CHAPTER XVII 



TACKLE — CURIOUS METHODS OF FISHING FOR THE 

 SARGUS BY DRESSING IN A SHE-GOAT'S SKIN — FOR 

 THE SKATE BY DANCING AND MUSIC — FOR THE 

 SILURUS BY A YOKE OF OXEN — FOR THE EEL 

 WITH THE GUTS OF A SHEEP. WHAT WAS THE 

 SILURUS ? WILD THEORIES AS TO THE PROPAGA- 

 TION OF EELS 



" Unseen, Eurotas, southward steal. 

 Unknown, Alpheus, westward glide, 

 You never heard the ringing Reel, 

 The music of the waterside." 



(A. Lang.) 



The tackle, implements, and some curious modes of fishing 

 apparently peculiar to, or handed down to us only from, Greek 

 and Roman sources call for consideration and comment. 



Nets, we have seen, were of all sorts and kinds in shape, 

 make, and size. Their number and nature as disclosed by 

 Julius Pollux, Plutarch, and ^lian indicate that the art of 

 netting was well nigh perfected. Oppian, after enumerating 

 many varieties and telling how the enormous 



" Nets, like a city, to the floods descend 

 And bulwarks, gates, and noble streets extend," 



excuses himself from further amplification : 



" A thousand names a fisher might rehearse 

 Of nets, intractable in smoother verse." ^ 



^ Trans., by Diaper and Jones (London, 1722 — see supra, p. 177), which 

 I usually employ. Cf. III. 84 : ^ivpla 5' al6\a rola So\oppa<p(wi' \lva kSKttwv. 

 Fishing nets from Pompeii, even now almost entire, are to be found in Italian 

 Museums. The best times for hauling up the nets were (according to Arist., 



235 R 



