Poacuers Ros aut Crasses. 153 
another piece of territory where the trout streams are com- 
paratively so numerous and productive as they are through- 
out Long Island. It is searcely possible to travel a mile in 
any direction without crossing a trout stream, whether from 
Coney Island to Southampton on the south side, or from 
Newtown to Greenport on the north side; and when taking 
into account the necessity for a kind of recreation which shall 
not be too violent for the thousands of debilitated citizens 
who are pent up in squares of brick and mortar, and engaged 
at sedentary occupations, it is impossible to estimate in dol- 
lars the value of a recreation which, while it is sufficiently 
free, airy, and attractive to inflate the lungs, jog the biliary 
organs, and unbend the mind, is not so difficult to pursue as 
to prevent the most delicate in physique from enjoying it. 
The value of the Long Island trout streams to New York City 
is inestimable, for each one of them is approachable by rail- 
road in a few hours. In a hygienic sense, therefore, they are 
above price. How deep must therefore be the turpitude of 
the crime of that vagrant class of vagabonds who recklessly 
rob the streams of their life, beauty, and means of recreation 
to the overworked citizen who depends on angling instead 
of physie for restoring his waning health of body and decreas- 
ing vigor of mind! 
Streams in New Jersey and Connecticut, and those west 
of the Hudson to the Delaware Rivers, and far beyond in both 
this state and Pennsylvania, contain trout, and many of them 
are well stocked. Indeed, it would be difficult to finda stream 
within a radius of a hundred miles from the city of New 
York which has not more or less trout init. The paper-mills, 
railroads, bleaching-fields, chemicals of acids and gases, lime, 
manures, and numerous kinds of manufactories which cast 
their choking and poisonons débris and filtrations into the 
streams, have not proved sufficient to depopulate them of 
their speckled beauties ; and were it not for the poacher, who 
stops not at nets, spears, snares of singular device, killing the 
trout by liming the streams and poisoning them with coewlus 
