THE ANCIENTS. 



We find figures of persons angling painted on Egyptian 

 tombs, and even on the walls of Herculaneum. Wilkinson 

 states, in his book on Egypt, that anglers in that country 

 adopted a ground -bait, without any float ; and that it 

 does not appear that they had ever devised any process 

 similar to our present system of artificial fly-fishing, 

 which is an art still unknown to the modern Egyptians. 

 The ancient hooks of that country were made of bronze. 

 The use of fish-spears was likewise general, as appears 

 from many of the antique paintings of Egyptian origin. 

 The spear consisted of a long and stout pole, terminating 

 in two long and fine prongs, single barbed, and one of 

 them longer than the other. These instruments seem 

 to have been employed by the fishers as they gently 

 floated down the waters in their boats. 



Fishing was an amusement in which the Egyptians 

 particularly delighted ; and not contented with the abun- 

 dance afforded by the Nile, they constructed within their 

 grounds spacious sluices or ponds for fish, like the Vivaria 

 of the Eomans, where they fed them for the table, and 

 where they amused themselves by angling, and the dex- 

 terous use of the bident. 



These favourite occupations were not confined to young 

 persons, nor thought unworthy of men of serious habits ; 

 and an Egyptian of consequence is frequently represented 

 in the sculptures catching fish in a canal or lake with the 

 line; or spearing them, as they glided past the bank. 

 Sometimes the angler posted himself in a shady spot at 





