SECTION VIL 



OF FISHING GEMHALLY. 



INTRODUCTIO^^ 



Fishing, like hunting, was first practised by mankind as 

 a means of subsistence, and, like other employments to 

 which the human being is subjected from necessity, becomes 

 wearisome and fatiguing.. But such is the progress of man 

 in society, that the avocations which he is compelled to pur- 

 sue, as a means of living, become, to those who are indepen- 

 dent of the world's toils, among their greatest sources of 

 diversion and enjoyment. 



In that condition of barbarism, which precedes civilization 

 and the uiereful arts, hunting and fishing form the chief em- 

 ployment of the savage adventurer, who, finding in them the 

 means of supplying his corporal wants, naturally endeavours 

 to discover means of lessening the fatigue of procuring a 

 plentiful and easy supply. Doubtless the methods by which 

 mankind secured the finny tribes were originally very simple, 

 and precarious ; but after a time, and a constant application 

 to the same pursuit, improvements would suggest themselves, 

 and means be devised to lessen the labour, until at length 

 the art of fishing arrived at that high state of perfection hy 



