34 ANGLING LITERATURE OF 



and harmlessness of their gentle occupation had acted as 

 a becoming preparation for that life of gentleness and 

 charity, and purity and benevolence, which was to distin- 

 guish them above all men, and to give them their glorious 

 pre-eminence in the universal church of Christ." 



In 1350 we have, in the Spanish language, a Poem by 

 Juan Ruiz, designated ' The Battle of Mr. Carnal with 

 Mrs. Lent.' Here the fish and the beasts are arrayed 

 in mortal strife, ending in the complete overthrow of the 

 latter ; the fish and the holy cause obtain the victory, and 

 Mr. Carnal is condemned to fast, unless in case of illness, 

 upon one spare meal of fish a day. 



Du Cange has described the various modes and instru- 

 ments of fishing of the middle ages. There was the Pir- 

 vene> that round net, w T hich he thinks had leaden globules 

 on the lower part of it, the upper ending in a horn ; the 

 Scortiare, for taking sea-fish near the level shore; the 

 Trammel-net, of triple meshes of regulated sizes; the 

 Tranversarium, a net for the use of rivers ; another net, 

 called Alcipiter> a double kind of one, to be used both 

 for large and small fish ; the Frouc-nezze, a public net 

 belonging to the community ; and the Rivale, or modern 

 landing-net. This author likewise mentions fishing with 

 a cormorant; by driving the fish to one particular lo- 

 cality ; by fisheries formed of wooden materials ; by the 

 Cor re y a method by which the net was cast from the boat 

 according to the course of the water, and, a long circuit 

 being made, drawn back to its first place ; by the Gordus, 



