This book is included in the Self Reliance Hunting, Skinning & Tanning section.
Introductory Observations
THE art of angling is one of the most ancient amusements and practices of which we have any record in the history of the human family. We read of it in the Old Testament; and in the records of ancient Egypt, Assyria, and the whole of the eastern section of the globe, once the seat of powerful empires, and of a civilized people, we have innumerable testimonies in their several sepulchral and architectural remains, that angling as we angle at this day was an art well known, and generally practised, both as an amusement, and as a means of support. In the polished and literary states of Greece and Rome we have still more pointed and irrefragable testimony of the high antiquity of the art. The bucolic writers of Greek poetry descant upon the subject in a variety of forms; while graver Historians among that singular and enlightened people dwell upon the art as one firmly embedded in the permanent customs and habits of the nation. The literature of Rome likewise portrays the existence of the gentle art among the warlike conquerors "of the world. Not only formal works were composed on the subject, but we find that the classic poets, both serious and comic, make many direct allusions to the amusement of the rod-fisher, and to the fish he was in the habit of catching. From the Christian era, and during the first centuries of the decline of Roman power and conquest, we find that angling continued to be one of the common pursuits of many nations, then in a state of transition from barbarism to refinement and knowledge. Pliny wrote on fish; and Ausonius, between the third and fourth century, expatiates with rapture on the abundance of fine salmon that were caught in the "blue Moselle;" a river in Trance, that flows into the Rhine on the northern frontier of the country. The old chroniclers and scholastic writers often mention the piscatory art; and the Church, then in full power, took the subject of fish generally under its own guidance, and regulated both the sport in taking them, and the using of them for food. In every country in Europe, where any degree of progress had .been made in learning and civilization during the middle ages, we find numerous traces of fishermen and their labours, even long before the art of printing became known and practised. It is now an established fact, admitted by all writers, that the English nation has been, from the earliest days of its history, the most distinguished and zealous propagators of the art of rod-fishing. And it is interesting to remark, in passing, that the historical memorials we possess, of the state of the angling art among the Anglo-Saxon tribes who first settled in this country, throw a great light on the origin of this striking predilection for the sport. The Anglo- Saxons, we are told, ate various kinds of fish, but the eel was a decided favourite. They used these fish as abundantly as swine. Grants and charters are sometimes regulated by payments made in these fish. Pour thousand eels were a yearly present from the monks of Ramsay to those of Peterborough. We read of two places purchased for twenty-one pounds, wherein sixteen thousand of these fish were caught every year ; and, in one charter, twenty fishermen are stated, who furnished, during the same period, sixty thousand eels to the monastery. Eel dykes are often mentioned in the boundaries of their lands. In the dialogues of Elfric, composed for the use of the Anglo-Saxon youth in the learning of the Latin tongue, we find frequent mention made of fishermen, and matters relating to their craft. In one dialogue the fisherman is asked, "What gettest thou by thine art?" "Big loaves, clothing, and money." "How do you take them?" "I ascend a ship, and cast my net into the river; I also throw in a hook, a bait, and a rod." "Suppose the fishes are unclean?" "I throw the unclean out, and take the clean for food." "Where do you sell your fish?" "In the city." "Who buys them?" "The citizens; I cannot take so many as I can sell." "What fishes do you take?" "Eels, haddocks, minnows, and eel-pouts, skate, and lampreys, and whatever swims in the rivers." "Why do you not fish in the sea?" "Sometimes I do; but rarely, because a great ship is necessary here." The historian Bede tells us, that Wilfrid rescued the people of Sussex from famine in the eighth century, by teaching them to catch fish: "for though the sea and their rivers abounded with fish, they had no more skill in the art than to take eels. The servants of Wilfrid threw into the sea nets made out of those by which they had obtained eels, and thus directed them to a new source of plenty." It is an article in the Penitentiale of Egbert,, that fish might be bought, though dead. In the same work, herrings are allowed to be eaten and it states that, when boiled, they are salutary in fever and diarrhea, and that their gall, mixed with pepper, is good for a sore mouth. Such are the historical relations between our Saxon forefathers and the art of angling; and we can trace no abatement