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UC-NRLF 


B    2    TM2    3D1 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


International  Fisheries  Exhibition 

LONDON,     1883 


THE 


FISHERIES    EXHIBITION 
LITERATURE. 


VOLUME   III. 


HANDBOOKS— PART   III. 

FISHES   OF   FANCY  :    THEIR  PLACE  IN  MYTH,  FABLE,  FAIRY-TALE, 

AND  FOLK-LORE. 

ANGLING    CLUBS   AND   PRESERVATION   SOCIETIES   OF   LONDON 
AND  THE  PROVINCES. 

SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 
SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 
LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 


LONDON 
WILLIAM    CLOWES    AND    SONS,    LIMITED, 

13  CHARING  CROSS,  S.W. 
1884 


LONDON  : 
PRINTED    BY    WILLIAM    CLOWES    AND    SONS,     LIMITED, 

STAMFORD    STREET    AND    CHARING   CROSS. 


/. 


HANDBOOKS— PART    III. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

FISHES  OF  FANCY  :  THEIR  PLACE  IN  MYTH,  FABLE, 
FAIRY-TALE,  AND  FOLK-LORE.  With  Notices  of  the 
Fishes  of  Legendary  Art,  Astronomy,  and  Heraldry.  By 
PHIL  ROBINSON  .......  i 

ANGLING  CLUBS  AND   PRESERVATION   SOCIETIES  OF 

LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.    By  J.  P.  WHEELDON  99 

SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED.     By  HENRY  LEE,  F.L.S.,  F.G.S., 

F.Z.S.  ....  179 

SEA    MONSTERS     UNMASKED.     By  HENRY    LEE,    F.L.S., 

F.G.S.,  F.Z.S 319 

PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.   By 

J.  P.  WHEELDON 441 

LITERATURE   OF   SEA    AND   RIVER    FISHING.     By  J.   J. 

MANLEY  M.A.      . 527 


FISHES    OF    FANCY: 

THEIR  PLACE  IN  MYTH,  FABLE,  FAIRY-TALE 
AND    FOLK-LORE; 


WITH 


NOTICES  OF  THE  FISHES  OF  LEGENDARY  ART, 
ASTRONOMY  AND  HERALDRY. 


BY 


PHIL     ROBINSON, 


AUTHOR  OF   '  IN  MY  INDIAN  GARDEN,*  '  UNDER  THE   PUNKAH,'    '  NOAH*S 

ARK— AN   ESSAY   IN   UNNATURAL  HISTORY,'    'SINNERS   AND 

SAINTS,'    'THE  POET'S  BIRDS,'   ETC.,   ETC. 


VOL.   III. — H. 


CONTENTS. 


PACK 

PREFATORY  NOTE 4 

THE  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

"  Where  hast  thou  floated,  in  what  seas  pursued 
Thy  pastime  ?  "—Cowper. 

CHAP.  I. — PRIMITIVE  FISH-BELIEFS         . 5 

"So  many  fishes  of  so  many  features, 
That  in  the  waters  we  may  see  all  creatures, 
Even  all  that  on  the  earth  are  to  be  found, 

As  if  the  world  were  in  deep  waters  drown'd." 

Walton. 

CHAP.  II. — FISHES  IN  ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY     ....     17 

" '  And  is  the  sea '  (quoth  Coridon)  '  so  fearfull  ?  ' 

*  Fearful  much  more '  (quoth  he)  *  than  heart  can  fear  ; 
Thousand  wyld  beasts  with  deep  mouths  gaping  direfull, 

Therein  still  wait,  poore  passengers  to  teare.' " 

Spenser. 

CHAP.  III. — FISHES  IN  RELIGION 31 

"  Ye  monsters  of  the  bubbling  deep 

Your  Maker's  name  upraise  ; 
Up  from  the  sands,  ye  codlings  peep, 
And  wag  your  tails  always." 

New  England  Hymn. 

CHAP.  IV.— FISHES  IN  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES 44 

"Anon  ten  thousand  shapes, 
Like  spectres  trooping  to  the  wizard's  call, 
Fly  swift  before  him  ;  from  the  womb  of  earth, 
From  ocean's  bed,  they  come/' — Akenside. 


CONTENTS.  3 

PAGE 

CHAP.  V.— FISHES  IN  FABLE  AND  FAIRY-TALE     ....    53 

"  And  there  were  crystal  pools,  peopled  with  fish, 
Argent  and  gold  ;  and  some  of  Tyrian  skin, 

Some  crimson-barred.     And  ever  at  a  wish 
They  rose  obsequious,  till  the  wave  grew  thin 

As  glass  upon  their  backs,  and  then  dived  in, 
Quenching  their  ardent  scales  in  watery  gloom, 

Whilst  others  with  fresh  hues  rowed  forth  to  win 

My  changeable  regard." — Hood. 

CHAP.  VJ. — FISH  IN  HERALDRY 65 

"  There  rolling  monsters,  arm'd  in  scaly  pride, 
Flounce  in  the  billows,  and  dash  round  the  tide. 
There  huge  Leviathan  unwieldy  moves, 
And  through  the  waves,  a  living  island,  roves ; 
In  dreadful  pastime  terribly  he  sports, 
And  the  vast  ocean  scarce  his  weight  supports. 
Where'er  he  turns,  the  hoary  deeps  divide  ; 
He  breathes  a  tempest  and  he  spouts  a  tide." 

Groome. 

CHAP.  VII. — FISHES  IN  MODERN  FOLK-LORE 83 

"  And  all  the  griesly  monsters  of  the  sea 
Stood  gaping  at  their  gate,  and  wondred  them  to  see." 

Spenser* 

APPENDIX. — A  Sea-dream  ............     93 


B   2 


PREFATORY     NOTE. 


THE  range  of  this  Handbook  is  so  extensive,  that  it  is 
obviously  impossible  to  accomplish  more  than  a  very 
superficial  review  of  its  subjects  in  the  compass  of  a 
hundred  pages.  For  it  touches  on  Primitive  Zoolatry 
(glancing  at  Totemism  and  Sacred  Fish-myths),  Zoological 
Mythology,  Legendary  Art,  the  Folk-tale  of  all  nations, 
Fables,  the  Sciences  of  Heraldry  and  Astronomy,  Poetry 
from  Chaucer  to  Wordsworth  —  and  Modern  Folk-lore. 
Moreover,  following  the  liberal  "  fish-idea "  of  the  Exhi- 
bition, it  has  been  necessary  to  wander  from  the  cetaceans 
on  the  one  hand  through  fishes  proper  to  the  Crustacea  and 
molluscs  on  the  other.  So  that  not  only  in  Unnatural,  but 
in  Natural  History  also,  the  range  of  this  Handbook  is  of 
necessity  very  wide.  I  have  contented  myself,  therefore, 
with  bringing  a  few  leading  thoughts  into  prominence — 
antiquity  of  the  Religious  Fish-myth,  its  dignity,  its  im- 
portance in  Totemism,  the  benign  aspect  of  Fish  in  the 
Folk-tale,  the  persistence  of  ancient  fancies  in  modern 
superstitions. 

Such  subjects  are  not,  I  take  it,  to  be  treated  with  a 
uniform  gravity ;  at  the  same  time  their  intrinsic  import- 
ance should  never  be  lost  sight  of. 

It  is  in  this  humour  that  I  have  written,  and  fully 
conscious  that  the  magnitude  of  the  matters  of  which  I 
have  to  treat — Animism  in  some  of  its  widest  and  latest 
aspects — makes  it  impossible,  in  so  limited  a  space,  to  say 
all  that  I  should,  would,  or  could. 

I  would,  therefore,  anticipate  my  critics,  by  saying,  that 
the  value  of  this  Handbook  will  probably  be  found  in  what 
it  omits  rather  than  in  what  it  contains.  It  has  in  it  the 
suggestions  for  a  very  desirable  and  entertaining  volume. 

PHIL  ROBINSON. 


FISHES    OF    FANCY. 

CHAPTER  I. 

PRIMITIVE  FISH-BELIEFS. 

The  loss  of  Solomon's  work  on  Fish  a  possible  misfortune — Reticence 
in  Holy  Writ  as  to  Fish — Even  St.  Peter  does  not  identify  his 
Fishes — The  First  Fishers— Dignities  of  Fishes  and  their  Antiquity 
— How  they  chose  Leviathan  king,  and  how  the  Monarchy  is  now 
a  Republic — Individual  Fishes  of  Honour  and  of  Disrepute — That 
the  Sea  is  a  duplicate  of  the  Earth,  an  error ;  but  resemblances 
not  to  be  despised — That  Birds  were  once  Fish — Romance  of  Fact 
— Are  not  the  Popular  Ideas  about  Fishes  prejudiced  by  error? — 
What  Fishes  might  think  of  us. 

THAT  the  world  sustained  a  great  loss  in  the  destruction 
of  Solomon's  work  on  Fishes  may  be  accepted  as  beyond 
dispute,  for  let  the  scientific  attainments  of  the  sumptuous 
builder  have  been  what  they  might,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  it,  Solomon,  who  was  of  an  artistic  kind,  would  have 
preserved  to  posterity  a  vast  quantity  of  old-world  nonsense, 
possibly  even  of  antediluvian  facts,  which  is  now  hopelessly 
lost  to  us  ;  and  except  Solomon,  no  other  personage  of 
Holy  Writ  has  expatiated  on  the  subject  of  fishes.  We 
have  no  scriptural  recognition  of  any  great  fisher  "  before 
the  Lord."  Indeed,  the  untranslated  Bible  is  singularly 
reticent  on  the  subject,  for  it  does  not  specify  a  single  fish. 
Tobit's  fish  and  Jonah's  fish,  the  fishes  of  the  Psalms  and 
of  the  New  Testament,  are  spoken  of  only  generically,  and 
even  when  the  Lawgiver  is  enumerating  the  things  which 


6  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

the  Hebrews  might  and  might  not  eat,  he  is  careful  to 
distinguish  by  their  names  the  creatures  in  fur  and  feathers, 
but  the  fish  are  merely  divided  into  "  those  with  scales  and 
fins,"  and  "those  without."  Still  more  remarkable  is  it 
that  Peter  and  his  comrades,  themselves  professional  fisher- 
men, should  have  omitted  to  identify  the  actual  species 
with  which  the  Saviour  worked  His  miracles.  In  fish 
history,  therefore,  there  is  a  very  considerable  gap,  and  it 
is  not  until  we  go  to  Pagan  Mythology  that  we  find  the 
things  of  the  water  identified  into  species. 

Of  fishing  itself  we  have  records  from  the  earliest  times, 
for  the  Vedas,  and  of  course  the  Bible,  speak  of  the  net 
and  line,  spear  and  hook.  But  the  first  of  fishers  of  whom 
any  record  remains  is  undoubtedly  that  primaeval  god  of 
the  ichthyophagous  Polynesians  who  existed  in  the  very 
beginning,  and  when  first  heard  of  was  out  a-fishing  on  the 
face  of  the  waters.  And  he  fished  up  dry  land  with  a 
hook  and  line — 

"  His  hook  he  baited  with  a  dragon's  tail, 
And  sat  upon  a  rock,  and  bobb'd  for  whale." 

Coeval  with  this  deity  were  those  mighty  anglers  Thor 
and  Odin,  who  fished  (sometimes  for  the  sea-serpent  itself) 
in  the  Scandinavian  seas.  Judging,  however,  from  the  fact 
that  in  the  East  the  caste  is  still  one  of  very  low  degree, 
and  that  in  the  most  primitive  communities,  fish-catching 
is  still  the  work  of  women — and  so  distinguished  from 
other  kinds  of  sport,  which  are  always  the  first  and  proudest 
privilege  of  savage  manhood — it  is  not  likely  that  the  pri- 
vate angler  was  an  individual  of  any  importance.  Coming 
down,  however,  to  the  classical  period,  we  find  the  pastime 
established  in  popularity  and  fashion.  Kings  and  their 
courts  amused  themselves  with  the  spear  and  net.  Agrippa 


PRIMITIVE  FISH-BELIEFS.  7 

was  so  fond  of  fishing  that  he  called  himself  Neptune.  The 
Emperors  of  Rome  practised  it  with  every  circumstance  of 
characteristic  luxury  :  their  nets  were  of  purple  silk,  and 
the  ropes  of  gilt  twine.  It  is  true  that  "from  time  im- 
memorial "  the  Emperors  of  China  had  gone  a-fishing,  and 
not  less  a  fact  that  Gulliver  found  folk  fishing  both  in 
Brobdingnag  and  in  Liliput.  "But  the  people  of  the 
former  country  did  not  care  for  sea-fish ;  they  were  all 
the  ordinary  size.  Sometimes,  though,  they  caught  a 
whale,  and  I  have  known  them  so  large  that  a  man  could 
hardly  carry  one  upon  his  shoulders ;  and  sometimes,  for 
curiosity,  they  are  brought  in  hampers  to  Lorbrulgrud." 
What  they  caught  in  Liliput  he  does  not  tell  us. 

Izaak  Walton — "that  quaint  old  coxcomb" — I  know, 
amuses  himself  by  surmising  that  Seth,  the  son  of  Adam, 
taught  his  son  to  cast  a  fly,  and  that  he  engraved  the 
mystery  of  the  craft  upon  those  pillars  of  which  Masons 
and  Mormons  know  so  much.  But  the  world  in  general 
will  hardly  be  content  to  believe  that  the  patriarch  really 
occupied  so  much  valuable  surface  with  the  details  of 
fishing,  and  will  prefer  to  accept  the  imperial  masters  of 
Rome  as  the  first  of  gentlemen  anglers,  and  the  fascinating 
Cleopatra  as  the  first  of  the  fair  sex  who  made  angling  a 
feminine  fashion. 

Apart  from  their  historical  records,  the  fishes  have  held 
a  really  important  place  in  the  world's  attention  from  the 
beginning  of  time.  This,  at  any  rate,  is  beyond  doubt,  that 
the  oldest  folk-lore  extant,  the  Buddhist,  abounds  in  morals 
and  significances  drawn  from  the  finny  race,  and  that  one  of 
the  oldest  of  worships,  the  Phallic,  finds  under  the  symbol 
of  these  creatures  a  conspicuous  expression.  Wherever  we 
go  in  the  East,  we  find  them  in  Art  and  Literature  per- 
petually recurrent  It  was  in  the  First  Age  of  the  World 


8  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

(so  spake  the  Buddha  when  reproving  the  luxurious  Monk 
of  Jetavana)  that  the  fishes  chose  Leviathan  for  their  king. 
Aqueous  society,  therefore,  was  an  established  monarchy 
at  the  earliest  possible  date.  What  manner  of  thing 
"  Leviathan  "  was  in  those  unevoluted  days — the  period 
called  (until  the  days  of  Lyell)  the  Epoch  of  Diluvium  and 
Catastrophe,  the  age  of  unlimited  mud — it  would  be  almost 
profane  for  us,  in  these  puny  days  of  whales,  without  spirit 
enough  in  us  to  firk  up  even  a  sea-serpent,  to  attempt  to 
imagine  ;  and  for  myself  I  am  content  to  believe  with  the 
Talmudists  that  it  was  an  indefinable  sea-monster,  of  which 
the  female  lay  coiled  round  the  earth,  till  God,  fearing  her 
progeny  might  destroy  the  new  globe,  killed  it,  and  that 
then  He  salted  her  flesh  and  put  it  away  for  the  banquet 
which  the  pious  shall  enjoy  at  the  Great  End.  In  that 
day  the  angel  Gabriel  will  kill  the  male  also,  and  will  make 
a  tent  out  of  his  skin  for  the  elect  that  are  bidden  to  the 
banquet.  It* is  a  hazy  old  tradition,  I  confess,  but  it  is  the 
oldest  we  have,  and,  as  regards  Leviathan,  quite  as  satis- 
factory as  any  other  on  the  subject. 

But  the  monarchy  must  have  collapsed,  for  fishes  are 
nowadays  distinctly  republican,  and  each  arrives  at  its 
own  particular  measure  of  dignity  upon  grounds  apart 
from  any  relation  to  a  central  authority.  An  Arabic 
legend  *  tells  us  of  the  Lake  Biserta,  which  received  twelve  - 
different  kinds  of  fish,  one  for  each  month  of  the  year, 
without  any  intermixture,  for  when  their  month  elapsed  all 
the  fish  of  the  species  then  in  possession  used  to  vacate  the 
lake,  and  were  replaced  by  another.  But  this  admirable 
system  of  methodical  tenancy — reminding  one  of  the 
system  in  vogue  in  rest-houses  in  the  East,  where  a  party 

*  Now  for  the  first  time  in  print,  as  are  most  of  the  others  in  this 
Handbook  from  Arabic  sources. 


PRIMITIVE  FISH-BELIEFS.  g 

of  travellers  can  only  remain  twenty-four  hours,  and  on 
the  arrival  of  the  next  party  has  to  move  on,  bag  and 
baggage — does  not  obtain  anywhere  else,  for  fish  are  now 
thoroughly  American  in  their  confusion  of  classes  and 
the  assertion  of  their  disregard  for  each  other's  liberty. 

In  the  general  struggle  some  of  them  have  attained  to 
honours  by  their  force  of  character.  For  instance,  the 
salmon — so  lordly  in  its  nature  as  to  worthily  justify  the 
name  of  that  proud  King  of  Elis  who  defied  Olympus. 
But  he  was  hurled  to  the  shades  by  a  judiciously-directed 
thunderbolt,  and  thus  abundantly  expiated  his  arrogant 
obliquities.  So  too  the  shark,  that  awful  Attila  of  the  sea  ; 
and  the  pike  also,  the  dispeopler  of  the  lake,  that  by  its 
ferocity  of  countenance  and  manners  usurps  the  autocracy 
of  the  reedy  waters,  and  compels  the  vigilance  not  only  of 
the  otter  that  comes  to  poach,  but  of  the  beasts  of  man 
that  come  to  drink,  and  even  of  man  himself;  for  it  has 
been  known  to  rout  the  "  goose-footed  prowler,"  to  bite  off 
a  swan's  head,  to  seize  the  nose  of  a  drinking  cow,  and, 
crowning  audacity,  to  bite  man.  Did  not  Theodoric  the 
Goth  die  of  fright  at  seeing  a  pike's  head  on  his  table? 
He  mistook  it  for  the  head  of  a  person  whom  he  had  that 
day  unjustly  put  to  death. 

Other  fish,  again,  have  compassed  dignity  by  the  passive 
virtues  of  their  flesh.  Did  not  Domitian  order  a  special 
session  of  the  Senate  to  discuss  the  cooking  of  a  turbot, 
and  "  nihil  ad  rhombum "  —  all  Lombard  Street  to  a 
China  orange — pass  into  a  proverb  ?  What  man  in  Rome 
would  not  have  been  a  lamprey  to  be  petted  by  the 
beautiful  wife  of  Drusus  ?  and  what  a  pitch  of  dignity  they 
attained  to  in  the  households  of  epicures,  those  mullet  and 
muraena  and  carp ! 

