76 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



upon such occasions, and voluntarily undertake that to satisfie their 

 pleasure, which a poor man for a good stipend would scarce he hired to 

 undergo. Plutarch, in his book lie Soler. Animal., speaks against all 

 fishing, as a filthy, base, illiherall imployment, having neither wit nor 

 perspicacity in it, nor worth the labour. But he that shall consider 

 the variety of baits, for all seasons, and pretty devices which our 

 anglers have invented, peculiar lines, false flies, severall sleights, &c, 

 will say, that it deserves like commendation, requires as much study 

 and perspicacity as the rest, and is to be preferred before many of 

 them ; because hawking and hunting are very laborious, much riding, 

 and many dangers accompany them ; but this is still and quiet ; and 

 if so be the angler catch no fish, yet he hath a wholesome walk to the 

 brook side, pleasant shade, by the sweet silver streams ; he hath good 

 air, and sweet smels of fine fresh meadow flowers ; he hears the 

 melodious harmony of birds ; he sees the swans, herns, ducks, water 

 hens, cootes, &c, and many other fowle with their brood, which he 

 thinketh better than the noise of hounds, or blast of horns, and all the 

 sport that they can make." 



Man has an innate desire to capture alive or dead the 

 feros naturae. The chief source, however, of the pleasure 

 of success in sport among civilized men is the conscious- 

 ness that human skill and perseverance has proved su- 

 perior to the instinct and various powers of the animal. 

 Even the untutored savage has some idea of hunting as a 

 sport, apart from its being a means of subsistence, and his 

 pleasurable anticipation of the " happy hunting-grounds " 

 consists, I take it, in the assurance that he will not only 

 always have wherewithal to satisfy his hunger, but that 

 his time will be always delightfully employed. A child 

 catches flies, not, I think, from any innate cruelty, but 

 from an instinct of sport. The fact that success in angling 

 is mainly the result of skill, should give it high rank 

 among our field pastimes. 



A great deal of nonsense has been written as to the 

 brutalizing effects of field-sports. Doubtless some years 



