4 INTRODUCTION 



it is but seemly, it is certainly of interest, to essay the tracing 

 of its pedigree, and the linking of the generations of its far-flung 

 lineage. 



What were, and whence came its first forbears, and of what 

 manner and of what matter were the original parents of its 

 devices are questions which should appeal to the large majority 

 of its followers. The sansculottes, however stalwart, who does 

 not in his heart of hearts rejoice in owning, or claiming, some 

 genealogical garments, wherein to hide his nakedness, is rare 

 and abnormal. 



The pedigree is hke and unlike its celebrated Urquhart 

 brother. Like in the gaps in generations, which in his en- 

 deavour directly to deduce his family from Adam even Sir 

 Thomas's ingenuity failed to bridge, despite the prolongation 

 when necessary of the hves of his ancestors to ten times 

 the allotted span. UnUke in antiquity, since it stretches 

 far, very far beyond " DeucaUon's Floud " and Adam's Para- 

 dise. 



AngUng, despite wide ramifications, has perhaps stamped 

 its stock more vividly and has bred truer to original type than 

 its elder brother Hunting. The variance of a repeating rifle 

 from what some hold to be their common first sire, a sharpened 

 pole, is larger and more marked than that of our most up-to- 

 date Rod, 



The riddle, as in other cases of disputed succession, of 

 identifying the first real head of the family or the earliest 

 begetter of the race is rendered more complex by wide geo- 

 graphical dispersion. It is possibly insoluble. 



Nevertheless to this labour of love I now address myself. 



The question of priority of the implement used for catching 

 fish has been often moot, sometimes acute, for, in Walton's 

 words, " former times have had their Disquisitions about 

 it." 



How did the earliest fisherman secure his prey ? Was it 

 by means of the Spear, under which term I include harpoons 

 and barbed fishing spears of any kind, the Net, or the Line ? 

 None of these has lacked its champions, of whom the Line 

 has attracted the fewest, the Spear the most. 