But  by  far  the  greater  number  have  achieved  distinction 


io  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

by  legendary  exploits,  or  by  accidents  of  honour.  Thus 
the  dolphin  and  the  tortoise,  or  the  haddock  and  the  John 
Dory.  It  was  a  crab  that  retrieved  the  crucifix  of  St 
Xavier  from  the  sea — 

"  Nor  let  Xavier's  great  wonders  pass  concealed, 
How  storms  were  by  the  almighty  wafer  quelled } 
How  zealous  crab  the  sacred  image  bore, 
And  swam  a  catholic  to  the  distant  shore ;" 

and  to  a  codfish  that  Scandinavia  owed  its  recovered 
crown.  Was  it  not  a  fish  that  guided  the  Vedic  ark  to  its 
resting-place,  the  hill-peak  Naubandha?  and  from  a  fish- 
pond (according  to  Arabic  legend)  that  Moses  was  rescued 
by  Pharaoh's  daughter  ?  When  the  demons  had  usurped 
Solomon's  throne,  and  the  monarch  was  an  outcast  in  his 
dominions  and  jeered  at  as  a  sort  of  Perkin  Warbeck,  a 
preposterous  claimant,  a  fish  found  the  omnipotent  signet- 
ring,  and  so  enabled  the  king  to  reascend  his  throne.  Did 
they  not  give  their  names  to  a  score  of  cities  ?  Is  not  fkh 
one  of  the  special  foods  promised  to  the  faithful  in  the 
paradise  of  the  Moslem,  with,  hard  by,  that  tree  from  Sinai 
that  yields  sauces  "  for  them  who  eat " — a  kind  of  paradi- 
saical cruets.  The  heirs  of  France  take  their  name  from 
a  "  fish " ;  and  have  not  fishermen  given  three  kings  to 
Persia  and  an  emperor  to  Rome  ? 

But  just  as  many  have  thus  adventitiously  arrived  at 
celebrity,  so  many  others  have  accidentally  fallen  into 
disrepute.  The  mackerel  can  hardly  be  a  proud  fish, 
recollecting  its  traditional  imputations,  nor  lobsters  go 
haughtily.  The  character  of  this  crustacean  in  legend  is 
perhaps  worth  a  passing  remark,  for  it  is  curious  that  while 
the  crab  ever  holds  a  place  of  honour,  the  lobster  should 
be  always  disreputable.  Very  old  engravings  show  us  a 


PRIMITIVE  FISH-BELIEFS.  n 

fool  astride  a  lobster ;  and  the  significance  of  that  medal 
of  the  Pretender,  in  which  the  youthful  aspirant  is  shown 
in  the  arms  of  a  Jesuit  who  rides  a  lobster,  conveys  nothing 
to  the  credit  *  either  of  the  friar  or  the  fish.  Mercury  in 
his  ignobler  aspect  rides  a  cray-fish.  The  porpoise  is 
popular  in  the  same  homely  way  that  the  pig  is ;  but  the 
eel  has  the  worst  of  characters. 

It  was  a  common  myth  once  that  the  sea  held  a  dupli- 
cate of  every  animal  on  the  earth,  and  antiquity  therefore 
was  familiar  with  many  marine  equivalents  for  their  land- 
beasts,  even  though  they  could  find  no  better  resem- 
blances for  the  corresponding  terrestrial  beasts  than  a 
lobster  for  the  "  lion,"  a  crab  for  the  "  bear,"  a  skate  for  the 
"  ox,"  a  dog-fish  for  the  "  dog,"  and  an  eel  for  the  "  wolf." 
The  names  were  probably  given  at  first  simply  to  indi- 
cate a  single  point  of  fancied  resemblance,  but  eventually 
some  imaginative  theorist,  seeing  so  many  correspondences 
recognised,  hit  upon  the  idea  of  extending  the  identities 
throughout  creation.  The  attempt,  however,  was  a  com- 
plete failure,  and  the  further  enquiry  is  made,  the  wider 
become  the  differences  between  the  inhabitants  of  the 
water  and  the  earth.  Sailors  and  fishermen  still  retain 
many  of  the  old  names,  and  popular  usage  has  familiarised 
us  more  or  less  with  the  sea-horse — the  quaint  little 
creature,  more  like  a  knight  on  a  chess-board  than  a  horse 
— sea-lion,  sea-bear,  sea-cat,  sea-eagle, .  sea-bat,  sea-hedge- 
hog, sea-leopard,  sea-mouse,  sea-scorpion,  sea-snipe,  sea- 

*  "  The  imputation  upon  the  legitimacy  of  the  Pretender,  conveyed 
in  the  above,  was  occasioned  in  a  great  degree  and  almost  justified  by 
the  pilgrimages  and  superstitious  foolishness  of  his  grandmother, 
increased  by  his  mother's  choosing  St.  Francis  Xavier  as  one  of  her 
ecclesiastical  patrons,  and  with  her  family  attributing  the  birth  of  the 
Prince  to  his  miraculous  interference." — Notes  and  Queries. 


12  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

swallow,  sea-parrot,  and  so  forth ;  while  heralds  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  perpetuation  of  many  amphibious  hybrids. 
But  this  tendency  to  see  in  the  water  a  reflection  of 
everything  on  land  is  only  an  instance  of  human  self- 
consciousness,  for  if  we  were  to  be  just  to  our  seniors  in 
creation,  and  more  modest,  we  should  call  ourselves  land^ 
manatees,  our  elephants  land-whales,  and  our  tigers  land- 
sharks.  As  Sir  Thos.  Browne  says — "  If  we  concede  that 
the  animals  of  one  element  might  bear  the  names  of 
those  in  the  other,  the  watery  productions  should  have 
the  pre-nomination." 

Yet  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  are  green  fields — such  as 
Israel  walked  over  when  crossing  the  smitten  flood — in 
which  the  small  fish  take  refuge  from  the  greater,  just  as 
the  field-mice  and  birds  and  insects  hide  in  our  own  grass. 
The  Water-baby  found  at  the  sea-bottom  both  meadows 
and  woods ;  and  Strabo  tells  us  of  the  flocks  of  rich  fat 
tunnies  that  feed  on  the  acorns  of  submarine  oaks.  And 
who  would  doubt  their  existence  who  has  read  how  the 
prince  rides  out  into  mid-ocean  to  find  the  casket  among 
the  roots  of  the  tree  ?  Once  upon  a  time,  too,  if  the  poet 
is  to  be  believed,  our  birds  were  all  creatures  of  the  sea. 
Accident  or  high  spirits  took  them  out  of  the  water  into 
the  moist  herbage  of  the  banks,  whence  they  could  not 
escape,  but  which  was  just  wet  enough  to  support  life. 
Their  progeny  throve  there,  but  their  fins,  shrivelling, 
split  up,  and  the  scales,  crackling,  fell  off,  and  by-and-by 
a  woolly  growth  took  their  place  and  eventually  became 
feathers.  The  under-fins,  with  which  they  used  to  scrape 
their  way  along  the  sea-floor,  became  real  legs,  and  thus 
the  bird  grew  into  existence.  This  un-Darwinian  evolution 
was  science  a  few  centuries,  ago,  just  as  it  is  science  now 
to  understand  that  the  whale  once  had  legs,  and  roamed 


PRIMITIVE  FISH-BELIEFS.  13 

our  terrestrial  forests— but  what  a  thought!     Imagine,  in 
the  gloom  of  a  forest,  coming  upon  a  whale  on  legs  ! 

Indeed,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  go  to  fable  for  wonders, 
for  the  actual  natural  world  of  fishes  is  a  very  wilderness 
of  marvels.  They  come  out  of  the  water  and  migrate  in 
companies  across  meadows  ;  they  wander  along  river-banks, 
hunting  for  terrestrial  insects,  unfairly  trespassing  on  the 
grounds  of  the  lizard  and  land-bird  ;  they  climb  up  trees  ; 
are  met  with  travelling  along  hot  and  dusty  gravel  roads 
under  the  midday  sun  ;*  have  been  seen  thrown  up  alive 
from  volcanoes  in  water  that  was  only  two  degrees  below 
boiling  point,  f  So  the  wonders  of  fish-land,  the  real  world 
of  fishes,  is  as  startling  and  as  marvellous  as  the  fictions  of 
mythology  itself,  and  we  need  go  to  no  Islands  of  the 
Pescadores,  nor  cruise  on  the  bewitched  shores  of  Calypso, 
to  meet  with  abundant  matter  for  astonishment. 

In  character,  they  range  through  every  variety  of  tem- 
perament, from  the  gentle  carp,  that  in  Java  and  else- 
where are  tamed  into  the  playfulness  and  familiarity  of 
dormice  or  caged  birds,  or  the  Adonis,  "darling  of  the 
sea,"  to  the  dog-fish,  that  are  cruel  and  fierce  beyond  all 
mammalian  comparison.  It  is  true  that  the  Zulus  to  this 
day  cut  flesh  out  of  a  living  beast,  and  that  other  savages 
do  the  same  ;  and  in  a  legend  of  New  Zealand  we  read 
how  a  man  used  to  take  occasional  snacks  out  of  a  pet 
whale.  But  what  episode  is  there  in  all  human  knowledge 
more  terrible  than  the  manner  of  the  death  of  those  whales 
which  the  dog-fish  follow  for  days,  and  days,  and  days, 
living  upon  them  as  they  go  ?  Was  ever  a  death  more 
awful,  or  cruelty  more  dreadful  ?  Who,  again,  has  not 
applauded  Trinculo's  excellent  phrase  of  an  "ancient  and 
fish-like  smell,"  or  ever  thought  of  the  odour  of  fish  as 

*  Tennant's  *  Ceylon.'  f  Humboldt. 


14  FISHES   OF  FANCY. 

agreeable  ?  Yet  to  "  smell  daintily  as  a  flower  or  a  fish  " 
has  been  accepted  by  our  forefathers  as  an  allowable 
simile.  One  angler  says  the  smelt  has  a  fragrance  of 
lavender ;  another  that  it  savours  of  cucumber ;  another 
that  the  grayling  has  the  aroma  of  thyme.  St.  Am- 
brose called  it  the  "sweet  flower  of  fishes."  The  cuttle- 
fish was  supposed  with  "  its  sweet  odour  "  to  attract  fish 
to  it  ;*  and  the  whale  to  obtain  its  food  by  opening  its 
mouth,  whence  issued  "so  agreeable  a  scent"  that  the 
creatures  of  the  deep  gathered  together  in  its  jaws  to  enjoy 
the  fragrant  atmosphere.  As  a  general  rule,  too,  the  smell 
of  fish  cooking  is  considered  rather  worse  than  that  of  fish 
raw:  yet,  says  an  Athenian  enthusiast,  "the  odour  of  a 
cooking  conger  is  so  divine  that  it  would  make  a  dead  man 
sniff." 

Fish,  again,  are  charged  with  being  voiceless,  but  how 
then  about  the  gurnard  that  pipes,  the  other  that  snorts, 
the  diodon  that  grunts,  and  the  others  that  drum  and 
whistle  and  play  on  Jews'  harps  ?  The  legend  that  they 
were  caught  in  Egypt  by  singing  to  themf  is  not  without  its 
plausibility.  "  Fishes,  though  little,  have  very  long  ears," 
is  an  old  Chinese  proverb ;  and  to  this  day,  on  the 
Danube,  men  hang  little  bells  to  their  nets  to  attract  the 
fish.  In  Japan  the  tame  fish  are  summoned  to  dinner  by 

*  "  And  verily  all  living  creatures  in  the  sea  love  the  smell  of  them 
exceedingly  well,  which  is  the  cause  that  fishers  besmeare  and  anoint 
their  nets  with  them,  to  draw  and  allure  fishes  thither." — Historic 
Devices  and  Badges. 

f  If  we  may  believe  yElian,  that  most  unsophisticated  fish,  the 
Thrissa  of  the  Lake  Mareotis,  "  was  caught  by  singing  to  it,  and  by 
the  sound  of  clappers  made  of  shells  ;"  and  so  musically  inclined 
was  this  species,  and  so  sharp  in  hearing  sounds  even  out  of  its  own 
element,  that,  dancing  up,  it  leapt  into  the  net  spread  for  the  purpose, 
giving  great  and  abundant  sport. —  Wilkinsorfs  Egypt. 


PRIMITIVE  FISH-BELIEFS.  15 

melodious  gongs.  In  India  I  have  seen  them  called  up 
out  of  the  muddy  depths  of  the  river  at  Dholpore  by 
the  ringing  of  a  hand-bell ;  and  from  the  abbey  in  Bel- 
gium where  the  tame  carp  answer  at  once  to  the  whistle 
of  the  monks  who  feed  them,  right  away  to  Otaheite 
where  the  chiefs  have  pet  eels  which  they  whistle  to  the 
surface,  the  same  belief  in  the  sympathy  of  fish  with 
musical  sounds  will  on  enquiry  be  found  prevailing. 
"  Dull  as  a  mullet "  was  a  Roman  proverb,  yet  the  very 
men  who  quoted  it  prided  themselves  on  the  docility, 
sensitiveness  to  sound,  and  personal  attachments  of  their 
favourite  mullets.  This  fish  too,  as  it  happens,  was  conse- 
crated to  Diana  the  huntress,  as  it  was  supposed  to  hunt 
the  sea-hare,  and  if  any  one  of  the  Roman  divinities  was 
averse  to  dulness,  it  was  surely  the  high-spirited  Diana. 

I  am  inclined,  therefore,  to  think  that  the  finned  folk 
have  been  somewhat  calumniated.  A  grudge,  it  is  pos- 
sible, has  been  borne  against  the  fish,  under  the  idea  that 
they  escaped  the  Deluge.  Thus  Whiston,  in  his  philo- 
sophical Romance  of  the  Deluge,  surmises  that  the  fish 
living  in  a  cool  element  were  more  correct  in  their  lives 
than  the  beasts  and  birds  of  the  sun-lit  land,  and  were 
therefore  spared  from  the  destruction  of  the  primitive  world. 
But  it  is  extremely  improbable  that  the  fish  did  really 
escape  the  ruin  of  the  Deluge.  If  so,  it  must  have  been 
some  of  the  deep-sea  forms  only,  so  that  envious  deprecia- 
tion of  the  marine  world  on  this  account  would  seem  to  be 
gratuitous.  Yet  the  very  word  fish  itself  has  come,  by  some 
obliquity  of  reasoning,  to  signify  an  object  of  doubtful 
character  or  absurd  appearance,  and  one-half  the  creatures 
of  the  world  are  treated  as  a  joke  by  the  other  half. 
Beasts  are  regarded  with  deference,  birds  with  admiration, 
but  fish  are  laughed  at  as  absurdities. 


16  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

Even  men  of  science  say  that  fish  life  is  "  silent,  mono- 
tonous, and  joyless,"  though  science  itself  contradicts 
them,  as  I  have  already  shown ;  and  seriously — if  it  is 
permissible  to  be  serious  over  a  whimsical  theory  —  if 
the  fish  were  to  have  things  their  own  way  for  a  while, 
would  they  not  with  as  much  reason  (if  they  argued 
with  as  little  sympathy)  condemn  terrestrial  existence  as 
flat  and  dull  ?  They  would  pretend  that  our  continents 
were  accidents  of  nature ;  and  as  for  our  islands,  that 
they  were  merely  warts  and  wens.  The  interruptions  of 
rock  and  sand,  which  now  prevent  their  swimming  every- 
where, would  be  pronounced  ridiculous — good  sea  all  run 
to  land.  Some  scientific  fish  would  get  up  and  point  out 
what  circumscribed  lives  the  things  that  went  on  legs  had 
to  lead.  There  is  neither  height  above  nor  depth  beneath 
in  which  they  can  disport ;  and  as  for  variety  of  landscape, 
the  land-folk  could  make  but  a  poor  show  as  compared 
with  the  water-world.  The  limits  within  which  variation 
of  life-forms  are  restricted  on  the  earth  would  afford  the 
marine  critic  an  excellent  point  against  us,  and  he  could 
hit  us  very  hard  indeed  when  he  came  to  ask  us  if  we 
had  any  animated  vegetables.  If,  again,  the  fish  were  to 
hold  an  Exhibition,*  they  would  divide  their  sections 
according  to  water-spaces  and  rivers,  and  not,  as  man 
does,  according  to  the  geography  of  dry  land  ;  while  their 
exhibits  would  possess  such  a  thrilling  interest  for  humanity 
as  nothing  could  surpass,  except  that  apocalyptic  solution 
of  all  the  world's  mysteries  at  the  Last  Day — when  the  sea 
shall  give  up  its  dead. 

*  See  Appendix  to  Handbook. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FISHES  IN   ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY. 

What  Pantagruel  saw  in  Lantern-land — The  Greek  Naturalists — The 
dignity  of  the  Fish  Myth,  and  of  Zoological  Mythology  in 
general  —  Fish  in  the  Solar  Myth  —  Fish-version  of  Reineke 
Fuchs— Vishnu's  Fish-Avatar — The  Phallical  Fish— The  Philan- 
thropic Dolphin,  a  Hellenic  creation — The  Cosmopolitan  Turtle 
Myth — Purely  fanciful  Fishes — The  Stay-ship  and  others  —  Sea 
Monsters,  their  persistence  in  popular  belief — Lavvrens  Andrewe, 
"  hys  Fisshes." 

WHEN  Pantagruel  was  on  his  travels,  he  came,  he  tells  us, 
"  into  the  country  of  Tapestry,  and  saw  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  open  to  the  right  and  left  down  to  the  very  bottom  : 
just  as  the  Red  Sea  very  fairly  left  its  bed  at  the  Arabian 
gulf,  to  make  a  lane  for  the  Jews,  when  they  left  Egypt. 
There  I  found  Triton  winding  his  silver  shell  instead  of  a 
horn,  and  also  Glaucus,  Proteus,  Nereus,  and  a  thousand 
other  godlings  and  sea  monsters.  I  also  saw  an  infinite 
number  of  fish  of  all  kinds,  dancing,  flying,  vaulting,  fight- 
ing, eating,  breathing,  hitting,  shoving,  spawning,  fishing, 
skirmishing,  lying  in  ambuscade,  making  truces,  cheapening, 
bargaining,  swearing,  and  sporting.  In  a  blind  corner  I  saw 
Aristotle  holding  a  lantern,  in  the  posture  in  which  the 
hermit  uses  to  be  drawn  near  St.  Christopher,  watching, 
prying,  thinking,  and  setting  everything  down  in  writing." 

