ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 101 



selves in a little Tar a little before used only, and 

 try whether it advantages your Sport, which many 

 affirms it do's, but I could never observe any 

 advantage by it. 



Among the many ridiculous theories which Walton 

 mentions in regard to the propagation of the eel, it is 

 surprising to find one so accurate as the following : 



For they say, that they are certain that Eeles 

 have all parts fit for generation, like other fish, but 

 so smal as not to be easily discerned, by reason of 

 their fatness ; but that discerned they may be ; and 

 that the Hee and the She Eele may be distinguished 

 by their fins, (ist edition.) 



According to Jacobi the dorsal fin is lower and 

 less developed in the male than in the female eel. 



The above extract is the more remarkable when 

 it is remembered that the male organ of the eel was 

 not recognised until 1873. 



Anglers of to-day should be grateful to Walton 

 for the elevating influence exercised in popular 

 opinion on behalf of their pastime by his delightful 

 and charming book. They owe to him a book, which 

 even now at this distant period has some value as 

 a practical work ; but they are above all indebted 

 to him for the high principles of the sport which 

 he inculcates. Mr Marston 1 thinks that "if these 

 words of Walton had not been ringing down the 

 centuries ever louder and louder, our fresh-water 

 fisheries would have long ago been destroyed. These 



1 Walton and the earlier^ Fishing Writer s^ by R. B. 

 Marston. 



