considerable importance, as it shows that fishing with rod and line
was well enough understood in early Greece to be used as a popular
illustration. It occurs in the well-known scene where Scylla seizes
the companions of Odysseus out of the ship and bears them upwards,
just as "some fisher on a headland with a long rod" brings small
fishes gasping to the shore. Another important, though comparatively
late, passage in Greek poetry is the twenty-first idyll of Theocritus.
In this the fisherman Asphalion relates how in a dream he hooked
a large golden fish and describes graphically, albeit with some
obscurity of language, how he "played" it. Asphalion used a rod and
fished from a rock, much after the manner of the Homeric angler. Among
other Greek writers, Herodotus has a good many references to fish and
fishing; the capture of fish is once or twice mentioned or implied by
Plato, notably in the _Laws_ (vii. 823); Aristotle deals with fishes
in his _Natural History_, and there are one or two fishing passages
in the anthology. But in Greek literature, as a whole the subject of
angling is not at all prominent. In writers of late Greek, however,
there is more material. Plutarch, for instance, gives us the famous
story of the fishing match between Antony and Cleopatra, which has
been utilized by Shakespeare. Moreover, it is in Greek that the first
complete treatise on fishing which has come down to us is written, the
_Halieutica_ of Oppian (c. A.D. 169). It is a hexameter poem in five
books with perhaps more technical than sporting interest, and not so
much even of that as the length of the work would suggest. Still it
contains some information about tackle and methods, and some passages
describing battles with big fish, in the right spirit of enthusiasm.
Also in Greek is what is famous as the first reference in literature
to fly-fishing, in the fifteenth book of Aelian's _Natural History_
(3rd century A.D.). It is there described how the Macedonians captured
a certain spotted fish in the river Astraeus by means of a lure
composed of coloured wool and feathers, which was presumably used in
the manner now known as "dapping." That there were other Greek writers
who dealt with fish and fishing and composed "halieutics" we know from
Athenaeus. In the first book of his _Deipnosophistae_ he gives a list
of them. But he compares their work unfavourably with the passage of
Homer already cited, in a way which suggests that their knowledge of
angling was not a great advance upon the knowledge of their remote
literary ancestors. In Latin literature allusions to angling are
rather more numerous than in Greek, but on the whole they are
unimportant. Part of a poem by Ovid, the _Halieuticon_, composed
during the poet's exile at Tomi after A.D. 9, still survives. In
other Roman writers the subject is only treated by way of allusion or
illustration. Martial, however, provides, among other passages, what
may perhaps be entitled to rank as the earliest notice of private
fishery rights--the epigram _Ad Piscatorem_, which warns would-be
poachers from casting a line in the Baian lake. Pliny the elder
devoted the ninth book of his _Natural History_ to fishes and
water-life, and Plautus, Cicero, Catullus, Horace, Juvenal, Pliny
the younger and Suetonius all allude to angling here and there.
Agricultural writers, too, such as Varro and Columella, deal with the
subject of fish ponds and stews rather fully. Later than any of these,
but still just included in Latin literature, we have Ausonius (_c_.
A.D. 320) and his well-known idyll the _Mosella_, which contains a
good deal about the fish of the Moselle and the methods of catching
them. In this poem is to be found the first recognizable description
of members of the salmon family, and, though the manner of their
application is rather doubtful, the names _salmo, salar_ and _fario_
strike a responsive note in the breast of the modern angler.