But  if  Aristotle  had  not  taken  his  lantern  into  the 
depths  of  nature,  the  world  for  some  centuries  would  have 
been  more  ignorant  and  superstitious  than  it  was,  and  we 

VOL.  in. — H.  C 


i8  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

owe  to  him  and  to  Strabo  and  Oppian,  ^Elian  and  Pliny — 
those  brave  old  thinkers  who,  in  spite  of  the  shoals  of  error 
and  the  fogs  of  myth,  tried  their  hardest  to  keep  the  ship's 
head  straight  for  the  glimmering  beacon-light  of  Truth — 
more  than  we  can  ever  repay.  For  though  the  world  has 
grown  beyond  their  facts,  and  modern  science  has  sifted 
their  knowledge  through  and  through  —  indeed,  I  should 
like  to  see  a  fine  imposed  upon  those  writers  who  still 
persist  in  larding  their  lean  pages  with  quotations  from 
them,  and  imprisonment  without  the  option  of  a  fine 
upon  all  who  call  Pliny  "  quaint "  —  yet  their  works,  the 
Pyramids  of  old-world  thought,  abound  in  significances 
that  can  never  lose  their  interest.  Zoological  mythology 
is  no  whimsical  study.  It  reaches  out  with  arms  of 
astronomical  power  to  the  beginnings  of  time,  demonstrates 
the  continuity  of  human  intelligence,  and  proves  the  evo- 
lution of  modern  creeds. 

And  since  in  the  beginning  there  were  only  Light  and 
Water,  the  eldest  of  zoological  myths  is  the  Fish-myth. 
Asia  believes  the  earth  to  have  been  saved  by  a  fish 
and  to  be  supported  on  a  tortoise ;  Polynesia,  that  it  was 
brought  up,  a  fish  itself,  on  a  fish-hook,  out  of  the  primaeval 
ocean  ;  America,  that  a  turtle,  the  sole  tenant  of  the  waste 
of  waters,  dived  for  it  into  the  depths  of  diluvian  chaos. 
Among  the  most  ancient  of  Syrian  divinities  is  the  fish- 
form  ;  it  is  found  among  the  remoter  antiquities  of  Egypt ; 
primitive  Europe  saw  gods  in  its  fish.  Thus  gradually, 
down  through  the  ages,  the  same  symbol  was  passed  on 
from  nation  to  nation,  and  the  sea,  from  its  mystery,  its 
acknowledged  seniority,  claimed  conspicuous  honours  in 
each  Pantheon,  until,  reaching  historic  times,  we  find  the 
Greeks — borrowing  they  knew  not  whence — perpetuating 
the  original  myth,  and  adding  to  it  as  only  the  subtle 


FISHES  IN  ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY.  19 

Greek  spirit  could.  And  how  bright  their  sea-life  was, 
with  its  goddesses  that  sailed  about  in  shells,  and  gods 
that  rode  on  dolphins  ;  when  mariners  saw  chariots  drawn 
by  sea-horses,  hurrying  along  to  scenes  of  submarine 
revelry,  and  heard  in  the  bays  the  music  bubbling  up  from 
the  sea-kings'  palaces  !  In  the  beautiful  Greek  waters 
were  troops  of  happy  people,  and  it  seems  no  hard  fate 
for  Pompilus  or  for  Nais,  or  any  of  the  other  men  or 
women,  who  for  their  misdemeanours  were  condemned  to 
the  livery  of  scales,  to  have  been  banished  in  the  Golden 
Age  of  fishes  from  the  solid  earth  to  the  subaqueous  regions 
where  Neptune  held  his  glad  court,  and  Amphitrite  her 
revels.  And  then  came  those  grand  old  thinking  men, 
trying,  out  of  a  chaos  of  superstitions  to  deduce  scientific 
order,  and  yet  preserving  for  us  in  their  pages  all  those 
credulities  which  now  enable  us  to  retrace  the  paths  of 
human  thought,  and  locate  the  sources  of  human  beliefs. 

In  the  Solar  Myth  the  fish  has  been  made,  like  every- 
thing else,  to  play  a  prominent  part :  the  fair-haired  and 
silvery  moon,  in  the  ocean  of  night,  is  the  little  gold-fish 
and  the  little  silver-fish  which  announces  the  rainy  season, 
the  autumn,  the  deluge;  out  of  the  cloudy,  nocturnal  or 
wintry  ocean  comes  forth  the  sun,  the  pearl  lost  in  the  sea, 
which  the  gold  or  silver  fish  brings  out.  The  little  gold-fish 
and  the  luminous  pike,  like  the  moon,  expands  or  contracts, 
and  in  this  form,  as  expanding  or  contracting,  the  god 
Vishnu  or  Hari  (which  means  fair-haired  or  golden)  refers 
now  to  the  sun,  now  to  the  moon,  Vishnu  having  taken  the 
form  of  the  gold-fish.  But  the  commixture  of  accidental 
coincidences  and  incongruous  objects  which  go  to  make  up 
the  myth  that  Gubernatis  sets  forth  in  its  most  bewildering 
aspect,  has  in  itself  material  for  volumes,  and  it  is  enough 
here  to  say,  that  those  who  go  to  any  work  on  the  subject 

C  2 


20  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

will  be  surprised  to  find  how  large  a  space  the  fishes  fill  in 
this  mythological  maze.  Indra,  who  had  to  hide  in  the 
waters  ;  Adrika,  the  fish-nymph,  who  became  the  mother 
of  Matsyas,  the  king  of  the  fishes  ;  the  Puranic  fishes, 
symbolical  and  natural ;  the  fishes  of  the  Eddas,  with  the 
scaly  transformations  of  Andvarri  and  Loki ;  the  porpoises 
that  draw  the  golden  chariot ;  the  Russian  whale  that 
swallows  the  fleet,  or  the  Hindoo  one  that  swallows  the 
monkey-god  ;  the  brown  pike  that  is  really  the  devil  and 
hopes  to  eat  the  hero ;  the  shark  that  devours  the 
princess  ;  the  phallical  pike  with  the  golden  fins  ;  the  fish 
that  helps  the  lazy  baker's  son  ;  the  eels  with  all  their  dis- 
reputable significances ;  the  fishes  that  laugh  ;  the  dolphins 
that  find  Ivan's  ring ;  the  turbulent  perch,  and  the  golden 
carp  into  which  Vishnu  turns  himself;  all  combine  with 
donkeys  and  blackbirds,  bull-moons  and  fish-moons,  rain- 
clouds,  twilights,  and  thunderbolts,  bamboos  and  hares, 
luminous  and  "diabolical,"  into  a  mythical  cycle  of  fishes, 
or,  as  the  master  calls  it,  "  their  epic  exploit,"  that  ought, 
if  anything  can,  to  give  the  reader  a  broader  sense  of  the 
possibilities  of  fish  than  he  probably  ever  expected  to 
entertain. 

Two  of  the  myths  I  have  referred  to  will  bear  more 
than  a  passing  notice,  for  the  story  of  the  turbulent  perch 
shows  a  singular  affinity  in  its  scheme  to  "  Reynard  the 
Fox,"  while  the  fish  transformations  of  Vishnu  form  an 
important  item  of  piscine  mythology.  The  jorsh,  or  little 
perch,  makes  itself  such  a  public  enemy,  that  it  is  called 
before  the  royal  tribunal,  and  the  bream,  and  the  herring, 
and  the  sturgeon  all  give  evidence  of  the  evil  conduct  of  the 
perch.  Judgment  of  death  is  accordingly  passed  upon  it, 
and  the  crayfish  seals  the  warrant  with  its  claw.  But 
the  jorsh  rails  violently  against  what  it  calls  the 


FISHES  IN  ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY.  21 

against  it,  spits  at  the  judge  and,  jumping  out  of  the 
dock,  escapes.  He  continues  his  misdemeanours,  and  fish 
after  fish  is  sent  to  bring  him  again  to  the  bar.  He 
cleverly  gets  the  better  of  the  messengers,  but  at  last 
comes  and  demands  a  judgment  from  God.  This  is  per- 
mitted, and  the  jorsh  having  got  into  a  net,  manages  to 
wriggle  out  again,  and  is  thereupon  acquitted,  and  straight- 
way recommences  to  annoy  all  his  neighbours  worse  than 
ever.  This  myth,  from  its  resemblance  to  Reineke  Fuchsy 
is  obviously  an  important  one  in  the  Thier-epos  upon 
which  comparative  mythologists  work ;  while  the  other, 
that  of  Vishnu's  fish-incarnation,  has  a  dignity  of  its  own, 
apart  from  its  possible  lunar  interpretation,  as  an  episode 
of  one  of  the  great  religious  epics  of  Asia.  The  god 
had  become  a  small  fish,  and  in  this  form  went  to  Menu, 
praying  for  his  protection  against  the  larger  creatures  of 
the  water.  The  sage,  in  pity,  put  the  little  thing  into  a 
water-jar  ;  but  in  a  single  night  it  grew  large  enough  to 
fill  the  jar,  so  Menu  put  it  into  a  pond.  Here  the  same 
increase  was  repeated,  and  so  the  fish  was  taken  to  the 
Ganges ;  but  the  river  soon  proved  all  too  restricted  for 
the  expanding  monster,  and  it  was  therefore  conveyed  to 
the  Sea.  Upon  this  the  god  made  himself  known,  and 
warned  the  sage  that  in  seven  days  the  earth  would  be 
overwhelmed  by  a  Flood  ;  but,  said  the  fish,  "  You  must 
build  a  ship,  and  enter  it,  with  seven  sages,  with  a  pair  of 
every  kind  of  living  thing,  and  with  the  seeds  of  all  kinds  of 
plants  ;"  and  it  promised,  when  the  flood  subsided,  to  come 
and  tell  the  inmates  of  the  ark.  In  due  time,  accord- 
ingly, the  god,  still  in  the  fish  shape,  appeared,  and  Menu, 
making  a  rope  fast  to  the  horn  of  the  fish,  was  towed 
to  Naubandha,  and  there  the  ark  rested  upon  the  moun- 
tain peak.  The  Diluvian  Legend,  therefore,  is  older  than 


22  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

the  inspiration  of  Moses,  and  the  Biblical  narrative  of 
Noah's  arrangements  had  been  anticipated  by  some 
centuries. 

In  the  later  myths — those,  for  instance,  of  Greece  and 
Rome — though  they,  too,  reach  back  by  similarities  both 
of  design  and  detail  to  a  distant  past,  fishes  retain  their 
prominence.  The  distant,  mystical  ocean  was  then  an 
object  of  awful  reverence.  The  nearer  seas  were  go- 
verned by  powerful  but  kindly  divinities.  But  both  alike 
were  populous  with  strange  fishes,  and  romantic  with 
legends. 

The  chief  water-myth  was  that  of  Aphrodite.  Sometimes 
she  springs,  a  perfect  goddess,  from  the  sea  itself ;  at  others 
fish  roll  on  to  the  shore  an  egg,  from  which,  a  dove  brood- 
ing on  it,  the  mother  of  Love  is  born.  Later  on,  she  and 
her  son  Eros,  to  escape  the  tumult  of  giant-beleaguered 
Olympus,  hide  in  the  Euphrates  in  the  form  of  fish ;  and 
yet  again  we  find  the  goddess  taking  the  starry  Pisces 
under  her  protection.  So,  too,  Athor,  the  Egyptian 
Venus,  had  been  a  fish ;  and  so,  too,  Derceto,  the  Syrian 
love-nymph.  In  the  Puranic  legend  a  fish  receives  the 
love-god,  and  assists  him  to  espouse  Maya. 

In  the  limited  space  of  a  handbook — even  if  it  were 
proper  to  its  object — it  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate 
all  the  fish-myths  of  the  so-called  classical  period,  and 
I  will  therefore  select  only  those  that  seem  to  me 
typical  of  the  four  classes  into  which  the  whole  group 
themselves. 

As  essentially  Greek  in  brightness  of  conception  is  the 
myth  of  the  philanthropic  dolphin.  It  was  pre-eminently 
the  friend  of  man,  and  a  creature  of  gladness.  Whenever 
needed  it  was  present,  and  the  stories  of  its  lending  itself 
as  the  vehicle  of  gods  and  nymphs,  poets  and  schoolboys, 


FISHES  IN  ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY.  23 

are  too  numerous  for  recapitulation.*  Endowed  by  tra- 
dition with  perfectly  super-cetaceous  virtues,  it  was  accepted 
by  all,  mariner  and  landsman  alike,  as  an  amiable  ally. 
The  scientific  mythologist,  as  may  easily  be  imagined,  has 
made  much  of  the  dolphin,  but  ingenuity  can  never  get 
more  out  of  the  old  myth  than  that  the  natural  habits  of 
this  animal  endeared  it  in  the  past  to  all  sea-goers,  just  as 
they  have  endeared  it  to  those  of  the  present.  Eros, 
therefore,  the  blithest  of  gods,  rides  on  a  dolphin — Amphi- 
trite  has  one  for  a  guardian — and  when  out  a  merry-making 
all  the  jolly  sea-magnates  have  dolphins  tumbling  about 
them.  They  brought  Hesiod's  body  to  shore  ;  and  Ulysses, 
in  gratitude  for  their  saving  Telemachus,  wore  their  effigy 
upon  both  signet-ring  and  shield.  All  fish  are  benign 
in  fairy  tale,  but  the  sum  of  their  united  amiabilities 
hardly  equals  the  services  conferred  in  myth  and  legend 
by  the  dolphin  upon  the  human  race.  Well  does  the  swift 
cetacean  deserve  its  place  among  the  stars. 

In  contradistinction  to  the  dolphin,  a  purely  Hellenic 
creation,  we  may  place  the  world-wide,  cosmopolitan,  turtle. 
Though  a  creature  to  laugh  over  when  we  see  it  creeping 
stealthily  about  on  tiptoe,  as  if  it  were  abroad  for  the  pur- 
pose of  picking  pockets,  it  has  a  very  notable  place  in  myth, 
for  it  was  almost  universally  reverenced.  The  East  believes 
that  the  world  rests  upon  a  tortoise,  which  rests  upon  no- 
thing— and  what  a  grand  old  testacean  it  is,  this  Vedic  turtle, 

*  "  They  loved  music,  especially  of  the  *  hydraulic  sort '  (whatever 
that  sort  may  have  been),  and  they  were  easily  tamed,  and  fondly 
attached  to  men.  Pliny  says  he  should  never  end  all  the  stories  he 
knows  of  the  obliging  behaviour  of  dolphins,  who  allowed  children 
to  ride  on  their  backs.  One  of  them — as  attested  by  Msecenas 
and  Fabianus — in  the  reign  of  Augustus,  carried  a  boy  every  morning 
to  school,  and  when  the  lad  died  the  dolphin  pined  away  waiting  for 
him  on  the  shore,  and  at  last  expired  of  grief." — Frances  P.  Cobbe* 


24  FISHES  OF  FANCY, 

standing  simply  on  its  own  dignity,  and  yet  upholding  upon 
its  Atlantic  carapace  all  the  burdens  of  the  round  world  and 
them  that  dwell  therein  !  Here  is  a  subject  for  Walt 
Whitman  himself,  the  self-sufficient,  democratic,  thewy-and- 
sinewy,  double-sexed,  bully-for-you,  old  tortoise.  More 
power  to  your  shell,  sir  !  We  creeping  things  take  off  our 
hats  to  you,  testudinous  ancient.  And  how  splendidly 
the  deliberate  thing  looms  out  of  Hindoo  myth  as  the  here- 
ditary foe  of  the  mystical  elephant,  the  Darkness  !*  The 
Red  Indian  to  this  day  says  that  in  the  beginning  of 
things  there  was  nothing  but  a  tortoise.  It  brooded  upon 
space  :  covered  Chaos  as  with  a  lid.  But  after  a  while  it 
woke  up :  its  solitary  existence  was  irksome  to  it,  and  it 
sank  splendidly  into  the  abysmal  depths  ;  and  lo  !  when  it 
re-emerged,  there  was  the  terrestrial  globe  upon  its  back ! 
For  something  to  do,  it  had  fished  up  our  earth  from  its 
depths  in  the  protoplasmic  liquids,  and,  rather  than  be  idle,  it 
still  keeps  on  holding  it  up.  But  some  day  it  will  sink  again, 
and  then  will  come  the  End — with  Ragnarok  and  Arma- 
geddon. In  Greek  and  Roman  fancies  the  tortoise  hardly 
fares  so  well.  It  is  the  form  to  which  a  bright  nymph,  who 
had  jested  at  the  nuptials  of  Zeus  and  Here,  was  turned 
into  by  Mercury  ;  and  ridicule  falls  upon  the  greatest  of  the 
Greeks  when  a  tortoise  falls  upon  his  head.  Yet  they,  too, 

*  "  As  the  elephant  and  tortoise  both  frequent  the  shores  of  the  same 
lake,  they  mutually  annoy  each  other,  renewing  and  maintaining  in 
mythical  zoology  the  strife  which  exists  between  the  two  mythical 
brothers  who  fight  with  each  other  for  the  kingdom  of  the  heavens, 
either  in  the  form  of  twilights  or  of  equinoxes,  or  of  sun  anoT"  moon. 
In  the  particular  struggle  between  the  tortoise  and  the  elephant, 
terminated  by  the  bird  Garuda,  who  carries  them  both  up  into  the 
air  in  order  to  devour  them,  the  tortoise  and  elephant  seem,  however, 
especially  to  personify  the  two  twilights  of  the  day,  and  the  two  twilights 
of  the  yz*x?—Gubernatis. 


FISHES  IN  ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY.  25 

knew  of  the  tradition  of  the  world-supporting  thing,  and 
did  reverence  to  it.  And  so.  from  East  to  West,  from 
antiquity  to  to-day,  the  creature  vast,  ponderous,  inert, 
has  commanded,  and  commands  the  homage  of  men. 

As  a  third  type  of  myth — the  fanciful  without  any 
latent  significance  —  the  remora  or  sucking-fish,  may  be 
cited.  In  modern  times  it  has  been  used  to  illustrate  the 
power  of  technical  trivialities  to  retard  a  lawsuit,  but 
antiquity  believed  it  had  the  power  of  arresting  a  ship 
under  full  sail  by  attaching  its  tail-end  to  a  rock,  and  its 
head-end  to  the  keel  of  a  passing  vessel — 

"  The  lazy  Remora's  inhaling  lips, 
Hung  on  the  keel,  retard  the  struggling  ships." 

