on angling from entertaining a belief that ,/ 

 the fishes of old were caught "by^ mai»w*- 

 strength and ignorance," and the same rever- 

 ence for antiquity will of course banish the^,,:^^ 

 satirical definition of old-time ang- 

 ling as " a stick and a string, with 

 a fish at one end and a fool at, 

 other." The writer will 

 the statement, however, ■ 

 anglers of ancient days earned 

 more live, natural flies tWn artificial (5nes^^d^-itig:'fheir fishing excursions. 

 In the legends and lyrics presery-ed^cum grano sails — from the past, 

 references are made to mighty mythical anglers, worthy of a place at the 

 caiiip fire or in the club rooms of the modern association of Angling 

 Ananiases. Of one of those old worthies it was said: 



" He baited his hook with dragons' tails, 

 And sat on a rock and bobbed for whales." 



It is a pleasure to turn from the famous and the fabulous fishers of the 

 dim past, to the anglers and angling of a more recent period. Foremost 

 in the literature of angling stands that quaint and pleasing volume, " The 

 Compleat Angler," written by Izaak Walton, whose tercentenary was 

 celebrated quietly and appropriately, August 9, 1893, at the Walton 

 Cottage — a unique building, modeled after his famous fishing lodge on the 

 River Dove — and it is worthy of note that the great fly-casting tourna- 

 ment, held September 21, 1893, within the enclosure of the World's 

 Columbian Exposition, was contested on the lagoon in front of the same 

 cosy cot which had been erected there in honor of the world-renowned 

 angler and author. 



It is a singular fact, though entirely in harmony with the eternal 

 fitness of things, that the earliest published treatise on the gentle art of 

 angling was written by one of the gentle sex, Dame Juliana Berners, 

 whose " Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle," issued in the year 1496, 

 antedated the work of our beloved Izaak more than one hundred and fifty 

 years. The instructions given by the venerable Dame are more curious 

 than concise or correct, as applied to the wants of scientific devotees of rod 

 and reel in the nineteenth century, but it must be borne in 

 mind that America had not been discovered when Juliana 

 Herners wrote her book, and the lady, although celebrated 

 for her learning and accomplishments, had not the gift of 

 prophecy to foretell of fish and fishing in the (then) unknown 

 but now "Universal Yankee Nation." 