_Post-classical Literature_.--As to what happened in the world of
angling in the first few centuries of the Christian era we know
little. It may be inferred, however, that both fish and fishermen
occupied a more honourable position in Christendom than they ever did
before. The prominence of fishermen in the gospel narratives would in
itself have been enough to bring this about, but it also happened
that the Greek word for fish, [Greek: ICHTHUS], had an anagrammatic
significance which the devout were not slow to perceive. The initials
of the word resolve into what is practically a confession of faith,
[Greek: Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter](Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Saviour). It is therefore not surprising that we find the fish very
prominent as a sacred emblem in the painting and sculpture of
the primitive church, or that Clement of Alexandria should have
recommended it, among other things, as a device for signet rings or
seals. The fisherman too is frequently represented in early Christian
art, and it is worthy of remark that he more often uses a line and
hook than a net. The references to fish and fishing scattered about
in the writings of the early fathers for the most part reflect the two
ideas of the sacredness of the fish and divine authorization of the
fisherman; the second idea certainly prevailed until the time of Izaak
Walton, for he uses it to justify his pastime. It is also not unlikely
that the practice of fasting (in many cases fish was allowed when meat
was forbidden) gave the art of catching fish additional importance.
It seems at any rate to have been a consideration of weight when
sites were chosen for monasteries in Europe, and in many cases when
no fish-producing river was at hand the lack was supplied by the
construction of fish-ponds. Despite all this, however, save for an
occasional allusion in the early fathers, there is hardly a connecting
link between the literature of Pagan Rome and the literature that
sprang up on the invention of printing. One volume, the _Geoponica_, a
Greek compilation concerning whose authorship and date there has
been much dispute, is attributed in _Bibliotheca Piscatoria_ to
the beginning of the 10th century. It contains one book on fish,
fish-ponds and fishing, with prescriptions for baits, &c., extracted
for the most part from other writers. But it seems doubtful whether
its date should not be placed very much earlier. Tradition makes it
a Carthaginian treatise translated into Greek. A more satisfactory
fragment of fishing literature is to be found in the Colloquy of
Ælfric, written (_ad pucros linguae latinae locutionis exercendos_)
towards the end of the same century. Ælfric became archbishop of
Canterbury in A.D. 995, and the passage in the Anglo-Saxon text-book
takes honourable rank as the earliest reference to fishing in English
writings, though it is not of any great length. It is to be noted that
the fisher who takes a share in the colloquy states that he prefers
fishing in the river to fishing in the sea. Ascribed to the 13th or
14th century is a Latin poem _De Vetula_, whose author was apparently
Richard de Fournival. It contains a passage on angling, and was placed
to the credit of Ovid when first printed (c. 1470). A manuscript in
the British museum, _Comptes des pêcheries de l'église de Troyes_
(A.D. 1349-1413), gives a minute account of the fisheries with the
weights of fish captured and the expenses of working. There is,
however, practically nothing else of importance till we come to
the first printed book on angling (a translation of Oppian, 1478,
excepted), and so to the beginning of the literature proper. This
first book was a little volume printed in Antwerp probably in 1492 at
the press of Matthias van der Goes. In size it is little more than a
pamphlet, and it treats of birds as well as fish:--_Dit Boecxken leert
hoe men mach Voghelen ... ende ... visschen vangen metten kanden. Ende
oeck andersins...._ ("This book teaches how one may catch birds ...
and ... fish with the hands, and also otherwise"). Only one copy
apparently survives, in the Denison library, and a translation
privately printed for Mr. Alfred Denison in 1872 was limited to
twenty-five copies. At least two other editions of the book appeared
in Flemish, and it also made its way, in 1502, to Germany, where,
translated and with certain alterations and additions, it seems
to have been re-issued frequently. Next in date comes the famous
_Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle_, printed at Westminster by
Wynkyn de Worde in 1496 as a part of the second edition of _The Book
of St. Albans_. The treatise is for this reason associated with the
name of Dame Juliana Berners, but that somewhat dubious compiler
can have had nothing whatever to do with it. The treatise is almost
certainly a compilation from some earlier work on angling ("bokes of
credence" are mentioned in its text), possibly from a manuscript of
the earlier part of the 15th century, of which a portion is preserved
in the Denison collection. This was published in 1883 by Mr. Thomas
Satchell under the title _An Older Form of the Treatyse of Fysshynge
wyth an Angle_. But it is also possible that a still older work was
the parent of both books, for it has been held that the manuscript is
an independent version. However this may be, it is certain that the
treatise itself has been the parent of many other works. Many of
the instructions contained in it are handed down from generation to
generation with little change except in diction. Especially is this
the case with the list of trout-flies, a meagre twelve, which survives
in many fishing books until well into the 18th century.