In  the  Natural  History  of  the  period  we  read  that  "there 
is  a  little  fish,  keeping  ordinarie  about  rockes,  named 
Echeneis.  It  is  thought  that  if  it  settle  and  sticke  to  the 
keel  of  a  ship  under  water,  the  ship  goeth  the  slower  by 
that  means,  wherefore  it  is  called  the  '  stay-ship.' ;'  Now, 
Pliny  is  here  cautious  enough,  and  attributes  no  more 
to  the  remora  than  is  actually  the  property  of  barnacles 
when  in  number.  But  popular  fancy  outran  fact,  and  a 
single  remora  four  inches  long  was  supposed  to  have  held 
back  Antony's  flag-ship  in  the  sea-fight  off  Actium. 
Periander  also  among  others  declared  himself  the  victim 
of  a  similar  accident,*  and  the  fiction  flourished,  thanks 

*  It  is  of  this  incident  that  Pantagruel  makes  fun  : — 
"  I  saw  a  remora,  a  little  fish  called  echineis  by  the  Greeks,  and 
near  it  a  tall  ship,  that  did  not  get  ahead  an  inch,  though  she  was  in 
the  offing  with  top  and  top-gallants  spread  before  the  wind.  I  am 
somewhat  inclined  to  believe,  that  'twas  the  very  identical  ship  in 
which  Periander  the  tyrant  happened  to  be,  when  it  was  stopt  by  such 
a  little  fish  in  spite  of  wind  and  tide." — Rabelais. 


26  FISHES   OF  FANCY. 

chiefly  to    poets   and   heralds,  till   a   couple  of  centuries 

ago. 

"  The  sucking-fish,  with  secret  chains 

Clung  to  the  keel,  the  swiftest  ship  detains." 

Of  late  years,  of  course,  this  fancy  has  been  exploded, 
and  instead  of  being  the  terrible  thing  antiquity  thought  it, 
the  remora  is  really  like  the  little  street  boy  who  gets  on 
to  the  step  of  the  omnibus  when  the  conductor  is  not 
looking,  and  gets  a  penny  ride  for  nothing.  For  the  fish 
attaches  itself  to  the  shark  and  others,  merely,  it  would 
seem,  for  the  luxury  of  cheap  travelling.  Yet  knowing 
this,  what  are  we  to  say  of  Mr.  Francis  Holmwood's 
astounding  discovery  at  Zanzibar  of  the  "sucking-fish" 
that  is  used  to  catch  sharks  and  crocodiles  ?  Here,  at  any 
rate,  are  his  own  words,  as  quoted  from  the  "  Exhibition 
Catalogue,"  p.  382  : — 

"  Young  chazo  (sucking-fish)  being  secured,  a  ring  or  hoop  of  iron 
is  let  into  the  tails  ;  they  are  then  kept  in  a  small  canoe,  the  water  in 
which  is  changed  from  time  to  time.  They  are  fed  sparingly  with 
pieces  of  meat  and  fish,  and,  if  they  survive  the  confinement,  soon 
become  used  to  captivity  and  to  being  handled.  When  they  have 
reached  two  or  three  pounds  in  weight,  they  are  strong  enough  for  use, 
and  are  taken  out  for  trial.  A  line  is  fastened  to  the  iron  hoop,  which 
has  become  embedded  in  a  firm  growth,  and  on  sighting  a  tortoise  or 
turtle,  the  chaze  is  put  overboard.  It  has  to  be  prevented  from  affixing 
itself  to  the  canoe,  and  then  it  soon  makes  for  the  nearest  floating 
object,  to  which  it  instantly  adheres,  and  generally  allows  itself  to  be 
drawn  with  its  prey  towards  the  boats.  Should  it  prove  too  timid  to 
stand  this  treatment  it  is  discarded  as  worthless,  but  if  it  will  hold  on, 
it  soon  gets  bold  enough  to  retain  its  hold  until  taken  into  the  boat, 
when  it  is  at  once  detached  from  the  prize  by  being  drawn  off  side- 
ways, and  being  returned  to  its  tank  is  at  once  fed.  They  are  said 
soon  to  learn  what  is  required  of  them,  and  it  is  reported  that  they 
have  been  trained  to  catch  sharks.  When  in  Madagascar  some  years 
ago,  I  was  told  that  the  "Tarundu,"  which  the  fish  is  there  called, 
had  been  trained  to  catch  crocodiles,  numbers  of  which  infested  the 
rivers  and,  as  I  observed,  came  down  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the 


FISHES  IN  ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY.  27 

fishing  villages  on  the  coast,  without  being  affected  by  the  salt  water. 
I  hope  to  forward  a  specimen  of  this  interesting  fish  before  the 
close  of  the  Exhibition." 

An  official  footnote  to  this  passage  is  as  follows  : — "  Up 
to  the  time  of  going  to  press  with  the  Second  Edition,  this 
exhibit  had  not  arrived."  And  if  any  confidence  is  ever 
to  be  reposed  in  modern  science  as  opposed  to  ancient 
fancy,  let  us  hope  this  terrific  creature  never  will  arrive. 

In  this  class  of  merely  fanciful  creatures  may  be  also 
noticed  the  Pompilus,  the  sailor's  pilot-fish,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  guide  mariners  to  their  destinations,  and,  having 
seen  them  safely  into  harbour,  to  go  back  to  look  for  another 
job,  for  Apollo,  it  is  said,  changed  a  fisherman  (named  Pom- 
pilus), who  had  crossed  him  in  his  loves,  into  this  fish,  and 
condemned  him  for  all  eternity  to  the  task  of  gratuitous 
pilotage.  The  whale,  again,  was  said  to  be  attended  by 
the  "  musculus,"  a  little  fish  that  swam  in  front  of  Behemoth 
and  warned  him  off  the  shoals  on  which  he  might  have 
otherwise  run  aground.  This  legend  reappears  in  the 
Pentameron,  where  the  whale  that  has  lost  its  way  is  told 
to  go  and  get  "  the  sea-mouse  "  to  pilot  it. 

As  the  fourth  class  of  zoological  myths,  may  be  grouped 
the  non-existent  sea-monsters — 

"  Most  ugly  shapes  and  horrible  aspects, 
Such  as  Dame  Nature  selfe  mote  feare  to  see, 
Or  shamed,  that  ever  should  so  fowle  defects 
From  her  most  cunning  hand  escaped  bee  ; 
All  dreadfull  pourtraicts  of  deformitee  : 
Spring-headed  Hydres  ;  and  sea-shouldring  whales  : 
Great  whirlpooles,  which  all  fishes  make  to  flee ; 
Bright  scolopendraes  arm'd  with  silver  scales  ; 
Mighty  monoceres  with  immeasured  tayles." 

Grseco-Roman  literature  abounds  with  them,  especially 
such  as  were  hybrids  between  men  and  fish,  or  between 


28  FISHES   OF  FANCY. 

terrestrial  and  marine  animals,  and  their  counterparts 
are  to  be  found  in  the  folk-lore*  of  every  coast-dwelling 
people  at  the  present  day.  I  will  only  notice  here  the 
Scylla-myth.  Her  form  is  very  variously  described,  but 
the  most  familiar  acceptation  is  that  which  combines  the 
woman,  dog,  and  fish.  She  gives  her  name  to  the  dread- 
ful Scyllidae  of  science,  one  of  which,  the  black-mouthed 
dog-fish,  is  known  to  Italian  fishermen  as  the  "  Bocca 
d' Inferno  " — 

"  As  a  shark  and  dogfish  wait 

Under  an  Atlantic  isle 
For  the  negro-ship  whose  freight 
Is  the  theme  of  their  debate, 

Wrinkling  their  red  gills  the  while." 

Yet  they  eat  it,  and  its  even  more  appalling  relative,  the 
Rough  Hound — converting  these  terrors  of  the  sea  into  a 
very  palatable  soup. 

With  the  growth  of  knowledge  and  the  extension  of 
navigation,  the  Hellenic  monstrosities,  themselves  the  re- 
production of  still  more  ancient  myths,  became  gradually 
discredited  ;  but  travellers,  and  those  who  lived  by  catering 
to  the  human  love  of  the  marvellous,  were  not  behindhand 
in  replacing  them  with  others  better  suited  to  contemporary 
taste  and  sentiment.  Among  the  more  impossible  mon- 
strosities that  the  Middle  Ages  possessed,  the  sea-bishop, 
that  had  a  shark's  head,  crocodile's  claws,  and  goat's  legs, 
deserved  all  the  eminence  it  attained  ;  while,  not  far  behind 
it,  came  the  monk-fish,  a  tolerably  good  caricature  of  a 
friar,  constructed  by  the  showmen  of  the  day  out  of  portions 
of  different  fish,  but  nevertheless  as  thoroughly  believed  in 
by  the  fair-frequenting  public  as  any  pig-faced  lady  of 
modern  times.  This  credulity  as  to  "fish-like  monsters" 

*  See  Chapter  VII. 


FISHES  IN  ZOOLOGICAL  MYTHOLOGY.  29 

suggests  to  Trinculo  making  a  fortune  out  of  Caliban, 
whom  he  has  mistaken  for  a  sea-creature.  "  Were  I  in 
England  now,  and  had  but  this  fish  painted,  not  a  holiday 
fool  there  but  would  give  a  piece  of  silver :  there  would 
this  monster  make  a  man ;  any  strange  beast  there  makes 
a  man."  We  still  have  the  monk-fish,  and  though  the 
face  might  pass  for  a  malignant  travesty  of  the  human 
countenance,  there  are  none  of  the  monkish  habiliments 
which  made  the  old-world  monster  so  attractive  to  the 
peep-show  public.  Indeed,  the  other  name  of  the  monk  is 
the  "  angel-fish,"  from  the  wing-like  fins  that  spread  out  on 
either  side  its  demoniacal  countenance. 

Still  later,  and  coming  down  to  England  itself,  three 
centuries  ago  we  find  popular  ichthyology  still  largely  con- 
cerned with  non-existent  forms,  as  the  following  from  the 
work  of  Lawrens  Andrewe,  on  "  the  fishes  moste  Knowen," 
will  show  : — The  eel  is  of  no  sex  ;  the  Ahuna,  when  "  in 
peryl  of  dethe  be  other  fisshes,"  makes  himself  as  round  as 
a  bowl  and  puts  his  head  in  his  belly  and  eats  a  bit  of 
himself,  "  rather  than  the  other  fisshes  sholde  ete  him  hole 
and  all."  The  balaena,  a  large  merwoman,  puts  her  young 
in  her  mouth  in  rough  weather  ;  the  cray-fish  eats  oysters 
by  waiting  till  the  mollusc  opens  its  shells,  and  then 
throwing  stones  in  to  prevent  it  shutting  up  again ;  the 
caucius  is  most  difficult  to  net,  because  when  it  sees 
the  meshes  settling  on  it,  it  sticks  its  head  in  the  mud 
and  the  net  slips  over  the  tail ;  the  whale  is  caught 
3y  ships  coming  round  it  with  bands  and  amusing  it  with 
music  till  it  is  speared  ;  the  phoca  kills  its  wife  when 
it  is  tired  of  her,  and  gets  another ;  the  halata  has  the 
power  of  taking  her  young  out  before  they  are  born,  and 
putting  them  back  again ;  the  pike  is  begotten  by  the  west 
wind  ;  the  musculus  is  the  herald  of  balaena,  but  the  orchun 


30  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

is  its  deadliest  enemy,  for  it  pelts  it  with  stones  till  it  kills 
it ;  the  serra  races  with  ships,  and,  if  it  gets  the  worst  of 
it,  cuts  the  vessels  through  with  its  fins  and  eats  the  crew, 
but  is  not  to  be  mistaken  for  the  scylla,  which  is  "  faced 
and  handed  lyke  a  gentylwoman,  but  it  hath  a  wyde 
mouth  and  ferfull  tefehe ; "  the  way  to  escape  the  siren 
when  met  with,  is  to  throw  her  an  empty  barrel  or  two  to 
play  with  ;  the  sturgeon  has  no  mouth,  and  grows  fat  on 
east  winds." 

Or  take  again  the  *  Old  English  Miscellany/  with  its 
account  of  the  Cetegrande  : — "  It  is  the  largest  of  all  fish, 
and  looks  like  an  island  when  afloat.  When  hungry,  it 
gapes,  and  out  comes  a  sweet  scent,  by  which  numbers  of 
fishes  are  drawn  into  its  mouth. 

"  MORAL  :  The  Devil  is  like  the  Whale  ;  he  tempts  men 
to  follow  their  sinful  lusts,  and  in  return  they  find  ruin." 


CHAPTER   III. 

FISHES   IN    RELIGION. 

Primitive  Fish-Divinities — and  Greco-Roman — Fish-spirits  and  Genii — 
Patron  Saints  —  Sacred  fishes  —  Fish-totems  —  Fish  not  eaten 
because  sacred — Fish  sacred  because  not  eatable — Fish  both  sacred 
and  eaten — Putting  off  the  Gods  with  the  Worst  fish — Magnifying 
them  with  the  Best — Religious  Fish-legends,  Savage,  Hindoo, 
Buddhist,  Mahomedan— Fish  as  Food — Christian  Legends — Holy 
Church  perpetuating  the  Heathen  Worship  of  Venus  in  Lent — Fish 
a  Christian  Symbol. 

"  WHEN  Kareya  made  all  things  that  have  breath,  he  first 
made  the  fishes  in  the  Big  Water."  So  say  the  Red 
Indians,  and  the  legend  goes  on,  curiously  enough,  to  tell 
how  Kareya,  in  a  dog-in-the-manger  spirit,  kept  the  fish 
(they  were  salmon)  to  himself,  but  how  man,  with  the  help 
of  the  coyote,  the  prairie-jackal,  outwitted  the  Creator,  and 
got  the  salmon  up  stream.  Does  this  point  to  an  artificial 
system  of  fish-ladders  being  known  to  the  primitive  savage  ? 
At  any  rate,  it  authenticates  the  dignity  of  fish  in  the 
cosmogony  of  the  aboriginal  American.  But,  as  older 
even  than  this  antiquity,  we  must  accept  the  Polynesian 
theory  of  creation.  In  this  the  Creator  is  himself  half  a 
fish.  That  is  to  say,  from  the  head  to  the  feet,  the  left 
side  of  the  body  is  fish.  Coming  down,  however,  to  more 
recent  mythologies,  we  find  the  senior  of  the  gods  of 
Olympus,  the  ever-youthful  Eros,  is  a  fish,  and  his  so-called 
"  mother  "  a  fish  also.  We  may  note,  too,  that  Jupiter 
never  asserted  control  over  Neptune.  On  the  sea-shore, 


32  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

near  Delphi,  sate  a  priest  who  delivered  his  oracles  accord- 
ing to  the  fish  that  his  visitors  saw  in  the  waters  below. 
At  the  present  day,  if  we  go  to  the  far  North,  we  find  the 
elements  under  the  control  of  the  Spirits  of  the  Sea, 
irrespective  of  the  powers  of  the  land. 

That  the  Ocean  appealed  very  strongly  to  the  natural 
reverence  of  humanity  is  thus  abundantly  in  evidence,  and 
we  find  fish,  therefore,  occupying  a  very  conspicuous  place 
in  the  world's  beliefs.  And  apart  from  the  creative  powers 
identified  with  fish  and  the  divinities  that  held  marine 
dominion,  the  creatures  of  the  water  could  claim  the 
special  tutelage  of  Venus  (under  all  her  varying  names),  of 
Apollo  Opsophagus,  and  of  Artemis,  the  guardian  goddess 
of  fresh  waters.  In  the  Dagon  form  they  found  gods  of 
their  own  natural  order  in  many  lands,  and  in  Scandinavia 
knew  Odin  the  All-father  as  a  fish.  The  number  of 
deities,  primitive  and  classical,  that  have  at  one  time  or 
another  assumed  the  piscine  incarnation  is  very  great,  and 
ranges  from  Vishnu,  the  Hindoo  Jehovah,  to  Loki,  the 
Norseman's  Mercury. 

Of  subordinate  fish-spirits  there  is  a  still  larger  number ; 
which  are  graduated  from  the  New  Zealander's  Tangaroo, 
through  the  Genii  of  the  Lake  and  the  Gulnares  of  the 
Sea,  to  the  Arnarkuagsak  and  Ingnersuaks  of  the  Arctic 
regions,  and  thereafter  dwindle  away  into  mere  maritime 
goblins,  Noks  and  Soetrolds,  Grim  and  Fosse-grim,  that 
are  only  a  superior  sort  of  "  Davy  Jones." 

In  mediaeval  times  the  fish  found,  too,  several  Patron 
Saints.  St.  Peter  of  course  stands  at  the  head,  as  a  fisher- 
man himself,  and  actor  in  the  fish-miracles  *  of  Holy  Writ, 

*  It  is  one  of  these,  the  finding  of  the  tribute-money,  that  gives  the 

haddock. 

"  A  superstitious  dainty,  Peter's  fish," 

its  legendary  celebrity,  the  monks  averring  that  it  was  a  haddock 


FISHES  IN  RELIGION.  33 

and  to  this  day  the  Company  of  the  Fishmongers  bear 
the  crossed  keys  of  the  saint  on  their  arms.  That  St. 
Peter's  tutelage  of  fishes  and  his  fief  of  fisheries  was  no 
empty  assertion  of  the  Church,  may  be  understood  from 
the  fact  that  the  Abbot  of  St.  Peter's,  Westminster, 
claimed  all  the  salmon  caught  in  the  Thames,  on  the 
ground  that  the  Saint  had  granted  the  same  to  him 
when  he  consecrated  the  Church.  After  St.  Peter  came 
St.  Anthony  (who  preached  to  the  fishes  with  such  effect), 
St.  Christopher,  St.  Zeno,  and  St.  Andrew  of  Scotland. 

St.  Anthony,  as  is  well  known,  the  patron  saint  of 
animals  of  all  kinds,  utilised  his  power  over  fishes  in  a  very 
meritorious  manner,  by  calling  them  up  from  the  sea  to 
listen  to  his  preaching,  and  thus  put  to  shame  some  stiff- 
necked  heretics  of  Rimini  who  refused  to  listen  to  his 
pious  counsels.  A  delightful  woodcut  in  an  old  chap- 
book  depicts  the  saint,  in  the  attitude  of  exhortation, 
addressing  a  company  of  fishes,  that  poke  long  goose-like 
necks  out  of  the  water  to  listen  to  him,  while  on  the  bank 
— expressing  by  their  gestures  their  surprise  at  the  miracle 
and,  perhaps,  foreshowing  also  their  own  approaching  con- 
version— stand  in  file  the  stubborn  scorners  of  his  teaching. 

That  St.  Christopher  was  always  a  patron  saint  of  fisher- 
men is  certain,  but  for  what  reason  seems  somewhat  ob- 
scure. He  certainly  lived  on  the  river-side,  for,  so  the 
legend  says,  he  earned  his  living  by  carrying  people  across 


(a  sea-water  fish)  that  the  saint  caught  in  the  fresh-water  lake  of 
Genesaret.  This  of  course  only  adds  another  miracle  to  the  original 
episode.  In  a  miracle  which  Jesus  worked,  and  of  which,  though 
Holy  Writ  is  silent  the  Koran  preserves  the  tradition,  there  descended 
from  Heaven  a  red  table  upon  which  were  seven  loaves  and  seven 
fishes,  and  the  latter  tasted  at  each  mouthful  of  a  different  Paradisaical 
delicacy.  When  all  had  feasted  to  their  heart's  content,  Jesus  restored 
the  fishes  to  life. 

