It did not last long, however:  he soon spent himself, and Mr. McGrath received him with a graceful swoop of his landing-net and secured him.  Four more soon followed, all large fish—­two to the credit of Mr. McGrath and two to myself.  When caught they are of a dark olive-green on the back and sides, the fins quite black at the ends, and the under side white.  They change color rapidly, and as their vitality decreases become paler and paler, turning when dead to a very light olive-green.  The mouth in general form resembles that of the salmon family, but the size is much larger in proportion to the weight of the fish, and the arrangement of the teeth is different.  With its great strength and its “game” qualities it is not surprising that it should afford a good deal of what is known as “sport.”

An attribute of man which is equivalent to a strong natural instinct is his disposition to “do murder.”  This may account for his love of “sport,” or it may only be an hereditary trait derived from the period when he had not yet concerned himself with agriculture, but slew wild beasts and used his implements of stone to crack their bones and get the marrow out.  The instinct to slay birds, beasts and fishes is certainly strong within us, whatever be its remote origin, and it is very little affected by what we are pleased to call our civilization.  Indeed, it is hardly to be believed that one of the primitive lords of creation, stalking about in the condition of gorgeous irresponsibility incident to the Stone Period, would have lowered himself to the level of the kid-gloved example of the present stage of evolution who fishes in Maine.  It cannot be supposed that the pre-historic gentleman would have disgraced himself by catching fish he could not use.  He never caught ten times as many of the Salmo fontinalis as he and all his friends could eat, and then threw the rest away to rot.  This kind of thing has prevailed to a great extent, but natural causes have nearly brought it to an end.  The wholesale slaughter of the fish has reduced their numbers, and a surfeit of indecent sport can no longer be indulged in.  Such fishermen should be confined by law to a large aquarium, in which the fish they most affected could be taught to undergo catching and re-catching until the gentlemen had had enough.  The fish might grow to like it eventually, and submit as a purely business matter to being caught regularly for a daily consideration in chopped liver and real flies.  But how our ancestor, just alluded to, would despise the sport of this progressive age!  With his primitive but natural acceptation of Nature’s law of supply and demand, what would he think of the gentlemen who killed fish to rot in the sun or drove a few thousand buffaloes over a precipice—­all for sport?  It is probably the propensity to “do murder” which accounts for these things, for “sport,” within decent and proper limits, is a good thing, and has been favored by the best of men in all ages—­fishing