Shad Are Still Taken In The Basin Of Concord River At Lowell, Where They Are Said To Be A Month Earlier Than The Merrimack Shad, On Account Of The Warmth Of The Water.

Still patiently, almost pathetically, with instinct not to be discouraged, not to be _reasoned_ with, revisiting their old haunts, as if their stern fates would relent, and still met by the Corporation with its dam.

Poor shad! where is thy redress? When Nature gave thee instinct, gave she thee the heart to bear thy fate? Still wandering the sea in thy scaly armor to inquire humbly at the mouths of rivers if man has perchance left them free for thee to enter. By countless shoals loitering uncertain meanwhile, merely stemming the tide there, in danger from sea foes in spite of thy bright armor, awaiting new instructions, until the sands, until the water itself, tell thee if it be so or not. Thus by whole migrating nations, full of instinct, which is thy faith, in this backward spring, turned adrift, and perchance knowest not where men do _not_ dwell, where there are _not_ factories, in these days. Armed with no sword, no electric shock, but mere Shad, armed only with innocence and a just cause, with tender dumb mouth only forward, and scales easy to be detached. I for one am with thee, and who knows what may avail a crow-bar against that Billerica dam? - Not despairing when whole myriads have gone to feed those sea monsters during thy suspense, but still brave, indifferent, on easy fin there, like shad reserved for higher destinies.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 34 of 422
Words from 9305 to 9572 of 116321