VOL.   III.— H.  D 


34  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

the  water,  but  nothing  is  said  of  his  having  been  an  enthu- 
siastic angler.  The  inference  no  doubt  was  that,  as  no  man 
could  be  expected  to  live  all  his  life  by  the  side  of  a  run- 
ning stream,  especially  with  long  intervals  of  idleness  in  his 
days,  without  angling,  the  saint  eked  out  his  income,  and 
passed  his  time,  by  fishing.  It  was  in  that  notable  passage 
of  the  river,  when  he  carried  the  child-Christ  across,  that  he 
caught  the  John  Dory,  a  sea-water  fish,  and  left  the  marks  of 
the  pinch  which  he  gave  it  to  be  handed  down  in  memoriam 
to  the  Dory's  posterity.  This  fish,  by  the  way,  had  a  certain 
classical  sanctity  as  being  called  Zeus,  and  Aristotle  has  a 
"  sacred  fish,"  the  Anthias,  which,  from  his  description  of 
its  habits,  has  been  conjectured  to  be  the  John  Dory.  It 
was  also  called  Faber,  "  the  blacksmith,"  and  so  under  the 
protection  of  Hephaistos,  Mulciber,  or  Vulcan.  Again,  the 
Apah,  or  king-fish,  *  is  a  native  of  the  eastern  seas,  and  it 
is  not  a  little  singular  that,  by  a  people  so  distant  and 
secluded  as  the  Japanese,  this  fish  (originally  included  in 
the  genus  Zeus)  should  also  be  regarded  as  devoted  to  the 
Deity,  and  the  only  one  that  is  so.  The  Apah  is  by  them 
termed  Tai,  and  is  esteemed  as  the  peculiar  emblem  of 
happiness,  because  it  is  sacred  to  Jebis  or  Neptune. 

St.  Zeno  was  an  enthusiastic  angler,  and  therefore  worked 
for,  and  earned,  his  position  as  a  patron  saint.  He  was 
probably  an  advocate  of  preserving  waters.  To  this  list  I 
have  added  the  patron  saint  of  Scotland,  for  we  read  in 
the  adventures  of  the  "  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom," 
how,  on  the  fourth  day,  by  the  emperor's  appointment, 
the  worthy  kriight  St.  Andrew  of  Scotland  obtained  the 
honour  to  be  the  chief  challenger  for  the  tournament,  "  and 
how  his  tent  was  framed  to  represent  a  ship  swimming 
upon  the  waves  of  the  sea,  environed  by  dolphins,  tritons, 

*  Yarrell. 


FISHES  TN  RELIGION.  35 

and  many  strangely-contrived  mermaids  ;  and  upon  the  top 
thereof  stood  the  picture  of  Neptune  the  god  of  the  sea." 
That  a  Christian  knight,  already  well  assured  of  canonisa- 
tion, should  have  fought  under  such  pagan  tutelage,  is 
enough  to  scandalise  the  Sabbatarian  North.  But  such  are 
the  facts. 

St.  Benedict  of  Ramsey  Mere  claims  also  a  fraction 
of  the  patronage,  as  also  does  St.  Benignus,  who  may 
be  seen  at  Glastonbury  with  his  fish  at  his  feet.  Shell- 
fish may  fairly  be  said  to  have  a  patron  saint  all  to  them- 
selves in  St.  James  of  Spain,  and  the  crustaceans  one  in 
St.  Xavier. 

Among  sacred  fish,  less  well  known,  are  "  the  Sheikh " 
and  "  the  Prophet's  fish."  Says  the  Arabic  legend  :— 

"  A  Sicilian  cast  a  hook  into  the  Mediterranean  and  caught  a  fish 
about  a  span  long.  Under  its  right  ear  were  the  words,  '  There  is  no 
God  but  the  God,'  and  behind  it  the  word  '  Muhammad,'  and  under  its 
left  ear  '  The  Apostle  of  God.1 " 

And  again  : — 

"  A  fish  called  the  Jewish  Shaikh  has  a  long  white  beard  and  a  body 
as  large  as  a  calf,  but  in  the  shape  of  a  frog,  and  hairy  like  a  cow.  It 
is  called  the  Shaikh  because  it  comes  out  of  the  sea  on  Saturday  and 
remains  there  until  sundown  on  Sunday." 

An  analogy  to  this  Sabbath-observing  fish  is  to  be  found 
in  the  commentators  on  the  Koran,  where  we  are  told  that 
the  fish,  in  order  to  tempt  the  Hebrews,  used  to  come  up 
to  the  camp  on  Saturday  mornings,  and  provoke  the  poor 
wanderers  to  catch  them.  And  the  Hebrews,  thinking  to 
avoid  sin,  went  out  and  dammed  up  the  channel,  and  then 
ate  the  fish  on  the  next  day.  But  as  there  was  little  difference 
in  the  matter  of  "  working  on  the  Sabbath  "  between  fishing 
and  dam-building,  they  were  very  properly  punished  for 
this  violation  of  the  Day  of  Rest  by  being  all  turned  into 
apes. 

D   2 


36  fISHES  OF  FANCY. 

Totemism,  the  system  of  tribal  emblems — "  medicine 
animals "  and  "  clan-animals  " — brings  into  the  category 
of  sacred  fish  another  class  of  great  interest,  namely 
those  which  have  been  selected  by  primitive  clans  as 
their  tutelary  genii.*  Thus  the  Pike,  Trout,  and  Sturgeon 
are  among  the  totems  of  Red  Indian  tribes.  There  are 
Fish-tribes  of  both  Africans  and  Australians.  Among  the 
Fijians  are  Eels,  Crabs,  and  Sharks.  These  individual 
fishes,  thus  chosen  as  the  tribal  badge,  are  held  sacred  by 
those  who  have  adopted  them.  They  are  called  the  pro- 
genitors of  the  tribe,  and  are  never  eaten,  nor,  if  possible, 
even  molested.  Among  the  Wakerewe  (of  Africa)  it  is 
believed  that  the  fish  of  a  neighbouring  lake  are  their 
special  ministers  and  creatures,  and  are  therefore  under 
their  protection.  If  a  fish-hawk  so  much  as  touches  one, 
it  dies  in  the  very  act.  With  another  African  race  the 
drum-head  fish  -is  taboo,  and  its  teeth,  rattled  in  the 
fetich-man's  gourd,  give  forth  Delphic  utterances. 

Going  back  to  the  past  again,  we  find  fish  arriving  at 
sanctity  by  previous  uncleanness,  and  cities  taking  their 
totems,  so  to  speak,  from  the  polluted  creatures  which  in 
the  lapse  of  time  they  came  to  worship.  When  Isis  was 
collecting  the  remains  of  the  body  of  Osiris,  she  found  a 
portion  missing,  and  discovering  that  the  fish  had  eaten  it, 
the  three  species  found  in  the  river  at  that  part  were  for- 
bidden to  be  eaten  by  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood. 
The  Egyptians  in  general,  says  Plutarch,  do  not  abstain 
from  all  fish,  but  some  from  one  sort  and  some  from 
another.  Thus  the  Oxyrhinchites  will  not  touch  any  fish 
taken  by  a  hook,  for  as  they  pay  special  deference  to  the 
oxyrhinchus,  from  which  they  take  their  name,  they  are 
afraid  the  hook  may  be  defiled  by  having,  at  some  time  or 

*  See  also  Chap.  VII. 


FISHES  IN  RELIGION.  37 

other,  been  employed  in  catching  their  favourite  fish.  If 
one  of  this  kind  were  found  in  a  net  full  of  others,  the 
whole  draught  was  set  at  liberty  rather  than  take  captive  a 
single  oxyrhinchus.  The  people  of  Syene,  again,  regarded 
the  phagrus  as  the  herald  of  the  rising  Nile,  and  as  such 
abstained  from  it.  This  eel  gave  its  name  to  Phagriopolis, 
another  to  Latapolis,  while  Elephantine  venerated  the 
mseotis,  a  silurian.  But  fishes  proper  are  of  frequent 
occurrence  in  Egyptian  sculpture,  and  among  the  articles 
placed  with  the  dead  were  very  often  small  effigies  in  metal 
and  clay  of  the  fish-form ;  while  dead  fish  of  the  sacred 
species  were  buried  with  as  much  ceremony  as  the  cats, 
ibises,  crocodiles,  and  other  creatures  that  the  Children  of 
the  Pharaohs  worshipped. 

These  Egyptian  fish  were  not  of  course  totems  in  the 
proper  sense ;  for  the  primitive  man  performs  an  act  of 
positive  sacrifice  when  he  devotes  to  the  religious  tribal 
idea  the  best  fish  of  the  waters,  and  thenceforward  abstains 
from  eating  them,  whereas  the  Egyptians  shabbily  denied 
themselves  only  the  refuse.  They  made  that  sacred  which 
they  could  not  eat.  For  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that  all 
the  evidence  we  have  on  the  point  strongly  tends  to  the 
suspicion  that  the  pagan  gods  were  put  off  by  the  priests 
with  the  very  worst  of  the  fish.  If  a  species  was  poisonous, 
or  belonged  to  a  class  that  was  generally  unwholesome,  it 
was  declared  "  sacred  " ;  the  Church  thus  exerting  its  in- 
fluence to  prevent  only  that  being  eaten  which  was  already, 
in  their  opinion,  unfit  for  food.  In  the  Mosaic  prohibitions 
we  find  that  fish  without  scales  and  fins  were  unclean,  the 
reason  probably  being  that  the  law-giver  had  just  come  up 

i'rom  Egypt,  where  the  scaleless  fish  were  taboo  in  conse- 
quence of  their  notorious  unwholesomeness.  Out  of  the 
six  species  venerated  by  the  ancient  Egyptians,  two  were 


38  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

quite  unfit  for  food  and  a  third  not  worth  the  eating.  The 
identity  of  the  remainder  has  never  been  established,  but 
the  chances  are  that  they  belonged  to  sorts  that  no 
Egyptian  would  have  eaten  even  if  it  had  been  permitted. 

This  process  of  hygienic  selection  does  not  extend, 
obviously,  to  the  rest  of  the  animal  world,  and  yet  the 
theory,  if  tested  with  beasts  and  birds,  would,  I  venture  to 
think,  be  found  more,  widely  applicable  than  might  be 
expected.  Another  reason  for  forbidding  certain  animals 
as  food  was  of  course  their  being  more  useful  in  other 
ways ;  but  as  this  does  not  concern  fish  (whose  only  uses 
are  after  death),  it  appears  to  me  that  the  only  system 
on  which  the  priests  of  the  oldest  times — the  thinking 
men  of  the  community — distributed  the  honours  of  conse- 
cration among  the  finny  tribes  was  selection  by  common 
sense. 

I  have  now  referred  to  fish  that  were  not  eaten 
because  they  were  sacred,  and  to  fish  that  were  sacred 
because  they  were  not  eatable.  There  still,  however,  re- 
mains the  fish  which  were  both  sacred  and  eaten.  Leaving 
the  Graeco-Roman  affectation  of  consecration  out  of  the 
question,  we  find  in  India,  where  the  fish  holds  a  place  of 
the  highest  importance  in  the  religious  system,  a  fish  diet 
universal.  The  Ruhoo,  bearing  on  its  back  three  goddesses, 
personifies  the  junction  of  the  three  sacred  rivers  at 
Prayaga,*  "the  confluence,"  one  of  the  holiest  spots  in 
India,  where  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna  combine  with  the 
mystic  Saraswati  that  is  supposed  to  flow  underground  to 
meet  them  here.  Yet  this  fish  is  one  of  the  staples  of  the 
food  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  citizens  of  Prayaga.  As 
a  solitary  fish,  Vishnu  filled  the  primaeval  ocean,  and  as  a 
fish  he  rescued  the  Ark  from  the  Deluge. 

*  Allahabad. 


FISHES  IN  RELIGION.  39 

"In  the  whole  world  of  creation, 

None  were  seen  but  these  seven  sages,  Manu  and  the  Fish. 
Years   on    years,   and  still  unwearied,  drew  this    Fish  the  bark 

along, 

Till  at  length  it  came  where  reared  Himavan  its  loftiest  peak  ; 
There  at  length  they  came,  and  smiling,  thus  the  Fish  addressed  the 

Sage: 

'  Bind  now  thy  stately  vessel  to  the  peak  Himavan  !' 
At  the  Fish's  mandate,  quickly  to  the  peak  of  Himavan 
Bound  the  Sage  his  bark  ;  and  even  to  this  day  that  loftiest  peak 
Bears  the  name  Naubandha." 

As  a  fish,  Brahma  instructed  Manu  in  all  wisdom.  It 
was  a  fish  that  saved  Kama,  the  love-god,  and  restored  him 
to  the  earth,  yielding  its  own  life  for  his.  Varuna,  the 
genius  of  the  waters,  is  the  special  protector  of  the  fish 
therein.  Yet,  as  I  have  said,  the  whole  country  is  ichthyo- 
phagous. Were  it  not  that  other  facts  forbid  it,  we  might 
whimsically  detect  in  this  impartial  sanctity,  combined  with 
impartial  consumption,  a  vein  of  reasoning  analogous  to 
that  which  leads  the  Polynesian  to  enrol  all  his  best  fish 
in  his  myths  and  then  to  eat  them.  That  which  he  mag- 
nifies alive  he  canonises  dead,  thus  adding  to  the  three 
aspects  of  the  pious-economic  fish-myth  a  fourth,  of  a 
people  who  deify  fishes  out  of  gratitude  to  excellence,  and 
call  those  most  sacred  which  are  the  best  eating. 

Religious  fish-legends  next  concern  us.  They  are  a 
literature  in  themselves.  The  Hindoo  and  the  primitive  I 
have  already  touched  on.  In  the  Buddhist  Birth-stories, 
the  oldest  of  folk-lore  extant,  the  Teacher  finds  frequent 
subject  for  parable  and  moral  in  the  finned  things  of  the 
river.  The  love-sick  monk  in  a  previous  existence  was  a 
fish,  and  his  uxorious  enthusiasm  carried  him  into  a  net, 
and  Buddha,  passing  along,  found  him  about  to  be  fried, 
and  restored  him  to  the  water,  telling  him  to  go  and 
sin  no  more.  It  was  by  her  compassion  to  a  fish  that 


40  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

Well-born  arrives  at  her  rewards,  and  from  the  story  of 
the  talkative  tortoise  that  Lord  Buddha  admonished  the 
loquacious  king. 

In  Mahomedan  tradition  there  is  much  fish-lore  of  the 
most  curious  kind,  and  commentators  on  the  Koran  vie 
with  the  Talmudists  in  the  grotesqueness  of  invention. 
As  a  single  example,  I  will  take  "  The  fish  of  Moses  and 
Joshua,"  which,  read  irreverently,  is  really  only  a  delightful 
explanation  of  flat-fish  having  so  much  more  meat  on  one 
side  than  the  other.  Moses  and  Joshua  ate  the  other  half. 
The  legend  runs  thus : — 

"  Moses  was  asked  who  was  the  most  knowing  of  men,  to  which  he 
answered, '  I ';  whereupon  God  blamed  him  for  this,  because  he  did 
not  refer  the  knowledge  thereof  to  Him.  And  God  said  unto  him  by 
revelation, '  Verily  I  have  a  servant  at  the  place  where  the  two  seas 
meet,  and  he  is  more  knowing  than  thou.'  Moses  said,  '  O  my  Lord, 
and  how  shall  I  meet  him?'  He  answered,  '  Thou  shalt  take  a  fish, 
and  put  it  into  a  measuring  vessel,  and  where  thou  shalt  lose  the  fish, 
there  is  he.'  So  he  took  a  fish,  and  put  it  into  a  vessel.  Then  he 
departed,  and  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  departed  with  him,  until  they 
came  to  a  rock,  where  they  laid  down  their  heads  and  slept.  And  the 
fish  became  agitated  in  the  vessel,  and  escaped  from  it  and  fell  into 
the  sea,  and  it  made  its  way  in  the  sea  by  a  hollow  passage,  God 
withholding  the  water  from  the  fish  so  that  it  became  like  a  vault  over 
it,  and  when  Moses'  companion  awoke,  he  forgot  to  inform  him  of  the 
fish." 

But  on  their  way  they  remembered  it,  and  turned  back 
to  find  it,  and,  coming  to  the  rock  again,  there  they  met  the 
man  who  was  wiser  than  Moses.  Now  the  question  arose, 
What  was  the  fish  ?  and  the  answer  was  supplied  by  Hamed 
of  Andalusia,  who  states  that  he  saw  in  the  Mediterranean 
"  the  fish  of  Moses  and  Joshua  "  : — 

"  It  is  of  the  breed  of  that  fried  fish  a  half  of  which  Moses  and 
Joshua  ate  and  the  other  half  God  revived.  It  is  about  a  span  long. 
On  its  one  side  it  has  bristles  and  its  belly  is  covered  with  a  thin  skin. 


FISHES  IN  RELIGION.  4I 

It  has  but  one  eye  and  half  a  head.  Looking  at  it  on  one  side  you 
would  deem  it  dead,  but  the  other  side  is  perfect  in  all  its  parts.  The 
people  consider  it  as  a  good  augury,  and  the  Jews  pay  a  large  sum  for 
it  and  carry  it  away  to  distant  places." 

The  Koran  allows  the  faithful  to  fish  in  the  sea  when  on 
pilgrimage  (but  not  to  hunt  game  by  the  way),  and  sea-fish 
were  specially  permitted  as  food.  At  first  they  were  un- 
lawful, as  the  name  of  Allah  frequently  could  not  be  pro- 
nounced over  them  before  they  died  ;  but,  to  remedy  this, 
Mahomed,  blessing  a  knife,  cast  it  into  the  sea,  whereby 
all  the  fish  were  blessed,  and  had  their  throats  cut  before 
they  were  brought  on  shore.  "  The  large  openings  behind 
the  gills  are  the  wounds  thus  miraculously  made  without 
killing  the  fish."  Another  legend  on  the  same  subject  says 
that  Abraham,  having  sacrificed  the  ram  instead  of  Isaac, 
threw  away  the  knife  into  the  stream  that  flowed  near  the 
altar,  and  accidentally  struck  a  fish.  "  Fishes  therefore  are 
the  only  animals  eaten  by  Mahomedans  without  previously 
having  their  throats  cut." 

