12 INTRODUCTION 
These were either fastened to the Rod whip-fashion, or 
possibly looped to it. The distinction is only important in 
so far as a horse-hair loop at the end of the Rod may have 
developed into a top ring of wire, which must not be confused 
with rings fixed along the Rod, which R. Howlett, in The 
Angler's Sure Guide, 1706, seems the first to note. 
Why the Greeks or Romans should not have emancipated 
themselves from the ¢ight line of Egypt and evolved the 
running line by the mere force of their inventive genius causes 
much astonishment. This grows acute when we remember 
that they knew a fish whose properties and predatory endow- 
ments furnished an ideal example of the advantages of the 
running line. 
Of the angler fish and its methods of securing food Aristotle, 
Plutarch, and AKlian are eloquent.!_ From Plutarch we learn 
that “the cuttle fish useth likewise the same craft as the 
fishing-frog doth. His manner is to hang down, as if it were 
an angle line, a certain small string or gut from about his neck, 
which is of that nature that he can let out in length a great 
way, when it is loose, and draw it in close together very 
quickly when he listeth. Now when he perceiveth some small 
fish near unto him,”’ he forthwith plies his nature-given tackle. 
With the ight line play can only be given to a fish by 
craft of hand and rod. Anglers know to their sorrow that 
although much may be thus accomplished, occasions too 
frequently arise when the most expert handling can avail 
naught. 
In Walton’s time the custom, as indeed it was the only 
present help, in the event of a big fish being hooked was to 
throw the Rod into the water and await its retrieval, if the 
deities of fishing so willed, till such time as the fish by pulling 
it all over the water had played himself out. 
sea-beasties. E, Pernice and F. Winter, Dey Hildesheimer Silberfund, Berlin, 
gor, pls. 32, 33. Cf. S. Reinach, Répertoive de Reliefs grecs et vomains, 
Paris, 1909, 1. 165 f. (g) H. B. Walters, Cat. of Greek and Roman Lamps in 
the Brit. Museum, London, 1914, p. 79 f., No. 527, Pl. 16, p. 99 f.; No. 656, 
pl. 22, p. 96, No, 635. The accompanying illustration is reproduced by kind 
permission of Mr. E. M. W. Tillyard and of the University Press, Cambridge. 
1 Aristotle, N.H. ix. 37. Plutarch, De Sol. Anim. 27, translated by 
Holland. Ailian, N.H. ix. 24. See Pliny, N.H, ix. 42. 
