102 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



generally speaking, though probably quite good enough 

 for the capture of the uneducated fish of the period. 

 Jointed rods were unknown to the ancients, but at the 

 same time, as anglers are well aware, some of the best of 

 modern rods, especially those of Irish make, are in one 

 piece. The ancients used light flexible wood, or some 

 kind of " reed " for these rods, which probably varied in 

 size and weight according to the kind of fishing pursued. 

 Their lines were made of hemp, and other fibrous sub- 

 stances, and sometimes horsehair ; gut being a modern 

 invention. They had no winches, or rings on their rods, 

 and so played the fish simply on the latter, except of 

 course when they used no rod at all, like " Piscator," in 

 the last passage quoted from Oppian. He probably had 

 his spare line wound round his left hand or wrist, and 

 using his right arm as his rod, paid out " the loosening 

 rein," drew in, and "let it run again," according to 

 circumstances. Ancient hooks, of which there are many 

 examples in different museums, varied much in form and 

 size, and were made of steel, or, as Oppian says, of " har- 

 dened bronze," which metal the learned Dr. Badham 

 reminds us was not composed of zinc and copper, like our 

 softer alloy, but of tin and copper, and according to Pliny 

 was so hard that it could be worked to represent the finest 

 hairs of the human head. The hooks like ours had different 

 " bends," and for temper were superior to a vast quantity 

 made in the present day, and circulated among anglers by 

 the trade. I hardly know a more vexatious thing than 

 to lose a good fish through the snapping or bending of a 

 bad hook. The maker of sucb is almost as wicked a man 

 as a modern constructor of life-buoys, who filled his canvas 

 with some very' unbuoyable material, instead of cork, and 