By  the  Christian  religion  the  consumption  of  fish  is 
directly  encouraged,  for,  apart  from  the  general  prece- 
dent afforded  by  the  miracles  in  Holy  Writ,  the  Church 
specially  enjoins  the  diet ;  and  this,  too,  on  such  a  scale 
that  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  annual  "fish 
days  "  *  were  145  in  number.  Among  the  annual  Church 

*  The  chief  were  the  forty  days  of  Lent ;  the  Ember-days  at 
the  four  seasons,  being  the  Wednesday,  Friday,  and  Saturday  after 
the  first  Sunday  in  Lent;  the  feast  of  Pentecost  (Whitsuntide); 
September  14 ;  December  13  ;  the  three  Rogation-days,  being  the 
Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday  before  Holy  Thursday ;  and  all 
the  Fridays  in  the  year,  except  Christmas-day  when  it  falls  on  a 
Friday.  Even  after  the  Reformation  the  number  of  fish-days  con- 
tinued large,  about  1596-7  those  observed  by  the  household  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  being  only  some  thirty-seven  days  short  of  half  the  year. 


42  FISHES  Of  FANCY. 

disbursements  up  to  the  end  of  the  i6th  century  were 
herrings,  "red  and  white,"  to  the  poor  on  Maundy  Thursday. 
Those  who,  in  pious  observance  of  Christian  ordinances, 
thus  charged  themselves  with  phosphorus  were,  let  us 
hope,  not  aware  that  they  were  simply  perpetuating  the 
worship  of  Venus.  Friday,  again,  is  the  dies  Veneris, 
and  fish,  her  own  symbol,  is  therefore  appropriate  food 
for  the  day.  The  poisson  d>Avril  is  the  survival  of  the 
old  Spring  offering  to  Aphrodite,  under  whose  auspices 
the  constellation  of  the  Fishes  was  then  in  ascendant 
influence  ;  and  through  the  interrogatories  of  the  old  Con- 
fessional we  can  trace  back  some  innocent,  but  significant, 
customs  of  the  English  country  folk  of  to-day  to  the 
rites  in  honour  of  the  goddess  of  Love,  in  the  days  when 
the  world  was  young. 

In  connection  with  this  pious  fish-eating  it  is  worth 
noting  that  their  error  as  to  the  true  character  of  the  ceta- 
ceans betrayed  our  forefathers  into  breaking  Lent,  for  under 
the  impression  that  the  whale,  porpoise,  and  seal  were 
fish,  they  ate  them  on  fast-days.  High  prices,  moreover, 
were  paid  for  such  meats,  and  "  porpoise  pudding "  was  a 
dish  of  state  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century. 

In  other  aspects  also  the  fish  was  eminently  a  Christian 
symbol.  It  occurs  frequently  in  the  Roman  catacombs, 
bearing  on  its  back  a  bowl  with  wine  and  covered  with 
wafers  of  bread  ;  and  in  many  of  the  tombs  are  found  small 
fish  in  wood  or  ivory,  while  the  simple  figure  of  a  fish  on  a 
gravestone  or  monument  was  employed  as  an  emblematic 
acrostic  *  to  point  out  to  his  co-religionists  the  burial-place 
of  a  Christian  without  betraying  the  fact  to  their  pagan 
persecutors.  It  has  been  imagined  that  the  pointed  oval 

*  I-ch-th-u-s  being  the  initial  letters  of  the  Greek  words  for  Jesus — 
Christ — of  God — Son — Saviour. 


FISHES  IN  RELIGION. 


43 


so  common  not  only  for  enclosing  pictures,  seals,  mono- 
grams, etc.,  but  even  for  rings  and  ornaments,  is  the 
symbol  of  the  fish,  and  the  representations  of  the  Virgin 
"  in  a  canopy  "  or  vesica  piscis,  are  supposed  therefore  to 
have  a  specially  Christian  significance ;  but  if  it  has  any  at 
all,  it  is  a  very  heathenish  one. 


(    44    ) 


CHAPTER    IV. 

FISHES  IN  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES. 

Fashions  in  fish-eating — Pisces  Regales — Fishes  in  Art — In  Astro- 
nomy— Legends  of  the  Zodiac — In  Astrology — Fish-gems. 

BUT  eating  is  not,  after  all,  solely  a  religious  exercise,  and 
in  the  matter  of  fish,  though  the  priests  sometimes  dictated 
the  bill  of  fare,  the  people  as  often  chose  their  dishes  for 
themselves.  Thus,  in  old  Egypt,  the  priests  abstained 
from  fish  altogether,  and  therefore,  when  all  the  rest  of 
the  people  were  obliged  by  their  religion  to  eat  a  fried 
fish  before  the  door  of  their  houses,  they  only  burnt 
theirs,  without  tasting  them.'  So  says  Plutarch,  and  the 
reason  which  he  tells  us  the  priests  gave  for  their  absten- 
tion was,  that  fish  was  neither  nice  nor  necessary.  But 
among  the  nation  in  general,  the  favourite  kinds*  were 
the  bulti  (Labrus  Niloticus),  the  kishr  (Perca  Nilotica), 
the  beuni  (Cyprius  Benni  or  C.  Lepidotus),  the  shall 
(Silurus  Shall),  the  shttbeh  (the  Silurus  Schilbe  Niloticus), 
and  arabraby  the  by  ad  (Silurus  Bajad),  the  karmoot  (Silurus 
Carmuth). 

As  to  the  attitude  of  the  Syrians  towards  such  diet,  I 
find  some  difficulty.  That  their  priests  also  abstained  from 
fish  is  tolerably  certain,  but  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  the 
statement,  that  in  consequence  of  Derceto,  a  Syrian  divinity, 
having  changed  herself  into  a  fish,  the  people  of  that 

*  According  to  Wilkinson. 


FISHES  IN  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES. 


45 


country  never  touched  any  kind  whatever  ;  and  the  other 
statement,  that  Queen  Atergatis  was  so  passionately  fond 
of  the  food  that  she  allowed  none  to  be  sold  till  the  refusal 
of  it  had  been  offered  to  the  royal  kitchen.  It  is  possible 
that  the  two  traditions  are  really  halves  of  a  third,  which 
states  that  Queen  Gatis,  who  was  also  said  to  be  inordi- 
nately addicted  to  fish-eating  (tunny,  conger,  and  carp,  her 
favourites),  was  put  to  death  by  Mopsus  the  Lydian,  who  had 
her  thrown  into  Lake  Ascalon.  That  the  princess  should 
be  deified  and  the  fish  of  the  lake  abstained  from,  is  strictly 
in  sympathy  with  contemporary  sentiment,  and  the  con- 
flicting testimony  of  the  ancients  I  have  quoted  would  thus 
be  reconciled.  But  of  course  this  is  mere  surmise. 

That  the  Greeks  ate  fish,  and  had  their  fashions  therein, 
is  notorious,  yet  Homer  never  mentions  fish  in  his  ban- 
quets, and  Ulysses  is  depicted  as  resorting  to  that  diet 
only  when  in  great  extremity.  In  Rome,  the  fish  mania, 
both  as  pets  and  as  delicacies,  was  carried  to  such  a  pitch 
of  insane,  criminal  extravagance,  as  to  have  been  incredible, 
had  not  the  savage  satire  and  the  fierce  denunciation  of 
contemporary  literature  assured  us  of  the  facts.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  a  single  dish  of  fish  might  cost  from 
;£ioo  to  j£iooo,  and  that  pet  eels  were  fed  with  human 
slaves.  It  is  worth  noting  also  that,  in  spite  of  the  intoler- 
able affectations  of  Roman  connoisseurs  as  to  the  niceties  of 
flavour  between  this  fish,  that  had  been  caught  on  one  side 
of  a  river,  and  that,  which  had  been  caught  on  the  other, 
they  all  drenched  their  subtly-flavoured  dishes  with  halec, 
garum,  and  other  sauces,  which  were  so  strong  and  com- 
posite that  it  would  have  been  hardly  possible  to  distin- 
guish a  fresh  fish  from  a  putrid  cat — except  by  the 
bones. 

The  ancient  Britons  were  not,  as  a  nation,  fish-eaters,  due 


46  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

probably  to  the  fact  that  our  painted  ancestors  worshipped 
the  streams,  and  from  this  pagan  reverence  for  the  waters, 
their  naiad-folk,  and  the  fishes  they  protected,  I  would 
venture  to  surmise  that  the  objection  of  the  lower  classes 
at  the  present  day  to  a  fish  diet  has  arisen. 

Sea-fishing  as  an  industry  is  said  to  have  been  intro- 
duced into  Albion  by  St.  Wilfrid,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  then  abandoning  paganism,  came  to  indiscrimi- 
nate fish-eating.  In  the  fourteenth  century  sturgeon 
was  declared  a  royal  fish,  and  statutes  exist  (of  a  later 
date)  restricting  the  consumption  of  porpoises,  seals,  and 
"  grampus,"  as  meats  too  dainty  for  the  million.  That  Henry 
I.  died  of  a  surfeit  of  lampreys  "  is  one  of  those  things  that 
every  schoolboy  knows  ; "  but  the  extraordinary  estimation 
in  which  this  fish  was  long  held  is  a  less  familiar  fact. 
Royal  edicts  have  been  published  regulating  the  price  of 
the  dainty  when  the  cupidity  of  fishmongers  threatened 
to  send  it  up  beyond  the  purses  of  the  rich,  and  King  John 
sent  special  agents  to  the  Continent  to  purchase  lampreys. 
Gloucester  city  used  at  one  time  to  send  every  Christmas 
a  lamprey-pie  to  the  sovereign. 

Herring-pie  also  was  once  accounted  a  royal  delicacy. 
Yarmouth,  by  its  charter,  was  pledged  to  furnish  the  king 
annually  with  a  hundred  herrings  baked  in  twenty-four 
pasties,  and  more  than  one  private  estate  on  the  coast  was 
held  on  a  tenure  of  herring-pies.  In  Queen  Elizabeth's 
reign,  sturgeon,  "  whales,"  and  porpoises  were  among  the 
Pisces  Regales,  but  it  is  not  probable  that  her  sister  was  an 
enthusiast,  inasmuch  as  her  royal  husband  was  of  opinion 
that  fish  was  not  proper  food  for  human  beings,  "  being 
only  congealed  water."  France  had  its  notable  ichthyo- 
phagists  in  Louis  XII.,  Francis  I.,  Henry  IV.  (who  kept 
twenty-five  royal  fishmongers),  and  Louis  XIV.  In  China 


FISHES  IN  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES.  47 

the  sturgeon  is  a  royal  fish,  and  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,* 
the  bonito,  albicore,  and  squid,  are  among  the  monopolies 
of  the  king's  table.  That  any  one  should  quarrel  over  the 
privilege  of  eating  squids  may  seem  strange  to  us  who  reject 
them  except  as  bait,  but  they  were  esteemed  by  the  ancients, 
notably  the  Greeks,  and  are  at  this  day  eaten  by  all  the 
races  on  the  Eastern  seas,  as  well  as  the  nations  of  Southern 
Europe  and  the  Mediterranean  f  generally.  Odious  as  the 
idea  of  eating  an  octopus  may  be,  it  is  not,  after  all,  so 
strange  as  the  Japanese  mania  for  the  poisonous  furuke,  by 
eating  which,  in  defiance  of  imperial  edict,  they  are  enabled 
to  obtain,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  carnal  pleasure  of 
a  tasty  dish  and  the  posthumous  honours  of  the  Happy 
Despatch. 

As  properly  leading  out  from  my  note  preceding  on  the 
Patron  Saints  of  fishes,  their  place  in  legendary  art  may  be 
here  briefly  referred  to.  Notable  among  the  paintings  in 
which  fish,  in  connection  with  their  patrons,  are  con- 
spicuous, are  Raphael's  noble  piece,  the  Madonna  della 
Pesce,  in  which  the  child  Tobias,  with  the  fish  in  his 
hand,  is  being  brought  by  St.  Raphael  to  the  Virgin ; 

*  There  the  "  lords  of  the  manor "  have  also  the  right  to  specify 
one  kind  of  fish  as  exclusively  for  their  own  eating,  whenever  caught 
in  their  waters. 

f  "  Along  the  western  coast  of  France,  and  in  the  countries  border- 
ing on  the  Mediterranean  and  Adriatic,  they  form  a  portion  of  the 
habitual  sustenance  of  the  people,  and  are  regularly  exposed  for  sale 
in  the  markets,  both  in  a  fresh  and  dried  condition.  Salted  cuttles 
and  octopus  are  there  eaten  during  Lent  as  commonly  as  salted  cod 
are  brought  to  table  in  England  ;  and,  thus  prepared,  generally  form  a 
portion  of  the  provisions  supplied  to  the  Greek  fishing-boats  and 
coasters.  This  strange  diet  is  chiefly  obtained  from  Tunis,  and  in  the 
Levant  and  Greek  markets  its  trade  name  is  octopodia  or  polypi." — 
Prof.  Martin  Duncan  (CasseWs  Nat.  Hist.}. 


48  FISHES  OF  PANCY. 

and  the  other  that  represents  Tobias  hauling  the  fish 
to  land,  with  the  Angel  standing  by.  St.  Peter  in  many 
pictures  of  celebrity  carries  a  fish,  and  in  the  pictures 
of  the  "Calling  of  Peter  and  Andrew"  and  "Finding 
the  Tribute-Money,"  and  the  celebrated  cartoon  of  "The 
Miraculous  Draught,"  his  avocation  is  always  conspicuously 
represented.  St.  Zeno,  bishop  of  Verona  (said  to  have 
been  an  enthusiastic  angler),  carries  a  fishing-rod  in  the 
statue  in  the  church  at  Verona,  and  in  early  pictures  of  the 
Veronese  school  wears  the  habit  of  a  bishop  with  a  fish 
hanging  from  the  crook  of  his  crozier.  The  picture  by 
Salvator  Rosa  of  St.  Anthony's  fish-sermon  is  well  known, 
as  is  also  the  mosaic  in  St.  Peter's,  Rome,  Naviculo  di 
Giotto,  which  represents  St.  Peter  drawing  his  nets.  The 
same  subject  is  engraved  upon  the  Pope's  ring,  ranello 
del  piscatore.  An  armed  knight  with  his  foot  on  a  sea- 
monster  (a  mediaeval  variation  of  the  zodiacal  Water- 
carrier)  may,  or  may  not,  be  St.  Andrew  of  Scotland  ; 
while  in  another  artistic  representation  of  the  heavenly 
system,  in  which  the  Apostles  take  the  place  of  the  pagan 
signs  of  the  zodiac  and  Saints  are  used  instead  of  the 
mythical  figures  of  the  constellations,  I  find  St.  Matthias 
paired  off  against  the  Fishes. 

In  Astronomy  the  sea-things  occupy  their  full  share  of 
space,  for  among  the  principal  constellations  there  are  four 
marine  creatures  as  against;  seven  quadrupeds  and  three 
birds,  and  if  we  take  the  complete  list  the  same  proportion 
is  maintained.  Their  presence  also  in  the  zodiac  gives  us 
one  more  link  with  the  remotest  past.  Does  not  Proctor — 
and  with  something  more  than  mere  surmise — read  in  the 
configurations  of  the  firmament  the  first  suggestions  of  the 
story  of  Noah's  Flood  ?  and  can  we  not  by  these  recurrent 


FISHES  IN  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES.  49 

signs  trace  back — through  the  origin  of  Egyptian  animal 
worship — through  old  Israel's  twelve  coincidences  in  the 
naming*  of  his  sons — through  the  zodiac  of  Denderah, 
eight  centuries  before  our  era — to  the  very  alphabet  and 
rudiments  of  Aryan  science  ? 

What  antiquities,  then,  they  are,  these  sea-myths  of  our 
stellar  hemispheres  !  Tumbling  in  open  space,  the  happy 
Dolphin,  belted  with  stars,  the  gift  of  grateful  Olympus ; 
the  luminous  Sea-lizard  ;  Cetus,  the  shaggy  whale,  spangled 
from  twinkling  snout  to  twinkling  tail,  that,  but  for  the  strong 
bright-fronted  Ram  that  intervenes,  seems  agape  to  swallow 
the  suppliant  Andromeda;  Hydra,  dripping  stars  as  it 
goes,  and  trailing  its  gem-lit  convolutions  across  the  hemis- 
pheres ;  the  Flying-fish,t  feathered  and  beaked,  darting  its 
brief  flight  from  the  pole  of  the  southern  ecliptic;  the 
austral  Fish,  with  radiant  eyes  uplifted  to  the  grateful  flood 
that  the  Waterer  for  ever  pours  upon  it ;  the  Sword-fish, 
cleaving  its  bright  way  to  encounter  in  the  ocean  of  the 
firmament  its  hereditary  foe;  the  Tortoise,  that  in  its 
starry  concave  holds  the  lyre  whence  Mercury  first  struck 
the  music  of  the  spheres. 

Above  all,  The  Fishes  of  the  Zodiac — 

"  The  double  Pisces,  from  their  shining  scale, 
Spread  wat'ry  influence  and  incline  to  sail  "J— 

foster  the  sailor-spirit  in  men  and  teach  navigators  to  be 

*  Zabulun,  "  that  dwells  at  the  haven  of  the  sea,"  stands  for  the  sign 
Pisces. 

f  So  Pantagruel.  "  I  saw  here  the  sea-swallow,  a  fish  as  large  as 
a  dare-fish  of  Loire."  In  Chaldaean  astronomy  the  northern  of  the 
Pisces  is  swallow-headed,  as  heralding  the  arrival  of  summer  and  its 
bird. 

J  This  and  succeeding  quotations  are  from  the  translation  of 
Manilius'  poem  by  Creech. 

VOL.  III.— H.  E 


So  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

boldly   self-reliant,    preside    over  sea-fights,   and   are   the 
patrons  of  fishermen — whom  they  generously  direct 

"  To  sweep  smooth  seas  with  nets,  to  drag  the  sand, 
And  draw  the  leaping  captives  to  the  land, 
Lay  cheating  wires,  or  with  unfaithful  bait 
The  hook  conceal,  and  get  by  the  deceit." 

But  the  children  born  under  the  sign  are,  by  a  poetical 
extension  of  the  Venus  tradition,  hot-blooded,  given  to 
jealousies  and  strife : 

"  But  could  I  rule,  could  I  the  Fates  design, 
The  rising  Fishes  ne'er  should  govern  mine ; 
They  give  a  hateful,  prattling,  railing  tongue, 
Still  full  of  venom,  always  in  the  wrong." 

For  the  tradition  is,  that  "  when  the  skies  grew  weak  and 
giants  strove,  and  snaky  Typhon  shook  the  throne  of  Jove," 
Venus  fled  the  tumultuous  scene,  and  hiding  herself  in  the 
Euphrates  as  a  fish,  inspired  the  scaly  tribes  with  new 
passions,  "  and  with  the  Ocean  mixt  her  Fire."  So,  too,  the 
Southern  Fish  claims  Aphrodite's  favour,  for  the  legend 
says  that  it  saved  her  daughter  from  drowning  in  the  Lake 
Boethe ;  and  yet  another  claims  for  it  that  it  is  the  pro- 
genitor of  all  the  fishes  in  the  firmament. 
Next  "  glowing  "  Cancer, 

"  As  close  in 's  shell  he  lies,  affords  his  aid 
To  greedy  merchants  and  inclines  to  trade." 

