OPPIAN 



shorewards, followed by the fish. " On arrive ainsi 

 k la c6te. La on prend des precautions pour que le 

 bateau ne touche terre, le moindre choc faisant 

 deguerpir aussitot les poissons. On I'arrete k una 

 distance d'un ou de deux metres, et, laissant les 

 rames, on prend les haveneaux en main, et Ton com- 

 mence a envelopper le poisson des deux cotes du 

 bateau." 



Fishing by poisoning the water, referred to by 

 Oppian, H. iv. 647 ff., is said by Tristram, p. 292, to 

 be very commonly practised on the Lake of Galilee 

 by the poorest classes. " Men sit on a rock over- 

 hanging the water, on which they scatter crumbs 

 poisoned with vitriol, which are seized by the fish. 

 As soon as they are seen to float on their backs, then 

 men rush into the sea and collect them." 



Apost. p. 52 AT. gives an interesting account of 

 fishing by Weirs and Stake-nets as practised in 

 modern Greece ; in a great number of river-mouths, 

 the shallower waters of several gulfs, in lakes, pools, 

 and lagoons, "les poissons sont pris exclusivement 

 au moyen des ecrilles et des claies de roseau. Tous 

 les endroits sont appeles vulg. Bifidpia," i.e. Lat. 

 vivaria. Similar methods are practised in Palestine, 

 Tristram, p. 292, who says " Among the laws of 

 Joshua, the Rabbis relate, was one forbidding the use 

 of stake-nets in the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee), for 

 fear of damage to the boats." The reader will 

 remember that the use of stake-nets got a fictitious 

 Joshua (Geddes) into trouble (Scott, Redgauntlet). 



Finally, for the earliest references to Fly-fishing, 

 natural or artificial — Mart. v. 18. 7 f., Ael. xiv. 22, 

 XV. 1, the reader may be referred to the discussion in 

 Radcliffe c. ix, 



xlviii 



