Viii PREFACE 
(5) The conclusion that the Rod was apparently never 
employed by the Ancient Assyrians or the Israelites, despite their 
long connection with Egypt, where as early as ¢. 2000 B.C, it is 
depicted in actual use ; 
(6) The point which, if not original, is rarely made or 
insufficiently pressed, that the Line of both the ancients and 
moderns down till the seventeenth century was a “ight, as 
opposed to a running Line. 
May I, as a last “bravery,” state that apart from articles 
in Magazines and Encyclopedias, I do not know, with the 
exception of Bates’s Ancient Egyptian Fishing, of any work in 
English on Fishzzg, not Fish, in ancient Egypt, Assyria, Palestine, 
or China, nor, with the exception of Mainzer’s magazine article 
on Jewish Fishing, have I come across one in French or German ? 
If any object that I have cast my net too wide and enclosed a 
few things that are neither Fish nor Fishing, I must insist that 
as these waters are not, as yet, adequately charted, it is well-nigh 
impossible to avoid some infringement of the three miles’ terri- 
torial limit. To drop metaphor, in the present state of archzo- 
logical research, it is notorious that no one subject can be fully 
investigated without trenching here and there on allied topics. 
This indeed is not merely necessary, but desirable, unless 
important side-lights are simply to be ignored. 
Moreover, every good Waltonian prefers the discursive to the 
cursive style, and would rather take part in a leisurely exploration 
of his preserves than skim the surface in a manner hasty and 
in- Compleat. 
Whatever the demerits of my volume, written at intervals 
between war-work and illness, I do trust that of the three counts 
of the indictment brought against Nicander’s Theriaca, “longa, 
incondita, et nullius farrago fidei,” the verdict of my readers will, 
at any rate as regards the last, be “ Not Guilty,” for on this head 
I have stoutly striven to avoid conviction. 
Reference to aid from any book or person is usually set forth 
in my pages; but here and at once I acknowledge with glad 
