PREFATORY 5 



rapidly extinguished in Wales, Devonshire, and Sussex, by 

 unreflecting, red-faced, well-meaning, church-going, rate-paying 

 persons on the plea that it eats salmon or trout.^ Now, what 

 nonsense this is ! No trout that was ever served on a dish is 

 as good as a fried sole. Salmon is a handsome-looking fish, 

 so far as fish go, and its flesh, though very provocative of 

 biliousness, is liked by a large number of people. But salmon 

 is produced in such enormous abundance in North America 

 and Norway, and is so very unlikely (owing to its habit of 

 resorting to the sea) to become exterminated in British waters 

 by the otter, that it would be a shame if this remarkable 

 aquatic weasel, so beautiful an object as an adjunct to a 

 stream landscape, were extirpated, destroyed, or even rendered 

 wild, to gratify the angler's craze — a craze nearly as modern 

 as golf and cricket, but not so picturesque or beneficial to 

 athletic development. It is necessary to insist, for the future 

 happiness of the world, on the aesthetic value of beasts, 

 birds, and reptiles. Amphibians and fish are less worthy of 

 regard, partly from the fact that as they live almost entirely 

 in the water they play no part in the beauty of landscapes. 

 As regards all invertebrates, one may disregard, destroy, or 

 disprotect all except those crustaceans that are good for food. 

 Butterflies and some beetles are charming in coloration and 

 outline, but the grandest of butterflies is feeble in aesthetic value 

 compared to a bird, and the grubs of both butterflies and 

 beetles do unmeasured harm. Fresh-water fish should not be 

 protected against the ravages of the higher vertebrates : they 

 must take their chance. As regards sea-fish, many forms are 

 either beautiful in coloration, imposing in bulk, or fantastic in 

 shape, and therefore provocative of interest. But as it is a most 

 exceptional incident in our lives to put on a diver's dress and 



1 Here is an extract from a recent number of the Daily Graphic : "The 

 Crowhurst Otter Hounds. — The new pack of hounds which have just been 

 started in East Sussex to hunt the country in the neighbourhood of Hastings 

 is to be called the Crowhurst Otter Hounds. They propose to begin opera- 

 tions on the 1 8th of this month." 



