ANCIENT FISHING 



INTRODUCTION 



PART I 



" And first for the Antiquity of Angling, I shall not say much ; but 

 onely this : Some say, it is as ancient as Deucalion's Floud : and 

 others (which I like better) say that Belus {who was the inve^iter of 

 godly and vertuous Recreations) was the Inventer of it : and some 

 others say {for former times have had their Disquisitions about it) 

 that Seth, one of the sons of Adam, taught it to his sons, and that 

 by them it was derived to Posterity. Others say, that he left it 

 engraven on those Pillars, which hee erected to preserve the knowledge 

 0/ Mathematicks, Musick, and the rest of those precious Arts, which 

 by God's appointment or allowance, and his noble industry were 

 thereby preserved from perishing in Noah's Floud." — Isaak Walton, 

 The Compleat Angler. 



" You see the way the Fisherman doth take 

 To catch the Fish ; what Engins doth he make ? 

 Behold how he ingageth all his wits. 

 Also his Snares, Lines, Angles, Hooks, and Nets. 

 Yet fish there be, that neither Hook, nor Line, 

 Nor Snare, nor Net, nor Engin can make thine ; 

 They must be grop't for, and be tickled too, 

 Or they will not be catch't, whate'er you do." 



John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress. (The Author's Apology 

 for his book.) 



" Elle extend ses filets, elle invente de nouveaux moyens de succes, 

 elle s' attache un plus grand nomhre d'hommes. Elle pSnetre dan les 

 profondeurs des abimes, elle arrache aux angles les plus secrets, elle 

 poursuit jusqu'aux extremites du globe les objets de sa constante 

 recherche." — G. E. Lacepede, Hist. Nat. des poissons. 



" What song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed, when 

 he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions are 7iot beyond 

 all Conjecture." — Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Buriall. 



The craft of Fishing possesses an ancestry so ancient, or 

 according to a Polynesian legend so literally abysmal, that for 

 those who have their business on the waters, deep or shallow, 



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