20 PBOSE HALIETJTICS, 



Named from its form a dolpMri; pliunb'd with, this 

 The bait shoots headlong through the blue abyss. 

 The bright decoy a living creature seems, 

 As now on this side, now on that, it gleams. 

 Till some dark form across its passage flit. 

 Pouches the lure, and finds the biters bit. 



Besides killing fish in the more sportsman-like way 

 of trawling and fly-fishing, the Izaak Waltons of anti- 

 quity condescended to bottom-fishing with lob or caddis 

 worms ; 



Or, buried deep, with eggs prolific stored, 



Would keep a carrion oat, of gentles the sure hoard.* 



Harpoons were also in general use, and by means of 

 these, many large fish were secured, napping on the sur- 

 face of the water, or quietly nestling in the mud; some 

 mosaics disinterred at Palestrina, represent men engaged 

 in taking fish out of a reedy decoy, by means of small 

 hand-nets ;t they employed also divers pastes, equal to 

 (and it would be hard to surpass) our own, for com- 

 plexity of composition, and the truly surprising effects 

 resulting from the different ingredients introduced. 



That fish were attracted by strong scents, and would 

 take a whole pharmacopoeia of 'fetids' prescribed by a 

 scientific practitioner, was indeed as well known to the 

 poacher of early days, as now. Oppian speaks of ' myrrh 

 dissolved in wine-lees;' and again, of ' certain drugs fa- 

 miliar to the sons of iEsculapius as well as fishermen, 

 and turned to account by the latter in impregnating 

 their nets,' as expedients that never failed. These sub- 

 stances entered into the composition of many fishing 

 pastes, the recipes for which have come down to us. 



* Old angling book. 



t The Egyptians are said to have used their mosquito-curtains 

 as fishing-nets; but if so, the fabric could not have been fine 

 enough to exclude midges. 



