent. It probably springs from the separation of sympa- 

 thies which comes from our living in an ' element ' other than that 

 of the salmon and the trout. If we were amphibious, we should 

 have a clearer insight into their ways, and perhaps find that both 

 fun and indignation lurk, at times, under the saturnine aspect of 

 their visages. . . . Many an exasperating hour have all of us spent 

 with fish who give our flies a frequent poke, or a frequent nibble at 

 the tails of them, and escape ' untouched.' Many a time, also, have 

 we found them rising at the fly, not with their mouths, but with 

 their tails, seeking to flick them under the surface and to ' drown' 

 them, to all appearance, in the spirit in which a cat plays with a 

 mouse. The analogy between fish and other creatures in the mat- 

 ter of curiosity and gambolling goes even further. It may have 

 been observed that it was the young of tigers, and cats, and dogs, 

 and other creatures, that we spoke of as given to playing with 

 things that attract their eyes; not the elderly animals so much. 

 Well, fish are in exactly the same case." 



From across the Atlantic there comes a wail which 

 enlists our sympathy, caused by the failure of our 

 English friends to acclimate the American brook- 

 trout. Speaking of the success attained with other 

 varieties of American salmonidae by the National 

 Fish Culture Association of England, W. Oldham 

 Chambers, in a paper published in the Journal of 

 that association, says : 



"It is with reluctance that we omit from this list the American 

 brook-trout, Salmo fontinalis, which has had an excellent chance of 

 asserting its qualifications for introduction into our group of sal- 

 monidae, but has failed to do so, except in confined waters. Its 

 first appearance in this country was heralded with jubilant antici- 

 pations ; its capacities for rapid growth were hailed as a good omen, 

 and its gorgeous dress and graceful form won golden opinions from 

 all piscatorial classes, who willingly paid large sums of money for 

 what was then considered the coming trout. Gradually, however, 

 its true character appeared, and now it is universally regarded as a 

 fish not to be depended upon. No authority rebuts the evidence 



