The subject of the protection of fish demands the consideration of every political economist, as well as of every sportsman in our country, or we shall soon be reduced to the condition of France, and forced to repopulate our deserted streams and lakes and furnish to the people, with great labor and at high price, one of their chief articles of food. In olden times, during the epicurean days of Rome, and later during the reign of the Catholic fast days, the utmost attention was bestowed upon the preservation, protection, and improvement of fish; enormous revenues were invested in immense tanks where they were fattened, and different species were transported to countries where they were unknown, and domesticated in unaccustomed waters. With the advent of the Roman Catholic religion, several foreign varieties were introduced into England, among others the fat carp and the lean pickerel; and fish ponds were invariably attached to monasteries and convents.

Although the religion that ordains fish-eating to be fasting, having shrunk from its gigantic reach and extent, is confined in our land to a small sect, and the inhabitants of the waters are no longer a religious institution; fish must always constitute a considerable portion of the diet of the poor, and an acceptable change, if not permanently agreeable, to the rich. Whatever serves for food to the people, above all to the lower class, deserves the attention of the statesman, and any practice that will tend to diminish its price demands the assistance of the philanthropist. Consider if the price of fish were suddenly to double, how far the injury would extend, and how much suffering would follow. When a gradual change takes place in the cost of any article of food, man adapts himself to altered circumstances, and the loss, though equally great, is not so perceptible as when the advance is sudden.

That the supply of this food can be exhausted, and its quality easily reduced, is painfully apparent; streams in the neighborhood of New York that formerly were alive with trout are now totally deserted. The Bronx, famous alike for its historical associations and its once excellent fishing, does not now seem to hold a solitary trout, or indeed fish of any kind. The shad that a few years ago swarmed up the Hudson River in numbers incomputable, have become scarce and quadrupled in price during the last decade. Salmon, most nutritious and noblest of fish, which in ancient days paid their yearly visits in vast numbers, if early historians are to be believed, to our principal rivers as far south as the Delaware, are at present taken nowhere to the southward of Maine, and in but limited quantities even in that wild region.

On every portion of our sea-coast, in spite of replenishment from the mighty ocean, the same diminution is visible, while many of our confined inland waters are absolutely depopulated. The insatiable maw of New York market swallows alike the trout from Maine, the bass from Lake Erie, or the white-fish from the Sault Ste. Marie, while the parvenus that have acquired sudden fortunes in that wonderful city, endowed with the instincts of neither gentlemen nor sportsmen, think it magnificent to devour trout in Autumn and black bass in Spring, judging by their extravagant price that they must be rare and therefore good. The rapidity with which a section of country can be fished out by energetic pot-hunters where the law places inadequate restraint, and often in spite of the law’s restraint, has been remarkably evidenced in the history of Sullivan County. When the Erie Railroad was still incomplete, and the tide of explorers had just commenced to penetrate beyond Goshen, and only occasional stragglers reached the land of promise and performance beyond Monticello; the swamps were alive with woodcock and the streams with trout. But as the railroad advanced and gave improved facility of travel, so-called sportsmen poured over the country in myriads, following up every rivulet and ranging every swamp, killing without mercy thousands of trout and hundreds of birds, boasting of their baskets crowded to overflowing, and counting a day’s sport by the hundred; till Bashe’s Kill, where the pearly-sided fish once dwelt abundantly, was empty, and the broad Mongaup, the wild Callicoon, and even the joyous Beaver Kill, with its innumerable tributaries, were exhausted. The woodcock disappeared from the cold black mud of the springy swamps, the trout no longer broke the surface of the noisy rills of that picturesque region, and the hunters and fishermen turned their attention and carried their clumsy rods, bait-hooks, cheap guns, and case-hardened consciences, elsewhere.

So it has been and will be everywhere, unless the people and the real sportsmen take the matter in hand; the farmers, who are after all to be the salvation of our institutions, lose by the destruction of game one of the greatest attractions of their lands, and are interested in preserving for themselves and their city friends the wild dwellers in the lakes and brooks from wanton and ruthless destruction. Lawgivers are concerned in the passage of proper laws on account of public interest, and the increasing necessity of cheap food that a rapidly augmenting population engenders. Sportsmen have the greatest stake, for if they would retain for their old age and leave to their children the best preserver of health, a love of field sports, they must protect game-birds and fish. They should discourage, by their conversation and example, all infringement of the law or any cruel or wasteful prosecution of what should be sport. If they find a man who destroys, for the purpose of destroying, they should not only shun but expose him; if they meet with a case of palpable infraction of the law, they should enforce punishment; by these means, and the enactment of judicious statutes, the beautiful wild creatures that form so pleasant an addition to the charms of country life, may be preserved in undiminished numbers for all time.

