THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. : 95 
a i ek ee ee ae 
gether fishing, by Jesus after his resurrection, as it is recorded in the 
twenty-first chapter of St. John’s Gospel. 
The Bible has many references to this quiet, contemplative 
calling, to which it is not necessary here and now to refer. 
Whatever may be the controversy between theology and sci- 
ence, or revelation and reason, it is certain that in early New 
England revelation and science met on common grounds—the 
fishing grounds! Practicalness went hand in hand with Sci- 
ence, and Science meekly worshipped at the shrine of Faith. 
FISHING AN ANCIENT CALLING. 
Fishing and fish-culture are not new discoveries: nor are the 
present modes, especially by line and spear, novel. Necessity 
was the mother of these as of other arts. It is said that Deucalion, 
just after the flood, invented angling for food to save his starv- 
ing family. Seth taught it to his sons. It is believed by some 
that Japan and China early understood artificial propagation. 
Fishing runs into mythology; for, is not the trident of Neptune 
the fish spear, thrice armed? As an ancient and most fish-like 
muse sings: 
Then darts the trident, and the briny flood 
Is crimsoned with the incautious victim’s blood. 
Do we not read in the Bible about putting a hook into the 
jaws of Leviathan? Is this not a clear reference to angling ona 
large scale? The Ichthyophagi are as old as the Strabo who re- 
cords them. 
The fishermen of the past may have been poor, but they were 
never cowardly. They may have been ignorant, but they had an 
eye for beauty, which was improved by the iridescent hues of 
the finny tribes, and by the rare views of nature on sea and shore. 
They may have been simple, but it was from their humble guild 
that the grandeurs of the New Dispensation came to a sinful 
world, to improve and bless. 
We may go back to Egypt—that ancient mother of spiritual 
and temporal empire, and read upon her monuments and paint- 
ings, the designs and modes by which fish were taken and pre- 
served for the chief butlers and bakers of the Pharaohs. Wor- 
shipping, as they did, animals of various kinds, it was not infre- 