But  over  births  his  influence   is  hardly  more   auspicious 
than  the  Fishes',  though  in  omen  *  it  is  happy — 

"  The  dream 's  good, 
The  Crab  is  in  conjunction  with  the  Sun." 


*  Under  the  influence  of  a  conjunction  of  Jupiter,  Saturn,  and  Mars, 
which  took  place  in  the  year  1604,  Kepler  was  led  to  think  that  he 
had  discovered  means  for  determining  the  true  year  of  our  Saviour's 
birth.  He  made  his  calculations,  and  found  that  Jupiter  and  Saturn 


FISHES  IN  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES.  51 

And  it  is  by  the  Gate  of  Cancer,  Mercury  standing  at  the 
starry  portals,  that  souls  descend  to  take  possession  of  the 
bodies  of  men.  Not  that  the  reasons  of  the  crustacean's 
exaltation  commend  it  to  popularity  ;  for  when  Hercules 
was  fighting  with  the  Hydra,  Juno  meanly  sent  Cancer  to 
bite  the  hero's  heel ;  but  Hercules  merely  stopped  for  a 
moment  in  his  job,  killed  the  crab,  and  then  went  on 
with  the  Hydra.  The  goddess,  however,  translated  the 
smashed  crustacean  to  the  skies,  the  crabs  thus  rising 

"  On  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

In  astrology,  fish  forms  were  in  great  request,  the  mystery 
attaching  to  sea-things  commending  them  to  the  special 
service  of  the  necromancer.  But  besides  the  strange  fish 
with  which  the  man  of  dark  science  made  his  studio  dreadful, 
and  which  in  his  computations  played  such  high  pranks  as 
might  have  made  Herschel  weep,  he  professed  a  knowledge 
of  occult  influences  in  fishy  products  that  opened  up  vast 
possibilities.  Coral  and  amber,  nacre  and  ambergris,  were 
potentially  dreadful.  From  the  heads  of  fishes  he  took  you 
the  dread  cimedia,  that,  properly  handled, worked  Darwinism 
backwards ;  and  from  the  tortoise  the  gem  chelonia,  which, 
smeared  with  honey  and  laid  upon  the  tongue,  bestowed 
the  gift  of  divination,  provided  the  stars  were  in  auspicious 
conjunction.  This  precious  thing  bore  the  tortoise  shape, 
and  the  Magi  told  wonderful  stories  of  its  powers  in 
appeasing  storms  ;  nevertheless  the  kind  starred  over  with 
gold  spots,  if  thrown  together  with  a  beetle  into  boiling 


were  in  the  constellation  of  the  Fishes  (a  fish  is  the  astrological  symbol 
of  Judaea)  in  the  latter  half  of  the  year  of  Rome  747,  and  were  joined 
by  Mars  in  748.  .  .  Their  first  union  in  the  East  awoke  the  attention 
of  the  Magi,  told  them  the  expected  time  had  come,  and  bade  them 
set  off  without  delay  towards  Judaea  (the  fish  land). 

E  2 


52  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

water,  would  raise  a  tempest*  Once,  therefore,  find  the 
chelonia,  and  you  were  Moses  and  Prospero,  or  Cassandra 
and  the  Witch  of  Endor,  in  one.  Plutarch  ('  On  Rivers ') 
says  that  the  sangaris  produces  the  gem  called  Ballen,  "  the 
king,"  by  the  Phrygians.  Ptolemy  Hephaestion,  the  astro- 
loger, describes  a  gem  (asterites)  found  in  the  belly  of  a 
huge  fish  named  Pan,  from  its  resemblance  to  that  god. 
This,  if  exposed  to  the  sun,  shot  forth  flames,  and  was  a 
powerful  philtre.  Helen  used  it  for  her  own  signet,  en- 
graved with  a  figure  of  the  Pan  fish,  and  owed  to  it  all  her 
conquests.  To  these  may  be  added  the  astrobolos,  "the 
fish-eye,"  and  the  "  adularia,"  both  of  them  gems  of  force  in 
the  Black  Art,  and  also,  as  being  gifts  of  the  sea,  those 
shells  which,  powdered  into  potions,  made  love-philtres. 
And  no  wonder !  What  was  the  happy  shell  that  held 
Venus  before  she  was  vouchsafed  to  the  earth?  What 
fortunate  mollusc  lent  Amphitrite  its  pearly  home  for  a 
chariot  ?  Yet  supreme  among  all  shells  must  ever  remain 
the  rough  rind  that  holds  the  pearl,  the  delight  of  poets, 
the  ambition  of  women,  the  favourite  of  all. 

Pearls  were  supposed  to  be  sea-dew,  which  the  oyster 
drank  in,  and  by  its  own  mystic  chemistry  transformed 
into  gems,  and  the  differences  in  colour  were  fancifully 
attributed  to  climatic  influences.  On  cloudy  nights  the 
oyster  secreted  dark  pearls ;  and  when  the  moon  shone 
brightly,  "  the  perles  were  white,  fair,  and  orient."  They 
were  soft  till  the  sun  shone  on  them,  and  then  they 
hardened.  One  legend  (it  is  a  Moslem  one)  tells  us  that 
devils  dived  for  pearls  for  Solomon,  but  devils  here  means 
only  "jinns";  and  it  almost  needed  this  interference  of  a 
supernatural  agency  to  account  for  man  being  the  master 
of  such  an  exquisite  possession. 

*  '  Gems  and  Precious  Stones '  (King). 


(    53    ) 


CHAPTER    V. 

DISHES  IN  FABLE  AND  FAIRY-TALE. 

Fishes  in  Fable — as  a  rule  Foolish  Folk— but  the  Crab  wise— the 
Tortoise  not  always  sagacious — nor  the  Fiat-Fish — Fishes  in  Fairy- 
tale as  a  rule  Benign — also  in  Folk-tale  of  all  countries — Fishes 
the  Patrons  of  distressed  Heroes  and  Heroines  —  Tendency  ot 
Fishermen  to  become  Princes — Grateful  Fishes — The  Jewel- 
finding  Myth — Fish  as  Guardians  of  Treasure — Cities  of  the  Plain 
now  Lakes,  and  their  inhabitants  Fishes — Some  Fish-mysteries. 

IN  the  story  of  the  "Cruel  Crane  Outwitted,"  the  bird, 
finding  the  fish  likely  to  die  of  drought  in  a  fast-shrinking 
puddle,  offers  to  carry  them  across  to  a  large  and  pleasant 
lake  of  which  he  knows.  After  much  suspicious  demurring, 
the  fishes  go  with  the  crane  one  by  one,  and  are,  of  course, 
eaten  up  in  succession.  Left  last  of  all,  however,  is  an  old 
crab,  and  the  bird  proposes  to  take  it  over  too  to  join  its 
old  comrades.  "  Very  good,"  says  the  crafty  crustacean, 
"  but  as  you  cannot  very  well  hold  me  in  your  beak  as  you 
did  the  fishes,  suppose  I  hold  you  with  my  pincers."  The 
crane  agrees  to  this,  and  having  arrived  at  the  shambles, 
announces  to  the  crab  that  he  is  now  about  to  be  eaten. 
"  Not  a  bit  of  it,"  is  the  reply.  "  On  the  contrary,  if  you 
do  not  take  me  to  the  lake  at  once,  I  shall  nip  your  head 
off  your  thin  neck."  So  the  crane,  in  great  alarm,  takes 
Cancer  straight  to  the  lake,  but  before  getting  off  the  bird's 
back  the  crab  bites  its  head  off. 

This  fable  illustrates  the  difference  of  character  in  fables 
between  the  fish  and  the  crustaceans.  The  former  are 
always  used  as  the  stupid  persons  of  the  incident — the 


54 


FISHES   OF  FANCY. 


foolish  folk  who  are  found  dancing  in  the  nets  just  when 
they  should  be  most  serious  ;  who  get  caught  and  beg  the 
fishermen  to  put  them  back,  "  so  that  we  may  grow  larger 
and  better  worth  your  eating ; "  who  catch  hold  of  hooks  in 
order  to  pull  the  angler  into  the  water ;  who  rush  into  the 
net  just  to  make  fun  of  the  fisherman,  forgetting  that,  though 
it  is  the  same  old  net,  with  the  same  meshes  that  they  used 
to  slip  through  when  they  were  tiny  fry,  they  have  been 
gradually  getting  bigger  themselves ;  who  fall  victims,  in 
fact,  to  every  designing  person  who  comes  their  way. 

The  crab,  however,  enjoys  a  character  for  sagacity,  and 
humour  of  a  grim  sort.  His  "  swike  "  with  the  crane  was 
excellent  fooling  ;  and  so  again,  when  he  kills  the  snake  and 
sees  it  lying  stretched  out  along  the  ground,  he  addresses 
the  dead  viper  with  the  caustic  moral — "  This  fate  would 
never  have  befallen  you  if  you  had  lived  as  straight  as  you 
have  died."  The  crab  runs  the  fox  a  race,  and  as  soon  as 
his  opponent  starts  catches  hold  of  its  tail.  When  the  fox 
reaches  the  winning-post  it  turns  round  to  see  how  far  the 
crab  has  got,  when  the  wily  crustacean  quietly  drops  off, 
crosses  the  winning-line,  and  startles  the  fox  with — "  What ! 
come  at  last,  are  you  ?  I've  been  here  some  time !  " 

Tortoises  also  are  occasionally  credited  with  ingenuity. 
Thus,  when  the  great  bird  Kruth  came  to  eat  it,  the  tortoise 
begged  to  have  one  chance  of  life  given  it,  and  therefore 
offers  to  race  the  bird  across  the  lake,  Kruth  to  fly  and 
the  tortoise  to  dive.  The  bird  agreeing,  the  testacean 
calls  its  kindred  together,  and  stations  them,  at  short 
distances  apart,  all  round  the  lake,  and  having  made 
these  preparations  gives  Kruth  the  signal  to  start — Off! 
and  down  he  dives  under  the  water.  Away  goes  the 
bird  straight  across  the  lake,  but  wherever  he  tries  to 
settle,  up  pops  a  tortoise,  and  Kruth,  not  knowing  one 


FISHES  IN  FABLE  AND  FAIRY-TALE.  55 

from  another,  concludes  it  is  always  the  same  old  tor- 
toise, and  flies  off  in  disgust.  But  this  is  exceptional,  for 
the  tortoise  as  a  rule  is  a  fool.  He  begs  eagles  to  take  him 
up  into  the  sky,  "  to  see  the  world,"  and  gets  dropped  on  to 
rocks  and  eaten  in  return  for  his  misplaced  confidence. 
He  pretends  he  will  tell  the  king  of  the  birds  a  great  secret 
if  he  will  carry  him  over  a  range  of  mountains,  and  is  made 
half-way  to  tell  his  secret,  and  then,  as  usual,  dropped  on 
to  the  customary  rock.  So  again  when  his  good  friends 
the  wild  geese  are  carrying  him  to  the  Golden  Cave  on  the 
Himalaya  Mountains,  the  people  of  a  town  over  which  they 
pass,  go  into  fits  of  laughter  at  seeing  two  geese  with  the 
ends  of  a  stick  in  their  beaks  and  a  tortoise  hanging  down 
by  his  mouth  from  the  middle.  The  tortoise  cannot  resist 
the  opportunity  for  a  retort,  but  he  has  hardly  got  the  first 
word  out  of  his  mouth  when  down  he  comes  smash  on  the 
ground. 

Flat-fish,  again,  have  a  distinctive  character,  their  gro- 
tesque facial  arrangements  suggesting  superciliousness,  and 
a  general  kind  of  wry-mouthed  ill-nature.  The  fluke, 
therefore,  gets  its  mouth  twisted  round  for  sneering  at  the 
coronation  of  the  herring :  in  Grimm  it  is  the  sole,  and 
elsewhere  the  plaice ;  while  all  the  flat-fish  are  flattened 
out  for  being  disagreeable,  the  rays  for  stinging  a  god  when 
out  fishing,  and  the  turbot  for  upsetting  a  nymph  it  was 
carrying,  and  so  forth.  But  with  these  few  exceptions  the 
fishes  of  fable  are  simply  foolish  folk. 

In  fairy-tale  they  are  invariably  benign.  Thus  in  the 
admirable  Red  Indian  story  of  "  Sheem,  the  Forsaken  Boy." 
the  sturgeon  that  saves  Owasso  plays  a  beneficent  part. 
The  wicked  old  magician,  his  father-in-law,  takes  him  out 
fishing,  and  just  as  Owasso  is  about  to  spear  the  sturgeon, 
he  makes  his  enchanted  boat  dart  away  from  under  the 


$6  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

striker's  feet,  and  the  young  man  falls  into  the  water. 
But  the  sturgeon  magnanimously  carries  Owasso  to  the 
shore  (where  it  gets  cooked  and  eaten  for  its  pains),  and 
bye-and-bye  the  wicked  Manito  comes  to  well-merited  grief 
at  his  son-in-law's  hands.  Again,  in  the  story  of  "  The 
Little  Spirit,  or  Boy-man,"  the  main  incidents  are  fish  ones. 
The  boy-man  steals  the  fish  of  the  giant  brothers,  and 
incurs  their  dislike,  and  then  upsets  them  by  a  stratagem 
into  a  fishing-hole  in  the  ice,  and  so  kindles  their  dislike 
into  wrath.  But  he  outwits  them,  and  takes  refuge  inside 
a  fish  which  he  calls  to  his  assistance,  but  which  he  after- 
wards betrays  and  eats. 

In  Portuguese  folk-tale  the  recurrence  of  the  fish-figure 
is  very  marked,  and  always  in  the  same  benign  aspect.  Thus 
in  the  story  of  the  Baker's  Idle  Son  (that  has  its  well-known 
Russian  and  German  counterparts),  the  fish  that  comes  up 
to  him  in  the  wood  to  eat  his  crumbs,  and  though  caught 
by  the  boy,  is  released  when  it  begs  for  its  life,  continues 
to  befriend  him  till  his  fortunes  are  completed  :  the  good 
daughter  of  the  wicked  witch  takes  the  form  of  an  eel,  to 
assist  the  prince ;  a  whale,  at  the  cost  of  its  own  life,  rescues 
the  maiden  from  whose  head  the  pearls  used  to  fall  when 
she  combed  her  hair;  in  the  Portuguese  version  of  Cin- 
derella— the  Hearth-cat,  as  she  is  called — it  is  a  fish  which 
plays  the  part  of  the  good  fairy  or  the  white  pigeons ; 
St.  Peter  makes  use  of  a  fish  to  save  his  little  god- 
daughter from  death ;  a  beautiful  fish  is  caught,  and  sub- 
mits to  being  sliced  up  into  pieces,  for  the  aggrandise- 
ment and  future  welfare  of  the  family  of  his  captor.  This 
last  story  is  one  of  many  that  are  common  to  the  nurseries 
of  the  whole  world.  In  the  tale  of  the  Gold  Children, 
the  golden  fish  that  is  cut  up  into  six  pieces,  to  the  great 
good  fortune  of  the  fisherman  and  his  family,  is  the  same 


FISHES  IN  FABLE  AND  FAIRY-TALE.  57 

as  the  beautiful  fish  of  Breton  fairy-lore,  that  makes  its 
captor  promise  to  eat  its  brains,  as  all  manner  of  good  luck 
will  then  overtake  him  ;  and  the  same  as  the  numerous 
other  fishes  who  reward  those  who  catch  them  with  all  the 
riches  and  pleasures  of  life.  Common  also  to  most  fairy- 
lores  are  the  flounder  that  was  an  enchanted  prince,  which 
gave  to  a  fisherman  all  that  his  wife  asked  for,  even  to 
becoming  Pope,  but  when  she  asked  to  be  the  Creator,  the 
flounder,  in  indignation,  sent  her  back  to  her  original  state ; 
the  grateful  fish  in  the  story  of  Ferdinand  the  Faithful ; 
the  accommodating  fishes  who,  to  help  the  drummer  out  of 
his  difficulties,  jumped  out  of  the  pond  and  arranged  them- 
selves in  proper  order  on  the  grass  ;  the  other  fishes  in 
Russian  and  Portuguese  stories  that  assist  heroes  and 
heroines  to  accomplish  impossible  tasks ;  the  fish  that  so 
wonderfully  refreshed  the  lovers  when  they  were  flying 
from  the  Dwarfs  Island.  In  all  these  cases,  and  many  more 
besides,  the  benign  and  philanthropic  aspect  of  the  fishes 
is  consistently  expressed,  and  even  when  these  creatures 
are  not  actively  employed  in  what  may  almost  be  called 
the  routine  of  their  amiabilities,  they  are  found  co-operating 
with  men  and  women  for  their  advantage  in  a  most  dis- 
interested way.  Fishermen  are  perpetually  arriving  at 
honours  and  wealth  by  the  advice  of  the  things  they  hook 
and  net,  and  it  is  quite  in  the  day's  work  if  a  fisher-lad 
becomes  a  prince  and  marries  the  king's  daughter.  When 
Biroquoi  and  his  friends  are  arming  the  Prince,  the  fishes 
furnish  the  young  warrior's  "harness,"  as  Don  Quixote 
would  call  it.  They  gave  him  a  brilliant  cuirass  of  the 
scales  of  golden  carps,  and  placed  on  his  head  the  shell  of 
a  huge  snail,  which  was  overshadowed  with  the  tail  of  a 
large  cod,  raised  in  the  form  of  an  aigrette  ;  a  naiad  girt 
him  with  an  eel,  from  which  depended  a  tremendous  sword 


58  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

made  out  of  a  long  fish-bone  ;  and  lastly,  they  gave  him 
the  shell  of  a  large  tortoise  for  a  shield.  So  that  by  the 
time  Babiole  was  equipped  cap-a-pie  there  had  been  a  con- 
siderable destruction  of  friendly  fishes.  When  the  seal- 
fisher  falls  into  the  water,  and  is  caught  by  the  seals,  what 
do  they  do  with  him  ?  They  take  him  down  into  Seal- 
world,  and  there  show  him  a  harpoon  of  his  and  a  wounded 
seal,  and  they  make'  him  lay  his  hand  on  the  wound  which 
he  had  inflicted,  and  swear  that  he  will  never  hunt  seals  any 
more.  And  then  they  take  him,  by  a  short  cut,  back  to  his 
home  again.  Even  when  fishes  swallow  human  beings, 
they  do  so  in  the  most  friendly  spirit  imaginable.  The 
number  of  notable  personages  that  have  thus  been  amiably 
gulped  down,  and  afterwards  restored  to  friends  and  sun- 
light, is  very  large  indeed,  and  the  conduct  of  the  fish  is  in 
every  case  admirable.  When,  for  instance,  the  "  great  fish  " 
swallowed  Jonah,  it  did  so  with  the  best  intentions,  for,  so 
the  Arabic  legend  says,  it  swam  to  shore,  a  three  days' 
journey,  with  its  mouth  above  water  all  the  way,  for  the 
greater  convenience  of  the  prophet's  breathing.  The  good 
taste  of  such  behaviour  is  undeniable. 

