18 PISCATORIAL REMINISCENCES 



Fishing seems to have preceded all other 

 sports. Some authors say that Belus was the 

 first inventor of this art. It is probable that 

 after the deluge, as fish being the only animals 

 that were not destroyed, fishing naturally became 

 the first art that Noah and his family practised, 

 to obtain their subsistence. 



This art, also, was well known to the Greeks 

 in the time of Homer : the Romans were still 

 more perfect in it. Plutarch also informs us 

 that Marc Anthony and Cleopatra were great 

 lovers of the art of angling, which was their prin- 

 cipal recreation. The Gauls, also, were not 

 ignorant of this art, as they passed a law, with a 

 fine, to prevent persons fishing for eels with a net. 

 If we consider that fish are almost alone in their 

 possession of the waters, which forms the greatest 

 part of the globe, we may have a proper idea of 

 the importance of fishing, when we reflect that 

 the element which they inhabit is so naturally 

 opposed to our immediate access to it, we may 

 conceive what skill and patience are required 

 to subdue such a numerous class of animals. 

 Fishing followed the progress of civilization, and 

 is become a great and important branch of com- 

 merce to most nations. Angling, as an offset of 

 this great art, is considered an agreeable relax- 

 ation, and is particularly so to the sedentary, 

 and also to such as have been overtaken by 



