FISHING BIBLIOGRAPHY. 5 



fairly said to be as complete as it could well be made, its 

 authors having spared neither time nor pains to perfect what 

 has evidently been to them a real " labour of love." Its 

 publication has been most opportune at a time when fish 

 and fishing have become subjects of special interest, and 

 anglers, from the aristocratic capturers of the lordly salmo 

 salar down to the humble pickeurs a la ligne, are rightly 

 called "legion." " Piscatoribiis sacrum^' inscribed by 

 Cotton over his fishery-house on the Dove, might be the 

 appropriate motto of this book ; as anglers will find within 

 it interest and instruction to the full, while its purely 

 literary value is almost inestimable from the wealth of 

 biographical notes, pithy criticisms, and of quaint and 

 piquant quotations scattered throughout its pages. As 

 regards its actual contents, suffice it to say that, compared 

 with Mr. T. Westwood's Bibliotheca, a small duodecimo 

 volume of 82 pages, this is a large octavo of 397. That 

 enumerated 600 works, but in this, as may be learned from 

 the preface, there are 3158 editions, and reprints of 2148 

 distinct works registered, including contributions from " far 

 Cathay." Of these 2465 have been personally inspected — 

 1685 in the Denison collection, 482 in the British Museum, 

 and 348 in other libraries. The Parliamentary papers on 

 fish and fishing, which have been included, amount to 727, 

 together with the titles of 341 Acts of Parliament ; and 

 a separate and exhaustive list is also added of works on 

 Pisciculture. This will give some idea of the marvellous 

 store of piscatory information contained in, or suggested 

 by, the volume, which has been well and by no means 

 hyperbolically described as a "hagiography for the enthu- 

 siastic followers of Walton ; a substantial help to the 

 bibliographer ; a series of finger-posts by the side of 

 English history to guide the curious student of diversions 



