FISHES, 
■37 
while the whole scene appears in bright contrast 
with the deep and almost midnight gloom that 
envelopes every other object,”^ 
The hook and line claim as great an antiquity 
as the other implements of the fisher’s art. In 
that which has been considered the most ancient 
of all compositions^ the Book of Job, the Al- 
mighty Lord of nature, in one of the sublime 
appeals wherewith He humbles his too confident 
servant, says, Canst thou draw out leviathan 
with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which 
thou lettest down?^^ In the burden denounced 
against Egypt by the prophet Isaiah, they that 
cast angle into the brooks” are alluded to, in as- 
sociation with those that spread nets upon the 
waters.” And though the disciples of our Lord 
seem chiefiy to have used the net, they were 
familiar with the hook also ; for when a single 
fish was required to furnish the tribute-stater, 
Peter was commanded by his Master to go to 
the sea, and cast an hookj^ The Egyptian monu- 
ments are not wanting in pictorial representations 
of this art any more than of the others already 
alluded to ; individuals being depicted in the very 
act of casting angle into the brooks.” 
In our times the hook is extensively used, both 
by savage and civilized nations. In the beautiful 
islands that stud, as with clusters of gems, the 
broad bosom of the Pacific Ocean, around whose 
coasts Pishes of various species are peculiarly 
abundant, the ingenious and enterprising inhabi- 
tants have turned their attention to fishing with 
great success. Many artifices have been invented 
by them for this purpose, some of them most 
^ Polynesian Hesearches, i. 150. 
