iv PKEFACE. 



likewise the Legislature of this State,* have shown 

 themselves alive to the importance of the new discove- 

 ry, and hence indicated the necessity of a manual on it. 



purpose — ^too paltry even to "send to market" — argues a coarse 

 spirit of destructiveness that cannot exist in the true lover of ang- 

 ling. We know parts of Connecticut famous for trout and game 

 not many years ago, where neither a trout nor woodcock can now 

 be found, and even the quail is a traditionary bird ; yet there are 

 fine streams, and plenty of woodland. The unchecked lust for shil- 

 lings has not left a fish or bird in whole counties. So, too, ou 

 the south side of Long Island, once esteemed among the best 

 trouting localities in this State, where mischievous boys, and 

 vulgar men, have been allowed to destroy them, until now a 

 trout can scarcely be found. Nor are these worse than some 

 of our city '' sportsmen I " whose highest idea of sport is wanton 

 destruction. We heard one boast last summer of having killed 

 twelve hundred trout in two days at Catskill I Of course they 

 were nearly all young fish, the largest probably three inches long. 

 A very few were brought home (putrid when they arrived), and the 

 remainder were left to perish on the banks of the stream. We won- 

 der the people of that region did not prevent such vulgar slaugh- 

 ter. The man ought to be prohibited from all "sport" but catch- 

 ing bull-frogs for ever after. 



Mr. Pell, the celebrated horticulturist of Ulster county, who 

 has also turned his attention to pisciculture, predicts the speedy and 

 total annihilation of shad in our rivers, unless something is done 

 by the Legislature to preserve them. He avers that whereas it 

 used to be a common thing to draw 1600 shad at a haul, the fish- 

 erman now gets sometimes one or two fish in his net. These are 

 facts coming directly home to our breakfast and dinner tables, and 

 certainly are legitimate subjects for legislative interference. — From 

 the Sunday Times, March 19, 1854. 



* Pkeservatioh of Fish. — A bill has been introduced into the New 

 York Senate for the preservation of fish in the waters of this State. 

 The first section provides that " all persons in the State of New 

 York who obtain a livelihood by the capture of fish, shall, toward 



