6 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM! STYLE. 



social condition of Sheffield and its connexion with the 

 angling world. 



The history of angling seems to go a long way back, and 

 to be nearly lost in the mists of antiquity, for we read of it 

 in the earlier sections of the Bible, and in the records of 

 ancient Egypt and Assyria, the seat of powerful empires 

 and a civilized people. The story of Antony and Cleopatra 

 is of course known to most anglers, wherein Cleopatra sent 

 her own diver down to hang a dried fish on Antony's hook, 

 which he pulled up to his utter confusion. Shakespeare, it 

 wall be remembered, immortalizes this incident in his play, 

 " Antony and Cleopatra." I have read also somewhere that 

 the Chinese practise this plan habitually. The rocks and stones 

 at the bottom of the sea on the Chinese coast, it appears, are 

 covered with small shell fish ; two men go out to fish — one 

 holds a line, attached to which is a baited hook ; the other, 

 a diver, takes the hook and a hammer, and dives to the 

 bottom, and there he begins cracking and knocking to pieces 

 the masses of shell fish. The fish draw round to feed ; the 

 diver selects his fish, and literally thrusts the hook into its 

 mouth, and his friend above pulls it up. 



It seems to be difficult to determine when angling really 

 did not exist, for in the Book of Job we read, " Canst thou 

 draw out leviathan with a hook "? or his tongue with a cord 

 which thou lettest down ? Canst thou put an hook into his 

 nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?" (By this 

 last word we should presume that hooks were then made of 

 hard wood, or at least some of them.) In the prophet 

 Habakkuk also we find fish being taken " with the angle, " 

 and in Isaiah of " those that cast the hook into the 

 river." 



The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans certainly were 

 anglers, for passages from the writings of some of the most 

 ancient authors indicate the fact. Homer tells us 



