BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ANGLING. 247 



flourished 1,000 years B.C., says (see literal translation of 

 the Iliad, i6th Book, where Patroclus kills Thestor : — 



As when a man sitting upon a jutting rock draws with a line and huok 

 a large fish entirely out of the sea. 



Some writers upon the bibliography of the gentle art 

 have quoted the above passage, rendered into verse, as 

 follows : — 



As from some rock that overhangs the flood, 

 The silent fisher casts the insidious food ; 

 With fraudful care he waits the finny prize 

 And sudden lifts it quivering to the skies. 



Practical anglers may, perhaps, take exception to this 

 method of landing the fish, but, as is evident, we must 

 not blame Homer, but the versifier who fitted the method 

 to the measure. 



Theocritus, of Syracuse, 270 years B.C. wrote a series 

 of Idylls, thirty-six in number, which, it is supposed, 

 formed the groundwork for the Bucolics of Virgil. In the 

 twenty-first Idyll is a description of the life of Greek 

 fishermen. A i&\N lines from this will serve to show that 

 artificial bait are amongst those things which are fairly 

 included in the wise saying, " There is nothing new under 

 the sun." The Greek fisher is telling of a dream he had, 

 and says : — 



Suspended by a rod I gently shove 

 The h'OAtJanaci'jiis, which a huge one took ; 

 Sleeping we image what awake we think — 

 Dogs dream of bones, and fishermen of fish. 



In Virgil (19 B.C.) we find (Gcorgics) in a 

 description of the progress of agriculture and the work 



