XXXIII 



OF AN ESSENTIAL FALSITY 



IT is very often difficult to recognise the original 

 in a product of cultivation. A prize pug is 

 about as like a primitive dog as it is like a 

 brontosaurus. Similarly a chalk-stream angler 

 differs incredibly from the barbarian who with 

 a paddle digs mud fish out of South African slime. 

 Yet had man never imagined the eating of fishes, 

 and set about procuring them in some such direct 

 and practical fashion, the Itchen would not rent 

 to-day at 2000 a mile. Or is it to-morrow ? 



During his journey from the shores of remote 

 antiquity the angler has changed more than his 

 costume and his tackle. He has developed a new 

 point of view, which differentiates him from his 

 old self far more completely than the split-cane 

 and gossamer gut which he wags so dexterously 

 back and forth over his chosen waters. He no 

 longer fishes to eat ; rather it may be said he eats 

 to fish. Angling has become a sport, an art, 

 a theory, a rule of life, and its original purpose 

 is wholly obscured. Such carcases as its success- 



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