AiSTD AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



257 



we have little or no evidence of their cultivation of any of 

 the various branches of knowledge. Even the art of naviga- 

 tion, in which they might naturally be expected most to ex- 

 cel, they appear to neglect far more than is proper; for we 

 find that the salmon do not now visit many of our rivers, 

 (the Connecticut, for instance,) to which they formerly re- 

 sorted with great regularity; and the shad do not display 

 that spirit of adventurous roving which we should be glad 

 to see them exhibit, by paying annual visits to the Ohio; 

 which, doubtless, they would do, if they possessed that ex- 

 tent of knowledge and good taste which, according to the 

 authors to whom we have referred, characterized them in 

 ancient times. 



It has lately been proposed by an esteemed and respecta- 

 ble author in our city, that some measures be taken to in- 

 struct certain tribes of fishes in such branches of knowledge 

 as would induce them to emigrate to our western waters, 

 where, we have no doubt, they may be as much improved 

 in their circumstances as the emigrants to the western lands, 

 and it is to be hoped that the suggestions of this valuable 

 author may receive the attention they merit. It is little to 

 the credit of the citizens of the west, that their attention is 

 exclusively devoted to terrestrial affairs, that the aquatic 

 portions of our country are almost totally neglected; and 

 instead of receiving a share of attention equal to their 

 importance, have been abandoned to the management of 

 those who looked but little below the surface of their sub- 

 ject, and who are ignorant of the habits, qualities, and capa- 

 bilities of the inhabitants of our western waters. No cares 

 have ever been bestowed upon them, tending to their im- 

 provement; and no system of management has ever been 

 adopted, by which their most valuable tribes might be en- 

 couraged, and their numbers increased. On the contrary, 

 many of them have never even received such names as are 

 befitting fishes; but have been obliged to bear the cast-off 

 names of land animals, such as buffaloes, red-horses, black- 

 horses, cats, &c., names which are totally unfit, and, indeed, 

 quite insulting, when applied to the inhabitants of our rivers, 

 who are as fairly entitled to names of their own, as any of 

 the quadrupeds or bipeds on land; — to names that are ap- 

 propriate and descriptive — suitable for fishes of respectable 

 rivers. I trust that this matter will receive the attention of 

 this worthy society, as some other subjects, which very 

 justly claim our earliest care, and which I am confident will 

 not be neglected, I mean the attention of each individual to 

 those personal qualifications that are necessary to qualify 

 him for excellence in the important art of angling. 



In a paragraph recently republished in our journals, from 

 an English paper, the author, referring to the expected emi- 

 gration of the late king of France, Charles X., to the Uni- 

 ted States, suggested the idea, that he, and the former king 

 3 T 



of Spain, who had long been a resident in this country, may 

 angle in the same streams, &c., a suggestion which exhibits 

 a more correct appreciation by its author, of the important 

 art of angling, than of the character of the person whom he 

 supposed might be led to cultivate it in America; and noth- 

 ing but that blind devotion to kings, which leads men to 

 attribute to them none but elevated sentiments and enno- 

 bling pursuits, could have inspired the idea that a man of the 

 character of Charles X. could take delight in the sport of 

 angling. A man like him, tyrannical, oppressive, bigoted, 

 and wrong-headed, is of a character the very reverse of that 

 of a genuine angler. The kings of modern times, have, in- 

 deed, none of them those characteristics which would enti- 

 tle them to membership in the Cincinnati Angling Club: 

 and it is therefore to be hoped that the work of reform may • 

 not end in France, but go on until governments cease to be 

 oppressive, and rulers possess that spirit of patient persever- 

 ance in their duties which characterizes the real angler. 

 My brethren, — kings have seldom been anglers — they have 

 seldom possessed those high and ennobling qualities which 

 lead to a cultivation of this pursuit, and therefore the world 

 has no further need of them. Especially, we want no kings 

 nor ex-kings in these United States. Prophets and Apostles 

 have been fishers; but kings and emperors have seldom pos- 

 sessed sufiicient good taste to imitate them: and although 

 there is one sovereign in Europe who professes to be their 

 successor, and still retains among his insignia some fishing 

 implements; yet the testimony of history proves that Popes 

 are more like kings than like Anglers or Apostles, and are 

 therefore too degenerate to be of any use in this world. We 

 trust that also they will be dismissed, with other useless in- 

 cumbents of office, in order that the dignity which should 

 belong to the employment of a real fisherman, may not be 

 degraded by the proud pretensions of the occupants of the 

 Papal throne to the character of fishers. For they are men 

 who for centuries have not practised nor encouraged the 

 angler's art, and have only honoured it by external display 

 — men who differ little from kings and other dignitaries, 

 that despise or neglect those qualities in their fellow men 

 which are most essential to their health and happiness, and 

 who uphold and cherish the sickl_^ indolent, and useless 

 portion of their species, more than the manly, robust, and 

 useful. 



But of kings and potentates we have said enough — more 

 than they deserve, since they only serve as warnings to us, 

 to avoid the vices by which their characters are degraded, 

 by which they not only become unfitted for piscatorial ex- 

 ercises and duties, but are even, probablj"-, rendered so effe- 

 minate and worthless, as not even to wish to partake of 

 them. It is far more pleasant to speak of men who are en- 

 nobled by the qualities of the mind and heart, and not by 