[v.02 p.0023]
From the beginning of the 16th century the fisherman's library begins
to grow apace, as, though books solely devoted to fishing are not yet
frequent, works on husbandry and country pursuits almost all contain
something on the subject. In Italy the fisherman and his occupation
apparently were considered poetically; the word _pescatore_ or its
cognates are common on Italian 16th and 17th century title-pages,
though in many instances the fulfilment of the implied promise is
not adequate, from an angler's point of view. From the pages of
_Bibliotheca Piscatoria_ a fairly long list of Italian writers could
be gleaned. Among them may be mentioned Sannazaro (_Piscatoria_, &c.,
Rome, 1526) and Andrea Calmo (_Rime pescatorie_, Venice, 1557). A
century later was Parthenius, who published a volume of _Halieutica_
at Naples. This writer has an amusing reference to the art of
"tickling" trout as practised in Britain. In Germany, as has been
shown, the original little Flemish treatise had a wide vogue in
the 16th century, and fishing played a part in a good many books on
husbandry such as that of Conrad Heresbach (1570). Fish and fish-ponds
formed the main topic of a Latin work by Dubravius (1552), while
Gesner in the middle of the 16th and Aldrovandi at the beginning of
the 17th centuries wrote at length on the natural history of fishes.
In France the subject is less well represented, but _Les Pescheries_
of Chris. de Gamon (Lyons, 1599) and _Le Plaisir des champs_ of Cl.
Gauchet (Paris, 1604) deserve to be noted. _Les Ruses innocentes_ by
François Fortin, first published at Paris in 1600, and several times
in later editions, is characterized by Messrs Westwood and Satchell as
"on the whole the most interesting contribution made by France to
the literature of angling." England during the most part of the 16th
century was evidently well enough served by the original treatise
out of _The Book of St. Albans_. It was republished twice by Wynkyn
de Worde, six or seven times by Copland, and some five times by other
printers. It was also practically republished in _A Booke of Fishing_
by L.M. (1590). L.M. (Leonard Mascall) ranks as an angling author, but
he did little more than borrow and edit the treatise. The same may
be said of another version of _The Book of St. Albans_ "now newly
collected by W.G. Faulkener" and issued in 1596.
_Modern Literature_.--In 1600 appeared John Taverner's _Certaine
Experiments concerning Fish and Fruite_, and after this the period of
angling literature proper begins. The _Secrets of Angling_ (1613),
by J(ohn) D(ennys). Esq., is one of the most important volumes in the
angler's library, both on account of the excellence of the verse
in which it is written and also on account of its practical value.
Gervase Markham, "the first journalist," as he has been called,
published his first book of husbandry at the same date, and, as in
most of his many books on the same subject, devoted a certain amount
of space to fishing. But Markham gathered his materials in a rather
shameless manner and his angling passages have little originality.
Thomas Barker's _The Art of Angling_ (1st ed., 1651) takes a more
honourable position, and received warm commendation from Izaak Walton
himself, who followed it in 1653 with _The Compleat Angler_. So
much has been written about this treasured classic that it is only
necessary to indicate its popularity here by saying that its editions
occupy some twenty pages in _Bibliotheca Piscatoria_ (1883), and that
since that work was published at least forty new editions have to be
added to the list. During Walton's life-time the book ran through five
editions, and with the fifth (1676) was incorporated Charles Cotton's
second part, the "instructions how to angle for a trout or grayling,
in a clear stream." In some cases too there was added a third book,
the fourth edition of _The Experienced Angler_, by Robert Venables
(1st ed., 1662). The three books together bore the title of _The
Universal Angler_. Venables's portion was dropped later, but it is
worth reading, and contained sound instruction though it has not the
literary merit of Walton and Cotton.
