Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1901-02-02
ETHICS OF FISHING.
A SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE ALLEGED
CRUELTY OF THE SPORT.

The Creatures Are Most Happy When
They Are Hooked-Thcy Have Little
Capacity For Suffering and Even
Little Pleasure In Eating.
A little boy was fishing for the first
time. With the customary luck of a
beginner he had bass and perch galore
to answer the invitation of his bait
Presently the impulses of the hui
name side of his nature made Il little
hesitating protest against the more
savage instincts of the SportSmanlike
side. The wriggling of the fish when
he caught them troubled him. and he
sought to apologize to his conscience
for the suffering he wnS apparently ill.,
flictng. He said, IL think the reason
they jump so is that they are so glad to
get. out of that wet water"
Curiously enough, if we may accept
the testimony of the scientists. the lit
tie boy was quite right. \ fish is never
so happy as when he is drawn out of
the water. The air Is to him quite all
that laughing gas is to n human being
1t gives him n hundred times more
oxygen per second than his gills ever
got for him from the inhalation of wa
ter. 1t makes him delightfully."- drunk
en-. 1t eXhlaratcs him. 1t fills him
with completeness of physical joy
the only joy he is capable of feeling
wholly unknown to him in his native
element, He dies presently, it is true,
but he dies in an ecstasy of enjoyment
instead of dying in his appointed fash
ion by suffocation in the nav of some
bigger fish.
In Il footnote to the thirteenth canto
of Don Juan" Byron dcnOunccS Izaak
Walton as Il sentimental savage" and
charactcrizcS fishing rs the cruelest,
the coolest Of pretended sports" That
only shows how little Byron knew
about the matter. His sports involved
the sacrifice Of women rather than
worms.
1t Is time to set this matter of fish
ing upon its moral legs, rs it were. an
end to be accomplished merely by tell
ing the truth about il. \ fish is the
very lowest form of the vertcbrates. 1t
is incapable of any JOY except that Of
StlllllS llDbhti anu llllS uIUN IL out OI
the water to which its nature con-
dcmns it and for time breathing the
air that intOXicatcs it in delightfully."-
deadly fashion. 1t has not even the in
stinct of sexual association except in
the case of a few rare species. 1t
knows nothing of cOmpanionship, 70.
the scientists tell us that even when
GcI in, IGpnhn,lc', t., I,
cause they are engaged in common
predatory pursuit of prey, each cndcav-
oring to snatch from the others the
morsels they seek to swallow.
SO low in the scale is the fish that
even in eating he has no pleasure ex-
cept that of dStending his stomach
For the scientists find no taste COB
lets" Mt the base of his tongue and ev-
cry fisherman knows that the fish
swallows his prey whole, with no pos
sibility of detecting its flavor And
further. every fisherman who has troll
ed knows that the fish is so far an in
discriminate gOrmand in his search for
food that he will swallow coffee
spoon with bur attached as readily
"S wv '''liIla'Ht 'uil Ilipl H'l liil Noulh
be displayed in front of his greedy eyes
and his rapaciOuS mouth.
Still, again, every fish that is caught
upon a hook gets only what he de-
serves. He is caught every time in an
attempt to swallow some other crea-
ture whole and digest it in slow tor
ture. Indeed the entire life of every
fish is passed in a ceaselcss endeavOr
to catch and swallow other fish. So far
as science can discover, fish of most
species make no distinction even In IA
vor of their own young. their only
ground of selection being a consdera-
ton for their individual throats i'm the
act of swallowing. On that account
alone the severely spined suntish es-
capes the predatory perch. and the
bullhcad the moment his horns are
hard ceases to be in danger even from
the most vOraciOus of pickerel.
The fisherman is not n monster Of
wanton cruelty. He is merely a de-
sccndant of Adam exercising that do
minion" over inferior creatures which
God authorized him to exercise
George Cary Eggleston in New York
World.