178 American Fisheries Society. 



take him with a dubbe (artificial fly), at such time as he lea- 

 peth, in like manner when you take a trout or a grayling." 



For the trout she names the "stone fly," several worms 

 and grubs, "grasshops" and crickets, and "ye fat of ye bacon." 

 The grayling she says, "is a delicious fish to a man's mouth," 

 and is to be fished for with the same baits as the trout. De- 

 scriptions of barbel, carp, chub, bream, tench and roach 

 follow, all to be taken with worms of various kinds, pastes, 

 and natural baits. Then come the pike and perch, conclud- 

 ing with the eel. 



In the foregoing list only the salmon and the pike are 

 natives of the United States, although the perch, trout and the 

 grayling are more or less closely allied to our own fishes of 

 the same names. The coarse fishes mentioned are not true 

 game-fishes, and belong mostly to the minnow family (Cypri- 

 nidae) , but as they are found in free water, the fishing of nine- 

 tenths of English anglers is restricted to these common forms. 



Of the pike the Dame's discourse is thus : "He is a great 

 fish ; but for he devoureth so many as well as of his own kind 

 as of other, I love him the less." For baits she recommends 

 minnows, fresh herring and frogs, and young mice, with par- 

 ticular directions as to placing them on the hook. 



It may be as well to note the tools and tackle recommended 

 by the good Dame four centuries ago. The rod was made in 

 three pieces, or joints, and was about fifteen feet long; the butt 

 piece was made hollow to accommodate the two smaller joints, 

 when the whole could be used as a walking-staff, and as Dame 

 Juliana says: "and there shall no man know whereabout you 

 go." I have known this ruse practiced successfully where a 

 law prohibiting fishing on Sunday is rigidly enforced. The 

 butt of the rod was fashioned of ash, hazel or willow, the sec- 

 ond piece of hazel, and the top piece of the green shoot of 

 hawthorn, crab, or juniper. All the joints were thoroughly 

 straightened and dried. The line was made of six hairs from 

 the tail of a white horse, dyed, and twisted together with the 

 aid of a simple device, shown by a rude figure. For trout and 

 grayling the hairs were left white. Full directions were given 

 for making hooks, floats and sinkers. From this it will be seen 

 that the angler of the Dame's day was independent of tackle 

 stores even if there were any. 



Passing by the unimportant and little-known books of 

 Mascall and Barker, we come to the wonderful Compleat Ang- 

 ler, by Isaak Walton, published a century and a half after 

 Dame Juliana Berner's quaint and marvelous Fisshynge Wyth 

 an Angle. It should be remembered that these two books are 

 entirely original, and made of whole cloth. The rod recom- 

 mended by Walton was "five or six yards long," depending on 