A few other notable books of the century call for enumeration,
_The Gentleman's Recreation_ by Nicholas Cox (1674), Gilbert's _The
Angler's Delight_ (1676), Chetham's _Vade-Mecum_ (1681), _The Complete
Troller_ by Robert Nobbes (1682), R. Franck's _Northern Memoirs_
(1694), and _The True Art of Angling_ by J.S. (1696). Of these
Chetham, Nobbes, Franck and J.S. have the merit of considerable
originality. Franck has gained some notoriety by his round abuse
of Walton. In the 18th century among others we find _The Secrets of
Angling_ by C.G. (1705), Robert Hewlett's _The Angler's Sure Guide_
(1706), _The Whole Art of Fishing_ (1714), _The Compleat Fisherman_
by James Saunders (1724), _The Art of Angling_ by R. Brookes (1740),
another book with the same title by R. and C. Bowlker (Worcester,
c. 1750), _The Complete Sportsman_ by Thomas Fairfax (c. 1760), _The
Angler's Museum_ by T. Shirley (1784), and _A Concise Treatise on
the Art of Angling_ by Thomas Best (1787). Of these only Saunders's,
Bowlker's and Best's books are of much importance, the rest being
for the most part "borrowed." One volume of verse in the 18th century
calls for notice, Moses Browne's _Piscatory Eclogues_ (1729). Among
greater names we get angling passages in Pope, Gay and Thomson; the
two last were evidently brothers of the angle.
With the 19th century angling literature becomes too big a subject to
be treated in detail, and it is only possible to glance at a few of
the more important books and writers. Daniel's _Rural Sports_ appeared
in 1801; it is a treasure-house of odd facts. In 1828 Sir Humphry Davy
published his famous _Salmonia_, which was reviewed in the _Quarterly_
by Sir Walter Scott. At about this time too were appearing the _Noctes
Ambrosianae_ in _Blackwood's Magazine_. Christopher North (Professor
Wilson) often touched upon angling in them, besides contributing a
good many angling articles to the magazine. In 1835 that excellent
angling writer Thomas Tod Stoddart began his valuable series of
books with _The Art of Angling as Practised in Scotland_. In 1839 he
published _Songs and Poems_, among which are pieces of great merit.
During this period, too, first appeared, year by year, the _Newcastle
Fishers' Garlands_, collected by Joseph Crawhall afterwards and
republished in 1864. These border verses, like Stoddart's, have often
a genuine ring about them which is missing from the more polished
effusions of Gay and Thomson. Alfred Ronalds's _The Fly-Fisher's
Entomology_ (1st ed., 1836) was a publication of great importance, for
it marked the beginning of the scientific spirit among trout-fishers.
It ran through many editions and is still a valuable book of
reference. A step in angling history is also marked by George Pulman's
_Vade-Mecum of Fly-fishing for Trout_ (1841), for it contains the
first definite instructions on fishing with a "dry fly." Another is
marked by Hewett Wheatley's _The Rod and the Line_ (1849), where is
to be found the earliest reference to the "eyed" hook. Yet another is
marked by W.C. Stewart's _The Practical Angler_ (1857), in which is
taught the new doctrine of "up-stream" fishing for trout. This is a
book of permanent value. Among the many books of this period Charles
Kingsley's _Miscellanies_ (1859) stands out, for it contains the
immortal "Chalk-Stream Studies." The work of Francis Francis begins
at about the same time, though his _A Book on Angling_, which is still
one of the most valuable text-books, was not first published till
1867. Another well-known and excellent writer, Mr. H. Cholmondeley
Pennell, began in the early 'sixties; it is to him that we owe the
admirable volumes on fresh-water fishing in the "Badminton Library."
