Henshall — Angling. 181 



tiple-hooked artificial lures of wood or metal, known as plugs 

 and kill-devils, began to be advertised in the fishing journals 

 by profiteers, few of whom were anglers, and they persist to 

 this day, a bar-sinister on the escutcheon of true sportman- 

 ship, and a disgrace to the gentle art of angling. It is only 

 by propaganda of education that our erring brother anglers 

 can be induced to forsake these vile implements of destruction 

 and resort to honest and ethical means and methods of angling. 



We have received the art of angling as a sacred trust and 

 heritage from times of great antiquity, and it behooves all 

 honest anglers to see to it that the trust be righteously and 

 faithfully regarded. From remote ages, from Biblical times, 

 through the dark ages, and the days of our Mother Superior 

 and Father Isaak to the present day, it has been proved that 

 age cannot wither nor custom stale the gentle art of angling. 



It has been a pleasant task and a labor of love to trace the 

 past records of angling down to our own times, but I am now 

 obliged to broach a subject both unpleasant and forbidding, 

 but one, nevertheless, that must be earnestly and intelligently 

 considered, if we are to have any fishing left for black bass or 

 for any other game-fish in either fresh or salt water. We are 

 confronted by the most serious and appalling menace of this 

 century in the pollution of our inland and coastal waters. In- 

 land streams are, as you know, poisoned by industrial offal 

 and waste, and the coastal estuaries by the deadly effects of 

 oil pollution from tankers and oil-burning vessels. This means 

 that not only angling, but commercial fishing as well, is almost 

 a thing of the past in certain sections. These facts are so 

 evident and apparent that it is up to this competent and tute- 

 lary society to work while it is yet day, for the night cometh 

 when it will be too late to save what little remnant is left of 

 our once glorious heritage of the piscatorial wealth bequeathed 

 to us by past centuries. 



And now, as to the future. Watchman, what of the night ! 

 The fanious electrician. Dr. Steinmetz, tells us that the people 

 of the next century will wonder at our ignorance ; that every- 

 thing at that time will be done by electricity, and that they 

 will work but four hours a day; Well, they will have more 

 time to go a-fishing, provided there are any fish to be caught, 

 which is problematical. I would not care to live in the next 

 century and take the chances. 



But, seriously, something must be done and done quickly. 

 We must co-operate with the manufacturers to do away with 

 pollution by reducing it to a condition where it will be 

 harmless to animal life, and at the same time be a source 

 of profit to themselves; a proceeding that has already been 

 consummated. If this can not be done through moral suasion, 