The first necessity, however, is that proper and uniform enactments should be passed in every portion of our extensive nationality. If the close times differ in adjoining states, fish will be killed in one and sold in the other; it is useless to attempt to forbid the catching of trout in Maine, if they can be eaten in New York. Pinnated grouse, killed on the western prairies where they are fast being exterminated, are sold openly in New York markets in consequence of their omission from the game law, during the entire spring, until the heat of the weather prevents their transportation. Black bass are frequently exposed on the hucksters’ stands heavy with spawn, and pike-perch are hardly regarded as desirable in any other condition.

The universal rule should be comprehensive and simple, as the habits of the fresh water fish are sufficiently well known; protection should be given during the spawning season, and for such a period before and after as to prevent the annihilation of those who have survived the numerous dangers that surround them, and are ready for the duties of parturition, and to allow them to recover from the exhaustion resulting from the operation.

No trout should be killed except from the first of March to the first of October; no lake trout except from the first day of February to the first day of November, and no black bass or mascallonge from the first day of January to the first day of June. These times may be restricted for certain localities where greater protection is necessary, but should, under no circumstances, be enlarged. Trout spawn from the middle of October to the latter part of November, and do not recover their condition till the opening of Spring. Lake trout spawn about the same time, and mascallonge and black bass in March, April, or even as late as the early part of May.

None of these fish should be taken in nets, nor by spearing, and no fykes, seines, or gill-nets should be used in the waters which they inhabit. Stringent regulations to this effect are necessary, as it has been the habit of the market fishermen of the northern section of our country to use a net with meshes small enough to catch yearling trout, and which they frequently throw to one side and leave to perish miserably. This net fishing is continued all winter, so that not only are thousands of large fish destroyed in the act of spawning, or just after doing so, but millions of the young, the seed of the harvest, are slain without profit, being left on the ice to freeze.

Spearing is also terribly fatal. None can escape the sharp eye of the spearsman, and although many more are wounded than killed they rarely recover, for their natural enemies, the eels, are ever on the alert for such occurrences, and fastening themselves upon the wounded spot suck out the little life that is left. There are many streams of New Jersey which, by persistent gigging, as it is called, have been divested of every swimming thing, so that they are absolutely uninhabited. Not only trout, but cat-fish, eels, and suckers, have met the same untimely fate, and now boys and men search vainly for their prey.

By fair fishing no stream or pond can be entirely exhausted; when trout have the privilege of biting or not, they will exhibit sufficient circumspection to perpetuate their species; but when they can be followed during the hours of darkness to their retreats, and exposed by the glare of the jack, are liable to death by the fatal spear, or in case they may be enveloped by the all-devouring net, they have no defence or escape, and must soon disappear entirely. Their numbers, instead of helping them or delaying the catastrophe, excite the cupidity of the poacher, and accelerate instead of deferring their destruction.

Interested parties in various sections of the country, endeavor to convince themselves and others that trout change their nature in these favored localities, and either spawn from time to time as fancy dictates, or postpone the performance till winter’s frosts have driven profitable visitors to their city homes. The proprietors of the frontier taverns, where sportsmen congregate in search of finny prey, boldly assert that there are several kinds of brook trout, of which one variety spawns in September, another in October, and so on in such manner that it is always right and proper to fish for them. Naturalists have, as yet, failed to discover this peculiarity or describe these varieties; and although they know that individuals may differ casually or delay the act a few weeks, they recognise one well known spawning season. The ova of trout are largely developed in September, and, except in the colder latitudes and where they are extremely abundant, these fish should be exempt after the first of that month; but in October and November, pressing hunger should be the only excuse for killing them.

The laws, however, are not so much to blame as the neglect of their enforcement; perfect statutes will not answer if they are not carried out, and the first duty of sportsmen’s clubs and of individual sportsmen, a duty to humanity, to themselves, and to their fellow creatures, is to enforce the game laws. By game laws are not meant those barbarous statutes of England that made it more criminal in a poor man to slay a hare than a human being—statutes that are deservedly odious to free men, and which by no possibility could be introduced into the New World; but provisions for the protection and preservation of the wild inhabitants of our woods and waters, a common heritage of beauty and sustenance, and the property of our citizens indiscriminately. These creatures are a considerable source of wealth, worthy the most careful attention; they breed and increase of themselves without care or expense; and constitute a large portion of the stock of our markets. It would be an interesting investigation to ascertain how much money is paid yearly in the City of New York for the wild deer and game birds of the west, the sea fishes of our coast, the finer varieties of our inland waters, and the salmon of Canada. The latter, alone, amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is a severe tax paid to a foreign country for the fatuity that drove those noble fish from our own rivers.

This vast source of revenue will, however, disappear, unless precautions are taken to prevent the untimely slaughter of these unprotected creatures. If their periods of incubation are disregarded, their nests and spawning-beds broken up, and themselves, when engaged in the duties of maternity, disturbed or slain, they will diminish rapidly till the forests shall cease to be vocal with their harmony, and the water animated with their gambols.