Among other English writers mention must be made of Messrs William
Senior, John Bickerdyke and F.M. Halford, who have all performed
signal services for angling and its literature. (See further
bibliography _ad fin_.) In America the latter half of the 19th century
produced a good deal of fishing literature, much of it of a high
standard.
[v.02 p.0024]
_I go a-Fishing_ by Dr. W.C. Prime (1873), _Fishing with the Fly_ by
C.F. Orvis, A. Nelson Cheney and others (1883), _The American Salmon
Fisherman_ and _Fly Rods and Fly Tackle_ by H.P. Wells (1886 and
1885), _Little Rivers_ and other books by the Rev. H. Van Dyke--these
are only a few specially distinguished in style and matter. Germany
and France have not contributed so largely to the modern library,
but in the first country we find several useful works by Max von dem
Borne, beginning with the _Handbuch der Angelfischerei_ of 1875,
and there are a good many other writers who have contributed to
the subject, while in France there are a few volumes on fishing by
different hands. The most noticeable is M.G. Albert Petit's _La Truite
de rivière_ (1897), an admirable book on fly-fishing. As yet, however,
though there are many enthusiastic anglers in France, the sport has
not established itself so firmly as to have inspired much literature
of its own; the same may be said of Germany.
_Modern Conditions_.--In the modern history of angling there are one
or two features that should be touched upon. The great increase in the
number of fishermen has had several results. One is a corresponding
increase in the difficulty of obtaining fishing, and a notable rise in
the value of rivers, especially those which are famed for salmon and
trout. Salmon-fishing now may be said to have become a pastime of the
rich, and there are signs that trout-fishing will before long have
to be placed in the same exclusive category, while even the right to
angle for less-esteemed fish will eventually be a thing of price. The
development is natural, and it has naturally led to efforts on the
part of the angling majority to counteract, if possible, the growing
difficulty. These efforts have been directed chiefly in two ways, one
the establishment of fishing clubs, the other the adoption of angling
in salt water. The fishing club of the big towns was originally a
social institution, and its members met together to sup, converse
on angling topics and perhaps to display notable fish that they had
caught. Later, however, arose the idea that it would be a convenience
if a club could give its members privileges of fishing as well as
privileges of reunion. So it comes about that all over the United
Kingdom, in British colonies and dependencies, in the United States,
and also in Germany and France, fishing clubs rent waters, undertake
preservation and restocking and generally lead an active and useful
existence. It is a good sign for the future of angling and anglers
that they are rapidly increasing in number. One of the oldest
fishing clubs, if not the oldest, was the Schuylkill club, founded
in Pennsylvania in 1732. An account of its history was published in
Philadelphia in 1830. Among the earliest clubs in London are to be
numbered such societies as The True Waltonians, The Piscatorial,
The Friendly Anglers and The Gresham, which are still flourishing. A
certain amount of literary activity has been observable in the world
of angling clubs, and several volumes of "papers" are on the records.