in the original impulse to cultivate and extend its practice in the subsequent epochs of our nation. We carry, at this moment, a love of the sport to every quarter of the globe, wherever our conquests and commercial connections extend. In fact, we are the great piscatory schoolmasters that "are abroad," teaching all mankind how to multiply their rational out-door pleasures, in the pursuit of an amusement that is at once contemplative, intellectual; and healthful. Nor are there any good grounds for complaining that other nations have been slow or dull scholars in taking advantage of our zealous labours and instructions. Within the last forty years, since the intercourse with our continental neighbours has been upon the most intimate and visiting footing, there has been a very marked improvement, not only as it relates to the practising of rod-fishing itself, in all its various forms, but likewise in the spirit in which the amusement is followed, and the literary taste evinced in describing and treating it. In Belgium and the Flemish provinces generally, we have at this hour angling clubs in almost every locality contiguous to where there are eligible fishing-streams, all conducted upon the same principles, and influenced by the generally prevailing sporting sentiments which regulate similar institutions in our own country. Here a free and gentlemanly intercourse takes place among the brethren of the angle; fishing exploits and adventures are rehearsed over for the common amusement of the members; and we have had, of late years, some specimens of the poetic efforts made to grace the meetings of this order with something of the sentimental and humorous vein. In every department of Prance there has likewise been, since the close of the last general war, a great increase in the number of rod-fishers. The English modes of angling, especially for trout, have obtained considerable attention, and in some of the finest river-fishing districts are now commonly in vogue among all amateur or professed piscatorians. Many books on the art have also issued from the Paris and provincial presses, containing much useful information, and written in a truly genial and literary spirit; and, on the whole, there has been a very great change in reference to the extension of this out-door species of amusement among all classes of the people. In Italy, Switzerland, and even in Spain, there has been a considerable augmentation of piscatorians within the last century. Some of the rivers in these countries are most munificently supplied with fine, rich trout; and, in their higher localities, the scenery upon some of their banks presents some of the most bewitching views to the eye of one who has any artistic idea of landscape sketches. In the northern countries of Europe, angling, chiefly by English sportsmen, has been successfully practised to a great extent. In Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and even in Russia, the British mode of angling is now well known, and even followed with enthusiasm, by many of the nobles of those respective countries. But the most cheering view for the angling enthusiast in England, who revels in the delightful anticipation of seeing his favourite sport becoming universal, is the rapid progress which the amusement has made in the United States of America. Here we see the accounts daily, from the provincial prints in every section of the Union, that angling clubs, and gatherings, and parties, are now becoming quite fashionable in every direction where there are fishable streams and rivulets. Almost the entire district, from the New England States to the foot of the Rocky Mountains west, and even to the very shores of the Pacific Ocean in the Columbian district, has been visited, within the space of a few years, by professed anglers. And it is no uncommon thing to undertake a fishing tour of a month or two, and devoting the chief portion of the time to the search of new and unfrequented localities for the prosecution; of future piscatory pastimes. We read in a recent number of a Cincinnati newspaper, that Mr. Such-and-such-a-one had just arrived at his own place of abode, all well, after a two months fishing excursion; and that there would be a meeting of the friends of the art, who lived in the town, to congratulate him on his return. The angling literature of the States is increasing daily, and assuming that scientific form and polished taste which show that the mass of the people look upon the art as a truly improvable and intellectual one. We find, in the American fishing-books, a number of spirited angling songs, worthy of taking their place among the very best specimens of lyrical composition either in the English or any other language; and, with respect to prose compositions on angling topics, few English writers have come up to the spirit and life which the Americans embody. Witness the following description of an angling tour, written by the late Hon. Daniel Webster, one of the most able legislators and men of genius of whom the United States can boast: "We were lost standing," says he, "at