CHAPTER XY. 



MODES OF FISHING IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 



' ' A thousand names a fislier might rehearse 

 Of nets intractable in smoother verse." — Oppian. 



,HE space devoted to this subject here must 

 of necessity be brief. It will therefore be 

 understood by the reader that many impor- 

 tant and interesting details will have to 

 be omitted. Though, as announced by the 

 heading of this chapter, it is proposed to 

 consider the manner of catching fish ; this cannot be done 

 without treating to some extent of the fish themselves, and 

 the implements employed. This at once opens up a subject 

 so extensive and varied, and withal so desirable to know 

 and enjoy, that we have been somewhat embarrassed as to 

 just what it would be desirable to omit in the list of de- 

 scription. 



It will be noticed that the American fisheries have not 

 been given the importance here that their magnitude would 

 seem to demand. Of course, this omission has been pur- 

 posely, and we believe the reader will decide, before he has 

 finished reading this chapter, wisely made. In the first 

 place, it is not proposed to present a compendium of dry, 

 and, to some extent, uninteresting facts ; and, secondly, we 

 have deemed it best not to cumber these pages with descrip- 

 tions of what many of our readers daily see and are therefore 

 familiar with. On the contrary, we have in our illustrations 

 compared primitive modes of fishing in foreign latitudes. 