Most noticeable perhaps are the three volumes of _Anglers' Evenings_
published in 1880-1894, a collection of essays by members of the
Manchester Anglers' Association. The other method of securing a
continuance of sport, the adoption of sea-angling as a substitute for
fresh-water fishing, is quite a modern thing. Within the memory of
men still young the old tactics of hand-line and force were considered
good enough for sea fish. Now the fresh-water angler has lent his
centuries of experience in deluding his quarry; the sea-angler has
adopted many of the ideas presented to him, has modified or improved
others, and has developed the capture of sea-fish into a science
almost as subtle as the capture of their fresh-water cousins. One more
modern feature, which is also a result of the increase of anglers,
is the great advance made in fish-culture, fish-stocking and
fish-acclimatization during the last half-century. Fish-culture is
now a recognized industry; every trout-stream of note and value is
restocked from time to time as a matter of course; salmon-hatcheries
are numerous, though their practical utility is still a debated
matter, in Great Britain at any rate; coarse fish are also bred for
purposes of restocking; and, lastly, it is now considered a fairly
simple matter to introduce fish from one country to another, and even
from continent to continent. In England the movement owes a great deal
to Francis Francis, who, though he was not the earliest worker in the
field, was among the first to formulate the science of fish-breeding;
his book _Fish-Culture_, first published in 1863, still remains one of
the best treatises on the subject. In the United States, where fishery
science has had the benefit of generous governmental and official
support and countenance and so has reached a high level of
achievement, Dr. T. Garlick (_The Artificial Reproduction of Fishes_,
Cleveland, 1857) is honoured as a pioneer. On the continent of Europe
the latter half of the 19th century saw a very considerable and rapid
development in fish-culture, but until comparatively recently the
propagation and care of fish in most European waters have been
considered almost entirely from the point of view of the fish-stew and
the market. As to what has been done in the way of acclimatization it
is not necessary to say much. Trout (_Salmo fario_) were introduced
to New Zealand in the late 'sixties from England; in the 'eighties
rainbow trout (_Salmo irideus_) were also introduced from California;
now New Zealand provides the finest trout-fishing of its kind in the
world. American trout of different kinds have been introduced into
England, and brown trout have been introduced to America; but neither
innovation can be said to have been an unqualified success, though
the rainbow has established itself firmly in some waters of the
United Kingdom. It is still regarded with some suspicion, as it has
a tendency to wander from waters which do not altogether suit it. For
the rest, trout have been established in Ceylon, in Kashmir and in
South Africa, and early in 1906 an attempt was made to carry them to
British Central Africa. In fact the possibilities of acclimatization
are so great that, it seems probable, in time no river of the
civilized world capable of holding trout will be without them.
METHODS AND PRACTICE
Angling now divides itself into two main divisions, fishing in fresh
water and fishing in the sea. The two branches of the sport have much
in common, and sea-angling is really little more than an adaptation of
fresh-water methods to salt-water conditions. Therefore it will not
be necessary to deal with it at great length and it naturally comes in
the second place. Angling in fresh water is again divisible into
three principal parts, fishing on the surface, _i.e._ with the fly; in
mid-water, _i.e._ with a bait simulating the movements of a small fish
or with the small fish itself; and on the bottom with worms, paste or
one of the many other baits which experience has shown that fish will
take. With the premise that it is not intended here to go into the
minutiae of instruction which may more profitably be discovered in the
many works of reference cited at the end of this article, some account
of the subdivisions into which these three styles of fishing fall may
be given.
_Fresh-Water Fishing._
_Fly-fishing_.--Fly-fishing is the most modern of them, but it is
the most highly esteemed, principally because it is the method par
excellence of taking members of the most valuable sporting family
of fish, the _Salmonidae_. It may roughly be considered under three
heads, the use of the "wet" or sunk fly, of the "dry" or floating fly,
and of the natural insect. Of these the first is the most important,
for it covers the widest field and is the most universally practised.
There are few varieties of fish which may not either consistently or
occasionally be taken with the sunk fly in one of its two forms. The
large and gaudy bunch of feathers, silk and tinsel with which salmon,
very large trout, black bass and occasionally other predaceous
fish are taken is not, strictly speaking, a fly at all. It rather
represents, if anything, some small fish or subaqueous creature on
which the big fish is accustomed to feed and it may conveniently
receive the generic name of salmon-fly. The smaller lures, however,
which are used to catch smaller trout and other fish that habitually
feed on insect food are in most cases intended to represent that
food in one of its forms and are entitled to the name of "artificial
flies." The dry or floating fly is simply a development of the
imitation theory, and has been evolved from the wet fly in course of
closer observation of the habits of flies and fish in certain waters.
Both wet and dry fly methods are really a substitute for the third and
oldest kind of surface-fishing, the use of a natural insect as a bait.
Each method is referred to incidentally below.
[v.02 p.0025]