48 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



It will often be found of assistance to expend a fewTiandsful 

 of ground-bait in attracting fish to the spot which the caster 

 can most conveniently cover with the sweep of his net. I have 

 also heard of glass bottles filled with fresh roses being used for 

 the same purpose, though I do not vouch for the success 

 of this novel sort of horticultural show. In the casting for 

 Gudgeon ' raking ' the bottom is often a good expedient. 



The modern casting-net was, there is good reason to believe, 

 similar to or identical with the amphiblestron, or casting-net of 

 the ancients. A fisherman with net in hand and just about to 

 make his cast was one of the figures on the shield of Hercules, 

 whose attitude was thus described : — 'And on the land there 

 stood a fisherman on the look out, and he held in his hands a 

 casting-net for fish, being like to a man about to hurl it from 

 him.' Or as it has been versified — 



On the crag a fisher sat 

 Observant ; in his grasp he held a net, 

 Like one that poising rises to the throw. 



The Latin names for the casting-net were jaculum and 

 fiinda, each of which terms etymologically explains its use ; thus 

 Ovid writes,— 



Hi jaculo pisces, illi capiuntur ab hamis, 

 and Virgil uses the latter name — 



Atque alius latum fundi jam verberat amnem. 



The Greek term to denote the cast was ySoXos, from /SdXkw, 

 ' to throw.' The Romans used their casting-net, it is probable, 

 in a manner not dissimilar to the Greeks ; and they had the same 

 term to signify ' the cast,' dolus. There is a very amusing pas- 

 sage in Plautus, where Dinarchus compares the dangers of love 

 and its allurements to fish caught in a casting-net : — ■ 



Quasi in piscinam rete qui jaculum parat : 

 Quando abiit rete pessum, tum adducit sinum. 

 Sin jecit rete, piscis ne effugiat, cavet ; 

 Dum hue dum illuc reti eos impedit 

 Pisces, usque adefi donicum eduxit foras. 

 Xtidem est amator. — {True, act i. sc. i.) 