In England not only do game preserves produce a good rent from enthusiastic sportsmen, but the fisheries, particularly of salmon, are extremely valuable as commercial enterprises. At present, in our country, we only recognise the value of these advantages by their loss. The Tay produces a rental of $70,000 yearly for the salmon fisheries, and so profitable have fishing rights become, that several rivers that were once exhausted have been restored, and now yield large revenues.

If we would have salmon at our own doors, we also must restock the Hudson, the Connecticut, and the numerous other rivers that were once frequented by them. But the trout and the black bass are still with us, and by decent care and treatment may be plenteous, for the pleasure and support of ourselves, our children, and our children’s children. Considerable attention has been expended upon some of the ponds and streams on Long Island; and although the poacher makes occasional depredations, and lurking through the bushes plants his net, or with wriggling worm draws forth his unseasonable prey during the forbidden periods, the improvement already is remarkable. Ponds that were once empty of fish are made beautiful by the splashes of the playful trout, and streams that were deserted are replenished. Enforce the law thoroughly, and discontinue unreasonable slaughter, and fish, from their enormous fecundity, must increase immensely.

It is probable that the localities in the neighborhood of our large cities have passed their worst days, and that the beautiful lakes and rivers, ensconced in the wild woods and amid the green hills of our unopened country, are in the most danger. A cockney sportsman, by which we mean not a city sportsman, but him who, wherever born or bred, fishes only for quantity, and from a vain-glorious spirit of boastful rivalry, is, indeed, a ruthless thing; he spares neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, whether he can use them for food, or must leave them to putrify, and regardless of the means or implements he employs. This merciless biped invaded Moosehead lake one year, armed with fly and bait rod, and with two additional trolling rods projecting from each side of his boat as he moved from place to place, murdered thousands of glorious trout; supplying his own wants, the public table, and the hog-pen—for the latter was separated from his feeding place—till the pigs, disgusted at his brutality, were surfeited, and bushels of putrescent fish had to be buried or thrown into the lake. Others, almost as murderous, roam the north woods of the State of New York, and even penetrate as far as the unbroken shores of Lake Superior, threatening annihilation to our game of every kind. The man who kills an animal, bird, or fish, knowing that it must be left to spoil, justifies the charge of cruelty against our class, and deserves the scorn and condemnation of all right-thinking men.

Wanton injury to public property, in game, should be punished precisely as similar injury to public property in grounds or buildings, by incarcerating the offender in prison; for of the two, the latter is less injurious in its ultimate results. A building may be replaced, but who can restore life to the fish that bears a thousand undeveloped young in its bosom, or can give back to the starving fawn the mother that has been slain at its side? Mere pecuniary fines are an insufficient punishment; the poaching criminal is the poorest, as he is the meanest, of offenders, and laughs at any attempt to collect penalties that are not enforced by imprisonment; while the wealthy cockney is willing to run the risk of fine if he can, by taking the advantage of honest sportsmen, have the chance of boasting of his wonderful prowess and success. A few months in jail would cure the recklessness of the former and cool the ardor of the latter.

A still more murderous proceeding, so infamous that it is rare even with professional poachers, is to cast poison into the water, thus slaying, by one fell process, large and small, young and old. Condemnation of such a practice is unnecessary; and were it otherwise, fit language could hardly be found to depict its enormity.

By the introduction of unsuitable fish much injury is occasioned, more frequently through ignorance than wilfulness. Perch placed in a sluggish trout pond, like many of those on Long Island, will devour the young fry, and soon diminish the yield; and pickerel, which are especial pets of our farmers, although nearly worthless for food or sport, have devastated some of the best ponds in the country. The former are devotedly fond of minnows or small fish of any kind, and such bold biters as to give rise, in England, to the story of a country gentleman who enticed an ardent angler to his house by stocking one of his ponds with several dozen perch, all but one of which the visitor captured on the day after his arrival, before breakfast. The pickerel is exceedingly voracious, and also right fond of his smaller fellow fish for dinner.

To meet these cases the ponds must be drawn off, as neither perch nor pickerel remain in running water, and the waters must be re-stocked. In fact, wherever, from any cause, the drain is greater than the supply, the deficiency must be made good by artificial means.

By these means can the seductive little beauties, whether of the feathered, furred, or scaly tribe, that allure us to the great woods, the pleasant meadows, or the sparkling brooks, be preserved through endless time in undiminished abundance, furnishing the incentive that leads us away from our dull books or wearying cares, the crowded streets, the congregations of eager men, the trials and excitements of business, to gentle communings with the hills and skies, to contemplative musings beneath the leafy forests, or by the noisy water-falls, strengthening our nerves, renewing our hold of life, and elevating our moral nature.