viii FOREWORD 



of fish afforded both amusement and sport, for we 

 are told that then the aristocratic form of fishing 

 was with the fishing spear or bident, and that the 

 use of the net and the hook was relegated to the 

 lower classes. 



Among the many ancient writers who either 

 refer to, or deal with, angling in their works, the 

 following especially call for notice. 



Pliny, in his Historia Naturalis, a work written 

 in the first century of our era, recognised seventy- 

 four varieties of fish, and it is worthy of note that 

 even at that early date, he correctly classified the 

 whales among the Beluce and not among the Pisces. 



Julius Pollux, of Naucratis in Egypt, a Greek 

 sophist and grammarian, in his work, the Onomasticon^ 

 which was written before A.D. 177, mentions the use 

 of lines made from the hair of stallions, and bamboo 

 rods so slender that they scarcely threw any shadow 

 on the surface of the water. He describes the method 

 of spearing fish by torch-light, leistering or " burning 

 the water," as it is now termed in Scotland ; and 

 he also refers to the use of leads, cast-nets, drag- 

 nets, etc. 



Oppian, who lived about the end of the second 

 century, wrote a work, divided into five books : 

 HalieutickS) of the Nature of Fishes, and the Fishing 

 of the Ancients. The two following extracts from 

 William Diaper's translation (1722) of part of this 

 book show that the eel basket, the taper rod, the 

 line, etc., were known in. the time of the author, and 



