FISHING IN HOLLAND in 



both for this monarch of the streams and less 

 valuable sport, has been commonly practised for 

 several centuries among a large class of the 

 people both for pleasure and amusement. There 

 is a common proverb that Amsterdam is built 

 upon the bones of fish. In 1613 we have in 

 Dutch the 'Handbook of Fishing ' (Amsterdam), 

 in which the act is described, and plates of the 

 several kinds of fish are given. The earliest 

 caricatures of the angler we have seen bear the 

 date 1603. One represents a Dutch amateur, 

 evidently of some public notoriety, sitting like a 

 lubberly clodpole with the most bewildering ex- 

 pression of face, pulling a prodigious large sal 

 mon at the foot of a weir; in another print 

 figures a fisher weeping for the loss of a part of 

 his rod and tackle. Underneath the print are 

 some verses, which may be paraphrased thus : 



" Mynheer Vandunk, though he never got drunk, 



Sipp'd brandy, and angled gaily ; 

 And he quenched his thirst with two quarts of the first, 



Hooking lots of fine salmon daily ; 

 Singing' Oh, that a fisherman's draught could be 

 As deep as the rolling Zuyder Zee.' 



" Water well mixed with spirit good store 



No fisherman thinks of scorning ; 

 But of water alone he drinks no more 

 Than to help him to bring his fish on shore 



Upon the market-stall in the morning. 

 For a fishing Dutchman's draught should be 

 As deep as the rolling Zuyder Zee. " 



