142 Walton and Gesner. 



originals of the illustrations in Walton's 

 Angler. I do not say they were copied 

 from this particular edition of Gesner, 

 which, by the way, is not, as far as I can 

 trace, included in the Bibliotheca Piscatoria. 

 For beauty of typography and excellence 

 of illustration I know few works on fish 

 which can compare with this. The artist 

 must have had the living or dead subject 

 before him except in the case of sea- 

 serpents, mermaids and men, devil-fish, 

 and other mythical beasts and fishes, 

 when he draws from the imaginations of 

 travellers splendidly. 



Compare the illustrations of the loach 

 and bullhead in Walton, used also in 

 Venables' Experienfd Angler, with those 

 in the 1598 edition of Forer's Fishes ; 

 also the carp, bream, tench, and perch. 

 The trout and pike have not quite such 

 a strong resemblance, but of the rest I 

 think there can be no question. Walton 

 continually refers to Gesner's great work ; 

 he evidently possessed a copy, and doubt- 

 less, when discussing the publication of 

 the first edition of his work with Richard 

 Marriot, they arranged to have reduced 

 copies of the Gesner illustrations engraved. 

 The illustrations added to the second 

 edition are evidently also taken from 

 Gesner. 



