256 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



portant periods of life — the hours of relaxation and social 

 enjoyment. I felicitate you upon the organization of a so- 

 ciety, whose exertions will show to our fellow citizens, that 

 the finny treasures of our waters have not been bestowed 

 upon us in vain; that they are not, by all the members of 

 our community, unheedingly and unthankfully neglected: 

 but that the lovers of science, the lovers of good eating, the 

 lovers of health and good manhood, and the lovers of good 

 tempers and cheerful dispositions, are enabled to reckon 

 among the many advantages enjoyed by our city, the pos- 

 session of a society whose objects are to increase the quan- 

 tum of all these good things, to develope the various resour- 

 ces of our waters — 



" To dive into the bottom of the deep ;" 



" And pluck up" bass and salmon on our hooks : 



and, in short, to render available that portion of the boun- 

 ties of Providence, of which a too exclusive attention to 

 terrestrial affairs has hitherto caused an unwarrantable ne- 

 glect. 



It has formerly been a mooted question among the philo- 

 sophers and men of science, "what is {par-excellence) the 

 use of rivers?" The answer given by the celebrated Brind- 

 ley is doubtless familiar to you all, viz. : " To feed naviga- 

 ble canals." The correctness of this answer has been ques- 

 tioned by many: and honest Izaak Walton, had he been re- 

 quired to give an answer to it, would probably have given 

 the following, viz.: "To feed the lovers of good eating 

 with delicacies which the earth does not produce." There 

 are, doubtless, many worthy men, whose answer to this 

 question would be, that the principal use of rivers is to 

 afford a theatre for the display of the locomotive powers of 

 the steam engine. Since the discovery of rail-roads, how- 

 ever, many are of opinion that they are scarcely needed for 

 this purpose. But no discovery can ever be made which 

 will supercede the necessity and utility of rivers to fisher- 

 men. Many other answers to this question have been 

 given, which I will not fatigue you by relating, but pro- 

 ceed to state the answer which we may give to this question 

 whenever it may be propounded to us, with confidence that 

 it cannot be controverted; and wliich is, — that the use of 

 rivers is to nourish and preserve materials for the display 

 of the skill and talents of the Cincinnati Angling Club. 



The neglect of the wealth of our rivers has been a just 

 theme of reproach to the inhabitants of the Western coun- 

 try in general. So great has been this neglect, that when 

 a certain erudite and profound professor undertook to enu- 

 merate and describe the fishes of the Ohio, he discovered 

 many species which were utterly unknown to any of our 

 citizens — many, indeed, which to this day, remain unknown 

 to all but this learned philosopher himself. Of a renowned 



hero of former times, the celebrated Tom Thumb, it was 

 said that "he made the giants he killed;" and it has been 

 said in like manner of our learned Doctor in Philosophy, 

 that he made many of the fishes he described. Whether he 

 was entitled to this additional honour, could not, in conse- 

 quence of the lamentable defect of public curiosity at that 

 time, be determined. Had an organized club of expert 

 anglers, like ours, then been in existence, all doubts on the 

 subject might have been removed, and the world at large 

 might have awarded to the learned Professor that honour 

 which at present is bestowed upon him only by some of his 

 most zealous friends; the honour, namely, of having made, 

 as well as described, a great number of his fishes of the 

 Ohio. It is said to have been the practice of many valiant 

 generals, to give existence, upon paper, to a vast number of 

 the enemies whom they slew, and thereby reap the renown 

 of destroying, if not of making them: and the learned ichthy- 

 ologist, who docs not seek the honour of killing his fishes, 

 ought not certainly to be deprived of giving them all the 

 existence they ever possessed. 



It is truly lamentable to observe the great and increasing 

 neglect of the finny tribes, by all the people of modern 

 times; and it is worthy of inquirj-, whether it be not to 

 this neglect that we are to attribute the amazing degenera- 

 cy of fishes since the days of the ancient pliilosophers — de- 

 generacy both in bodily size and intellectual endowments. 

 In respect to the first of these qualifications, it appears that 

 they acquired the highest degree of celebrity under the im- 

 perial patronage of the Roman rulers; and to such magnifi- 

 cent dimensions did they attain, that the Roman Senate, as 

 history inform.s us, was called upon, among other grave and 

 weighty deliberations, to admire the parts and proportions 

 of one that was deemed worthy, in consequence of its ex- 

 traordinary size and beauty, of the Emperor's table alone; 

 and therefore worthy the attention of that august body, the 

 Senate of Imperial Rome. But with respect to their men- 

 tal qualities, they appear to have arrived at their highest 

 point of perfection at an earlier period. Plutarch gives us 

 information of certain tribes of fishes, that were in the habit 

 of displaying very profound knowledge of the mathematical 

 sciences, and of the art of perspective; and Pliny and Aris- 

 totle, as well as many other ancient philosophers, record 

 many instances of their profound knowledge in other 

 branches of science. Their correct appreciation of theolo- 

 gical instructions is recorded in the history of Saint An- 

 thony, whose preaching 



" They thronged to hear, the legend tells, 

 " Were edified, and wagged tbcir tails." 



But since that period, since the time when all learning and 

 science were overshadowed by the gloom of the dark ages, 



