CHAPTER XXVIII 



THE RAINBOW TROUT AND ITS COUSINS 



' I would . . . fish in the sky whose bottom is pebbly with stars.' 



Thoreau. 



THEEE is something, some peculiar charm about angling- 

 which arrested the attention of great men, thinkers and 

 philosophers ages ago. Perhaps they were attracted by the 

 fact that Glaucus was changed into a sea deity that he might b& 

 near the fishes. 



Long before Christ, Theocritus was writing poems on things 

 piscatorial. Homer knew of the delights of angling, and the 

 astonishing philosophical discussions of Athenaeus refer to the 

 art. Many of the Greek and Latin classics have reference ta 

 fishing and contribute to the fisher eclogues. 



Sannazaro in 1503 wrote pastorals in the vein of Virgil, but 

 pastorals of the sea and fisher folk. 



In the Odyssey we read : 



' As when an angler on a jutting rock, 

 Sits with his taper rod and casts his bait 

 To snare the smaller fish.' 



Fishes appeared in the ancient drama, as those of Epicharmus- 

 (490 B.C.). The' Clown and the Fisherman ' Sophron took from. 

 Epicharmus, but he originated ' The Timny Catcher.' 



Many of the SicUian poets sang of fish and angling. The 

 romances of the ancient Greeks include frequent references to- 

 anglers and angling, and if we were to attempt to write the 

 history of the poesy of angling, the idylls of anglers, or what may 

 be called the pastorals of the fishermen, we would, doubtless,. 



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