American Fisheries Society 117 



willing to trade a pound of rancid western bacon for a pound 

 of mountain trout. This perhaps seemed queer to them but 

 it was nevertheless a fact, and being so, they took advantage 

 of it and after that the trout lived hard. Those slimed dis- 

 gusting things called trout were eaten with relish by the peo- 

 ple of the low lands and in return they would trade, pound 

 for pound, rich, fat, salty bacon. The sportsmen of the state 

 have just succeeded, however, in having a law passed making- 

 it unlawful to sell game or fish and the effect upon the 

 Hammonds is watched with considerable interest. Person- 

 ally we hope to see them turn their faces towards the sinking 

 sun and to keep a-going until they get to a place into which 

 the sun sinks, so far away that they will never prey upon 

 our woods and waters again. 



In recent years there has been procured for this stream 

 from the White Sulphur Springs fish hatchery something- 

 over a hundred thousand small fish, both rainbow and brook 

 trout, and these fish have thrived and done well, restoring the 

 river to something like its pristine glory. It has been mad- 

 dening to think of the untutored Hammonds selling these fish 

 pound for pound for western bacon. But we sometimes rise 

 to the occasion and do what is necessary and so the law has 

 been passed. The wise man will either wash his dishes or 

 keep a dog. 



In analyzing my subject in the true scientific way of a pro- 

 tector of the game and fish we find what the chemists call a 

 "trace." 



The height of his ambition seems to be to take his stand by 

 the fishing water and kill noble game fishes until the slaughter 

 covers him with blood and guts. He drinks strong water and 

 his speech is coarse. Yet to the tender mercies of such as 

 these is left the welfare of the game and fishes. Our legisla- 

 tures are full of men who never saw a setting of fish eggs and 

 who never set up a single night with a sick fish. 



In West Virginia we have just passed through the travail 

 of inaugurating a most stringent and effective protective 

 measure. The laws of this state on the subject were very 



