Protection of Water Creatures 163 



is because there is little food to be had there. The reason 

 no fish are found in the very deep parts of the ocean is be- 

 cause the water there contains no air particles. Strange as 

 it may seem, although fish breathe water, they caimot Uve 

 xmless it contains oxygen from the air. 



The fish, then, that interest us because of their value for 

 food, are found only in. the shallow waters usually near the 

 shore and in the lakes and rivers. Because of this fact it is 

 possible, as we have learned from experience, to set so many 

 traps and use so many nets and hooks as entirely to destroy 

 certain species. ' 



The fish have their natural enemies, and there is warfare 

 among them just as there is among the land animals. The 

 larger and more powerful live upon the smaller ones, but, 

 seemingly to make up for this, Xatxure has given the small 

 fish quickne^ of movement — which the large fish do not 

 possess — to aid them in escaping. They have also the 

 power of increasing very rapidly. The little herring, which 

 is the chief food of manj' of the large fish, maintains its 

 coimtless numbers against all its enemies except the fisher- 

 men. 



The Indians, with their crude traps, hooks, and spears, 

 could obtain but few fish at a time and did not reduce their 

 numbers. But civilized man, with his cuimingly contrived 

 hooks and nets, has the same advantage over the fish that 

 the himter, with his repeating gun, has over the land ani- 

 mals. Xature, not foreseeing how destructive man would 

 be, has armed neither the creatures of the land nor the 

 creatures of the water against him. 



The fisherman does his work just as thoughtlessly as the 

 hunter whose business it is to supply the market. He seems 