the upper part of Sage's ravine, with some forty trout in our basket, when the time was up, the mail must go, the article must be cut short, and all the best parts of it, that for which all the rest was but a preparation, must be left unwritten. The same visitor never comes twice to the eye of the pen. If you scare it away, you might as well fish for a trout after he has seen you, and darted under a stone, or beneath his overhanging bank or root. But trouting in a mountain brook is an experience of life so distinct from every other, that every man should enjoy at least one in his day. That being denied to most, the next best I can do for you, reader, is to describe it. So then come on. "We have a rod made for the purpose, six feet long, only two joints, and a reel. We will walk up the mountain road, listening as we go to the roar of the brook on the left. In about a mile the road crosses it, and begins to lift itself up along the mountain side, leaving the stream at every step lower down on our right. You no more see its flashing through the leaves; but its softened rush is audible at any moment you may choose to pause and listen. "We will put into it just below a smart foamy fall. "We have on cow-hide shoes, and other rig suitable. Selecting an entrance, we step in, and the swift stream attacks our legs with immense earnestness, threatening it first to take us off from them. A few minutes will settle all that, and make us quite at home; The bottom of the brook is not gravel or sand, but rocks of every shape, every position, of all sizes, bare or covered- the stream goes over them at the rate of ten miles an hour. The descent is great. At a few rods cascades break over ledges, and boil up in miniature pools below. The trees on either side shut out all direct rays of the sun, and for the most part, the bushes line the banks so closely, and cast their arms over so widely, as to create a twilight not a gray twilight, as of light losing its lustre, but a transparent black twilight, which softens nothing, but gives more ruggedness to the rocks, and a sombre aspect even to the shrubs and fairest flowers. It is a great matter to take a trout early in your trial. It gives one more heart. It serves to keep one about his business. Otherwise you are apt to fall off into unprofitable reverie; you wake up and find yourself standing in a dream half seeing, half imagining under some covert of overarching branches, where the stream flows black and broad among rocks, whose moss is green above the water, and dark below it. But we must hasten on. A few more spotted spoils are awaiting us below. We make the brook again. We pierce the hollow of overhanging bushes we strike across the patches of sunlight, which grew more frequent as we got lower down towards the plain; we take our share of tumbles and slips; we patiently extricate our entangled line again and again, as it is sucked down under some log, or whirled round some network of broken beechen roots protruding from the shore. Here and there we half forget our errand as we break in upon some cove of moss, when our dainty feet halt upon green velvet, more beautiful a thousand times than ever sprung from looms at Brussels or Kidderminster. At length we hear the distant clamour of mills. We have finished the brook. Farewell, wild, wayward simple stream! In a few moments you will be grown to a huge mill-pond; then at work upon its wheel; then prim, and proper, with ruffles on each side, you will walk through the meadows, clatter across the road, and mingle with the More-brook - flow on toward the Housatonic - lost in its depths and breadths. For who "will know thy drops in the promiscuous flood? Or who, standing on its banks, will dream from what scenes thou hast flowed through what beauty thyself the most beautiful." Such writing as this shows the refined and healthy tone of the angling literature and taste among our American cousins. With respect to the angling prospects of our own country at the present day, they are the most encouraging and hopeful. At no previous time of our history has the amusement been pursued with a keener relish than in the present age; and works on this subject are constantly appearing, which demonstrate the firm hold that it has on the public sentiment and feeling. Contents PART I HOW TO ANGLE. Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS Chapter II. ON TACKLE AND BAIT FOR ANGLING Chapter III. OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FlSH THE SALMON Chapter IV. THE TROUT Chapter V. THE PIKE Chapter VI. THE GREYLING Chapter VII. THE PERCH Chapter VIII. THE CARP Chapter IX. THE TENCH AND BARBEL Chapter X. THE CHUB, BREAM, AND ROACH Chapter XI. THE GUDGEON, DACE, AND EEL Chapter XII. THE CHAR, BLEAK, LAMPREY, LOACH, MINNOW, BUFF, ETC. Chapter XIII. LAWS AND PECULATIONS FOR TAKING FlSH PART II. WHERE TO GO. Chapter I. ENGLAND AND WALES Chapter II. SCOTLAND Chapter III. IRELAND Chapter IV. CONTINENTAL STATES End of Preview. RETURN to Main Titles Index or Self Reliance Hunting, Skinning & Tanning
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