256 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 
portant periods of life — the hours of relaxation and social 
enjoyment. I felicitate you upon the organization of a so- 
ciety, whose exertions will show to our fellow citizens, that 
the finny treasures of our waters have not been bestowed 
upon us in vain; that they are not, by all the members of 
our community, unheedingly and unthankfully neglected: 
but that the lovers of science, the lovers of good eating, the 
lovers of health and good manhood, and the lovers of good 
tempers and cheerful dispositions, are enabled to reckon 
among the many advantages enjoyed by our city, the pos- 
session of a society whose objects are to increase the quan- 
tum of all these good things, to develope the various resour- 
ces of our waters — 
“ To dive into the bottom of the deep 
“ And pluck up” bass and salmon on our hooks : 
and, in short, to render available that portion of the boun- 
ties of Providence, of which a too exclusive attention to 
terrestrial affairs has hitherto caused an unwarrantable ne- 
glect. 
It has formerly been a mooted question among the philo- 
sophers and men of science, “what is [par-excellence] the 
use of rivers?” The answer given by the celebrated Brind- 
ley is doubtless familiar to you all, viz. : “To feed naviga- 
ble canals/” The correctness of this answer has been ques- 
tioned by many; and honest Izaak Walton, had he been re- 
quired to give an answer to it, would probably have given 
the following, viz.: “To feed the lovers of good eating 
with delicacies which the earth does not produce.” There 
are, doubtless, many worthy men, whose answer to this 
question would be, that the principal use of rivers is to 
afford a theatre for the display of the locomotive powers of 
the steam engine. Since the discovery of rail-roads, how- 
ever, many are of opinion that they are scarcely needed for 
this purpose. But no discovery can ever be made which 
will supercede the necessity and utility of rivers to fisher- 
men. Many other answers to this question have been 
given, which I will not fatigue you by relating, but pro- 
ceed to state the answer which we may give to this question 
whenever it may be propounded to us, with confidence that 
it cannot be controverted; and which is, — that the use of 
rivers is to nourish and preserve materials for the display 
of the skill and talents of the Cincinnati Angling Club. 
The neglect of the wealth of our rivers has been a just 
theme of reproach to the inhabitants of the Western coun- 
try in general. So great has been this neglect, that when 
a certain erudite and profound professor undertook to enu- 
merate and describe the fishes of the Ohio, he discovered 
many species which were utterly unknown to any of our 
citizens — many, indeed, which to this day, remain unknown 
to all but this learned philosopher himself. Of a renowned 
hero of former times, the celebrated Tom Thumb, it was 
said that “ he made the giants he killed;” and it has been 
said in like manner of our learned Doctor in Philosophy, 
that he made many of the fishes he described. Whether he 
was entitled to this additional honour, could not, in conse- 
quence of the lamentable defect of public curiosity at that 
time, be determined. Had an organized club of expert 
anglers, like ours, then been in existence, all doubts on the 
subject might have been removed, and the world at large 
might have awarded to the learned Professor that honour 
which at present is bestowed upon him only by some of his 
most zealous friends; the honour, namely, of having made, 
as well as described, a great number of his fishes of the 
Ohio. It is said to have been the practice of many valiant 
generals, to give existence, upon paper, to a vast number of 
the enemies whom they slew, and thereby reap the renown 
of destroying, if not of making them : and the learned ichthy- 
ologist, who does not seek the honour of killing his fishes, 
ought not certainly to be deprived of giving them all the 
existence they ever possessed. 
It is truly lamentable to observe the great and increasing 
neglect of the finny tribes, by all the people of modern 
times; and it is worthy of inquiry, whether it be not to 
this neglect that we are to attribute the amazing degenera- 
cy of fishes since the days of the ancient philosophers — de- 
generacy both in bodily size and intellectual endowments. 
In respect to the first of these qualifications, it appears that 
they acquired the highest degree of celebrity under the im- 
perial patronage of the Roman rulers; and to such magnifi- 
cent dimensions did they attain, that the Roman Senate, as 
history informs us, was called upon, among other grave and 
weighty deliberations, to admire the parts and proportions 
of one that was deemed worthy, in consequence of its ex- 
traordinary size and beauty, of the Emperor’s table alone; 
and therefore worthy the attention of that august body, the 
Senate of Imperial Rome. But with respect to their men- 
tal qualities, they appear to have arrived at their highest 
point of perfection at an earlier period. Plutarch gives us 
information of certain tribes of fishes, that were in the habit 
of displaying very profound knowledge of the mathematical 
sciences, and of the art of perspective; and Pliny and Aris- 
totle, as well as many other ancient philosophers, record 
many instances of their profound knowledge in other 
branches of science. Their correct appreciation of theolo- 
gical instructions is recorded in the history of Saint An- 
thony, whose preaching 
“ They thronged to hear, the legend tells, 
“ Were edified, and wagged their tails.” 
But since that period, since the time when all learning and 
science were overshadowed by the gloom of the dark ages, 
