BY DICTIONARIES, AND JUDGES 47 



laid in a private river two fishing lines ; one end of the lines 

 attached to two pieces of wood driven into the ground made 

 fast the lines, the other end held hooks baited with worms, 

 and a stone to keep the Hnes under water. " The lines were 

 left by the men, who subsequently were found taking two fish 

 off the hooks, and resetting the hnes, of which the keepers 

 deprived them. The charge (under s. 24 of the Larceny Act 

 of 1 861) ran of unlawfully, etc., taking fish otherwise than by 

 anghng. The Justices of Bangor refused to commit, on the 

 ground that they were anghng, and thus under the Act were 

 protected from damages or penalty for such angling." 



On appeal both sides cited Izaak Walton and other authors ; 

 both quoted the N.E.D. — the appellant its definition of 

 ' Anghng,' i.e. fishing with a rod, and the respondent that of 

 ' Angle ' (vb.), i.e. to fish with hook and bait. 



The three Judges, judge-like, disagreed in their reasons 

 but agreed in allowing the appeal, and disagreeing in their 

 conceptions of anghng agreed in abstaining from any definition. 



" In the kingdom of the bhnd, the one-eyed is king." Mr. 

 Justice Philhmore was the least non-positive. He even 

 committed himself to the following : "He did not think that 

 a rod must necessarily be part of an angler's outfit, but only a 

 hook and fine. He thought the human element must be present, 

 and that it was not sufficient when the tackle was set once and 

 for all, and then left." 



It is obvious from the above that, while the dictionaries are 

 but blind guides, the Law (if on this occasion not exactly " a 

 hass ") fails to elucidate what exactly constitutes Anghng. 



Dr. Henry van Dyke, the author of Little Rivers and other 

 fascinating books connected with fishing, suggests to me 

 " Anghng, the art of fishing by hand with a hook and fine, 

 with or without a rod." I much prefer this to that of N.E.D., 

 because of its greater accuracy and of its inclusion of that 

 really skilful method, hand-hning. But for general convenience 

 I adopt as the definition of Angling " The action, or art, of fishing 

 with a Rod." 



My Fishing from the Earliest Times treats of the Old 

 Stone Men, Egyptians, Assyrians, Chinese, Jews, Greeks, and 