But  by  far  the  most  widely-spread  legend  of  the  sea- 
things'  philanthropy  is  that  which  makes  them  the  guardians 
of  lost  treasures,  and  the  vehicle  for  their  restoration  to 
their  proper  owners  —  the  fish-with-the-ring-inside-it  myth, 
that  every  country  in  turn  has  adapted  from  the  original 
story  that  was  told  on  the  banks  of  the  Oxus  to  Aryan 
children,  long  before  Britain,  as  we  know  it,  had  come  to 
the  surface  of  the  sea. 

The  salmon  with  a  ring  in  its  mouth,  that  figures  in  the 
arms  of  Glasgow,  is  one  of  the  many  fishes  credited  with 
being  the  means  of  lost  jewels  returning  to  their  owners. 
A  certain  queen  gave  a  soldier,  with  whom  she  had  fallen 


FISHES  IN  FABLE  AND  FAIRY-TALE.  59 

in  love,  a  ring  that  had  been  presented  to  her  by  her  con- 
sort ;  but  the  king  discovered  the  intrigue,  and  having 
obtained  the  ring,  threw  it  into  the  Clyde,  and  then  de- 
manded it  of  his  disloyal  lady.  In  her  alarm  she  sought 
help  from  the  holy  Kentigern,  and  the  saint,  proceed- 
ing to  the  river,  forthwith  caught  a  salmon  which,  on  being 
opened,  was  found  to  have  swallowed  the  all-important 
jewel.  So  the  queen  regained  the  good  graces  of  the  king, 
and,  it  is  satisfactory  to  be  able  to  add,  lived  a  better  life 
ever  afterwards.*  A  Tyne  salmon  caught  in  its  mouth  as 
it  fell,  and  was  the  means  of  restoring  to  its  owner,  a  ring 
that  had  dropped  off  a  bridge  at  Newcastle  ;  and  a  Thames 
pike  has  been  known  to  be  equally  opportune  and  useful. 
The  best  known  of  all  such  narratives  is,  of  course,  that  of 
Polycrates'  signet-ring,  which  was  thrown  into  the  sea  and 
recovered  from  the  body  of  a  fish  presented  to  the  king  by 
a  fisherman.  But  this  is  by  no  means  the  original  of  the 
episode,  for  Solomon  recovered  his  throne  by  a  fish  restor- 
ing him  the  talisman  ring  by  virtue  of  which  he  held 
dominion  over  all  the  devils  ;  f  and  more  ancient  still  is  the 

*  A  variation  is  to  be  found  in  the  following : — "  The  legend  o 
the  fish  and  the  ring,"  says  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dibdin  in  his  '  Northern 
Tour,'  "  is  extant  in  well-nigh  every  class-book  in  Scotland  ;  old  Spots- 
wood  is  among  the  earliest  historians  who  garnished  the  dish  from  the 
Latin  monastic  legends,  and  Messrs.  Smith,  M'Lellan,  and  Cleland 
have  not  failed  to  quote  his  words.  They  report  of  St.  Kentigern,  that 
a  lady  of  good  place  in  the  country  having  lost  her  ring  as  she  crossed 
the  river  Clyde,  and  her  husband  waxing  jealous,  as  if  she  had  be- 
stowed the  same  on  one  of  her  lovers,  she  did  mean  herself  unto 
Kentigern,  entreating  his  help  for  the  safety  of  her  honour,  and  that  he 
going  to  the  river  after  he  had  used  his  devotion,  willed  one  who  was 
making  to  fish  to  bring  the  first  that  he  caught,  which  was  done.  In 
the  mouth  of  the  fish  he  found  the  ring,  and  sending  it  to  the  lady,  she 
was  thereby  freed  of  her  husband's  suspicion." 

t  Sale  gives  the  following  version  : — "  Solomon  entrusted  his  signet 
with  one  of  his  concubines,  which  the  devil  obtained  from  her  and 


60  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

recovery  of  Sakuntala's  ring  by  a  fish,  which  thus  enabled 
King  Dasyanta  to  marry  the  lady  of  his  love. 

From  this  fancy  of  the  Aryan  poet  has  descended  an 
immense  progeny  of  treasure-retrieving  fishes,  and  the  ring 
of  Sakuntala,  like  the  magic  circlet  of  the  Persian  story, 
has  begotten  innumerable  rings  exactly  like  itself. 

In  the  'Arabian  Nights'  is  the  well-known  tale  of  the 
priceless  diamond  which  the  fisherman  takes  from  a  fish, 
and  which,  placed  on  a  shelf  in  the  cottage,  gives  so  much 
light  that  they  are  saved  all  expenditure  in  oil,  and  which 
when  sold  makes  the  family  rich  for  ever  and  for  ever.  In 
Scandinavian  myths  is  that  of  the  long-lost  crown,  which 
the  fishes  kept  safely  down  among  the  rocks,  till  the  real 
heir  to  the  throne  came  a-fishing,  when  they  rolled  it  into 
his  net ;  in  Russian,  that  of  Ivan,  who  finds  the  all-impor- 
tant ring  by  the  help  of  the  perch — the  herrings  try  to 
lift  the  casket  to  the  surface,  but  fail,  and  so  two  dol- 
phins come  and  put  their  shoulders  to  the  wheel,  and  the 
ring  is  regained  ;  in  the  Portuguese  is  one  that  tells  us  how 
St.  Peter's  god-daughter  is  ordered  by  a  malicious  queen 
to  dive  into  the  sea  to  bring  up  a  ring  which  she  has 
purposely  thrown  into  the  waves,  but  St.  Peter  restores 
it  to  the  little  girl  by  making  a  fish  swallow  it  and  be 
caught  for  the  King's  table.  In  the  other  story  of  the 
Basket  of  almonds,  the  king  of  the  fishes  himself  brings 
up  the  key  which  the  monarch  has  thrown  into  the  sea, 
its  recovery  being  the  price  of  the  hero's  marrying  the 
princess  ;  in  the  (?)  Italian  story  of  the  White  Snake  the 


sate  on  the  throne  in  Solomon's  shape.  After  forty  days  the  devil  de- 
parted and  threw  the  ring  into  the  sea.  The  signet  was  swallowed  by 
a  fish,  which,  being  caught  and  given  to  Solomon,  the  ring  was  found 
in  its  belly,  and  thus  he  recovered  his  kingdom." 


FISHES  IN  FABLE  AND  FAIRY-TALE.  61 

three  grateful  fish  bring  to  the  servant,  in  a  mussel-shell, 
the  ring  that  brings  every  one  joy  ;  in  the  Russian  the 
crayfish  recovers  the  merchant's  magic  snuff-box.  Nor  are 
these,  probably,  a  half  of  the  fairy  legends  that  have  all 
grown  out  of  Kalidasa's  beautiful  creation. 

Specially  noteworthy  among  these  jewel-restoring,  and 
so  (by  a  not  unreasonable  extension)  treasure-defending, 
fishes  is  the  pike.  It  is,  says  Afanassieff,  a  fish  of  great 
repute  in  northern  mythology.  One  of  the  old  Russian 
songs,  still  sung  at  Christmas,  tells  how  the  pike  comes 
from  Novogorod,  its  scales  of  silver  and  gold,  its  back 
woven  with  pearls,  and  costly  diamonds  gleaming  in  its 
head  instead  of  eyes.  And  this  song  is  one  which  promises 
wealth,  a  fact  connecting  the  Russian  fish  with  that  Scandi- 
navian pike  which  was  a  shape  assumed  by  Andvarri,  the 
dwarf-guardian  of  the  famous  treasure,  from  which  sprang 
the  woes  recounted  in  the  Volsunga  Saga  and  the  Nibe- 
lungenlied.  According  to  a  Lithuanian  tradition  there  is 
a  certain  lake  which  is  ruled  by  the  monstrous  pike 
Strukis.  It  sleeps  only  once  a  year,  and  then  only  for 
a  single  hour.  It  used  always  to  sleep  on  St.  John's  night, 
but  a  fisherman  once  took  advantage  of  its  slumber  to 
catch  a  quantity  of  its  scaly  subjects.  Strukis  awoke  in 
time  to  upset  the  fisherman's  boat,  but  fearing  a  repetition 
of  the  attempt,  it  now  changes  every  year  the  hour  of  its 
annual  sleep.* 

Apart  from  any  special  characteristic  in  the  nature  of  their 
service  to  man,  fish  play  in  the  folk-tale  a  most  important 
part.  In  every  country  the  cultus  of  the  water-spirit  has 
more  or  less  obtained,  and  the  aqueous  feature  of  local 
myth  being  thus  popularly  accepted,  the  prominence  of 
water-things  is  a  natural  result,  just  as  among  tribes  to 
*  Ralston's  '  Russian  Folk-tales,'  chapter  iv. 


62  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

whom  the  sea,  as  a  means  of  livelihood,  is  as  important  as 
the  land — whether  we  go  to  Polynesia  or  Scandinavia  to 
find  them — we  find  marine  and  fishery  folk-lore  predomi- 
nant. Thus  the  old  goblin  from  Norway,  who  came  a-wooing 
to  the  Elfin-hill,  and  spoke  so  pleasantly  about  the  stately 
Norwegian  rocks  and  the  waterfalls,  and  the  salmon  that 
leaped  in  the  spray  while  the  water-god  played  to  them  on 
a  golden  harp,  could  never  tell  a  story  without  something 
about  a  fish  in  it.  And  again,  when  he  spoke  of  the 
cheery  winter  nights  within  doors,  he  described  particularly 
how  the  salmon  would  gambol  in  the  water  outside  his 
cave,  and  dash  themselves  against  the  rocks,  but  could  not 
come  in. 

But  into  this  prodigious  literature  of  fairy-tale  fish,  in 
which  the  finny  ones  merely  play  the  part  of  wonder- 
workers, or  represent  the  victims  of  sorcery,  I  have  no 
space,  though  all  the  will,  to  plunge.  But  how  can  I  close 
this  chapter  without  referring  to  that  little  fish  of  the 
Arabian  Nights  which  was  really  a  pomegranate  seed, 
which  the  cock  (who  was  really  a  princess)  overlooked 
with  such  disastrous  consequences  to  all  concerned  ?  Or 
to  those  other  fishes,  white,  red,  blue,  and  yellow,  that 
the  fisherman  found  swimming  in  the  enchanted  lake 
between  the  four  small  hills,  and  which  when  brought  into 
the  Sultan's  palace  led  to  such  notable  results  ? 

This  formation  of  a  lake  as  a  punishment  for  the  wicked- 
ness of  the  People  of  the  Plain  is  a  widely-spread  tradi- 
tion.* Thus,  so  local  legends  say,  Lake  Tanganika  was 
called  into  existence.  "  Years  and  years  ago,  where  you 
see  this  great  lake,"  so  runs  the  African  story,  "  was  a  wide 
plain,  inhabited  by  many  tribes  and  nations,  who  owned 

*  The  mythologist  may  read  in  the  following  story   a  significance 
which  supports  Gubernatis. 


FISHES  IN  FABLE  AND   FAIRY-TALE.  63 

large  herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  goats,  just  as  you  see 
Uhha  to-day.  On  this  plain  there  was  a  very  large 
town,  and  in  it  lived  a  man  and  his  wife,  who  possessed  a 
deep  well  which  contained  countless  fish,  that  furnished 
both  the  man  and  his  wife  with  an  abundant  supply  for 
their  wants ;  but  as  their  possession  of  these  treasures 
depended  upon  the  secrecy  which  they  preserved  respect- 
ing them,  no  one  outside  their  family  circle  knew  anything 
of  them.  A  tradition  was  handed  down  for  ages  through 
the  family,  from  father  to  son,  that  on  the  day  they  showed 
the  well  to  strangers  they  would  be  ruined  and  destroyed. 
It  happened,  however,  that  the  wife,  unknown  to  her  hus- 
band, loved  another  man  in  the  town,  and  bye-and-bye,  her 
passion  increasing,  she  conveyed  to  him  by  stealth  some  of 
the  delicious  fish  from  the  wonderful  well,  and  afterwards, 
when  her  husband  had  gone,  she  took  him  to  the  enclosure 
and  showed  him  what  appeared  a  circular  pool  of  deep 
clear  water,  which  bubbled  upwards  from  the  depths,  and 
she  said,  *  Behold  !  this  is  our  wondrous  fountain  ;  is  it  not 
beautiful  ?  And  in  this  fountain  are  the  fish.'  The  man 
had  never  seen  such  things  in  his  life,  for  there  were  no 
rivers  in  the  neighbourhood,  except  that  which  was  made  by 
this  fountain.  His  delight  was  very  great,  and  he  sat  for 
some  time  watching  the  fish,  and  bye-and-bye  one  of  the 
boldest  of  the  fish  came  near  where  he  was  sitting,  and  he 
suddenly  put  forth  his  hand  to  catch  it.  But  that  was  the 
end  of  all ! — for  the  Muzimu,  the  spirit,  was  angry.  And  the 
world  cracked  asunder,  the  plain  sank  lower  and  lower  and 
lower — the  bottom  cannot  now  be  reached  by  our  longest 
lines — and  the  fountain  overflowed  and  filled  the  great  gap 
that  was  made  by  the  earthquake,  and  now  what  do  you 
see  ?  The  Tanganika  !  All  the  people  of  that  great  plain 
perished,  and  all  the  houses  and  fields  and  gardens,  the 


64  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  goats  and  sheep,  were  swal- 
lowed in  the  waters." 

But  why  can  we  not  find  some  friendly  fish,  in  all  this 
host  of  friendly  fishes,  to  clear  up  some  of  our  water  myste- 
ries ?  What,  for  instance,  is  the  meaning  of  this  story  from 
the  Arabic  : — "A  traveller  near  the  Caspian  Sea  saw  some 
fishermen  catch  a  large  fish  and  perforate  its  ears,  when 
suddenly  a  ruddy-coloured  maiden,  of  a  beautiful  counte- 
nance, with  long  hair,  came  out  of  one  ear,  began  to  smite 
her  cheeks  and  to  tear  her  hair.  God,  the  Creator,  had 
provided  her  with  a  short  white  apron,  which  extended 
from  her  waist  to  her  knees."  And  what  fish  was  it  that 
gave  its  shell,  six  fathoms  long  and  three  in  breadth,  to 
make  a  bridge  across  the  palace-moat  of  the  King  of  the 
Genii ;  and  what  was  the  monster,  "  resembling  a  green 
meadow,"  on  which  Sindbad  and  his  fellow- voyagers  landed 
to  cook  their  meals,  and  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  all 
Sindbad's  subsequent  adventures?  What  were  the  fish 
that  ate  the  bitumen  that  flowed  from  the  Inaccessible 
Mountain  and  returned  it  to  the  waves  as  ambergris,  or 
the  others  that  so  pleased  the  fair  Persian  when  the  Caliph 
played  at  being  Fisherman  ?  What  was  the  sea-beast 
St.  Margaret  overcame,  or  that  other  with  which  Beorwulf 
fought  for  a  night  and  a  day  ?  Can  any  one  tell  me  the 
species  of  Thiodvitnir's  fish  that  plunges  everlastingly  in 
the  roaring  Thund  ? 


CHAPTER  VT. 

FISH   IN   HERALDRY.* 

Frequency  of  Fish-crests — Derived  from  Names  or  Puns  upon  Names 
— from  Privileges  of  Fishery — from  Incidents  of  Family  History 
— Towns  with  Fishing  Rights — Badges  of  the  Piscatorial  Fran- 
chise— Perpetuation  of  Old-world  Myths  —  Fishes  of  Fancy — 
Mermaids  and  their  Relatives — Crustaceans — Shell-fish  and 
Shells — Fish-bones  as  a  Crest — Fish  on  Signboards. 

HERALDRY  has  been  called  "the  science  of  fools  with 
long  memories,"  but,  regarded  more  sympathetically,  the 
title  which  heralds  claim  for  it,  that  it  is  "  the  shorthand 
of  history,"  is  better  deserved.  It  is  an  epitome,  also,  of 
the  strangest  fictions  and  the  most  beautiful  fancies  of  past 
times.  For  though  heraldry  proper  does  not  date  beyond 
the  twelfth  century,  its  subject  reaches  back  through  all 
the  world's  traditions  and  myths  to  the  very  remotest 
antiquity. 

Sylvanus  Magnus,  in  his  anxiety  to  prove  that  Adam 
was  a  gentleman,  has  given  him  a  coat  of  arms.  But 
heraldry  needs  no  such  absurdity  of  patronage  to  commend 
it.  For  though  as  a  science  it  may  be  modern  enough,  it 
has  been  a  loadstone  both  to  myths  and  historical  facts, 

*  The  heraldry  of  fish  is  a  curious  study,  and  in  the  works  of  Moule 
and  Mrs.  Bury  Palliser  is  invested  with  a  remarkable  interest  from  the 
intelligence  with  which  history,  folk-lore,  legends,  and  superstitions, 
are  used  to  illustrate  the  various  devices  and  to  throw  light  upon  both 
badges  and  mottoes.  In  the  charming  pages  of  Planch £  the  facts  of 
heraldry,  and  the  broad  rules  upon  which  that  fantastic  science  works, 
are  set  forth  with  a  delightful  amplitude  of  queer  lore. 

VOL.   III. — II.  F 


66  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

and  in  its  lucid  preservation  of  them  has  been  veritable 
amber. 

In  badge  and  device,  shield  and  crest,  the  fish-form  is 
very  frequently  recurrent,  and  research  into  the  figure- 
heads of  the  vessels  of  antiquity  would  probably,  while 
extending  the  legitimate  area  of  heraldry,  show  that  the 
fish  and  sea-monsters  which  are  so  conspicuous  in  modern 
coats-of-arms  are,  in  some  cases,  the  survival  of  the  badges 
with  which  the  sea-going  heroes  of  old  delighted  to  adorn 
their  war  craft.  That  heralds  have  not  taken  any  notice  of 
this,  the  earliest  European  mode  of  expressing  upon  pro- 
perty the  distinctive  emblem  of  the  owner,  is  somewhat 
remarkable,  for  in  this  old-world  fashion  a  clue  might 
perhaps  be  picked  up  that  would  connect  the  dolphins, 
salmons,  pike,  and  so  forth  of  the  present  day,  with  the 
primitive  clan-animals  and  totems  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded. 

Meanwhile,  there  is  an  abundance  of  fish-heraldry  con- 
nected with  those  popular  beliefs  which  form  the  subjects 
of  my  previous  chapters ;  and,  indeed,  the  relation  which 
the  present  chapter  bears  to  the  rest  of  this  pamphlet  is  an 
apt  simile  of  the  relation  of  heraldry  in  general  to  all 
previous  history.  For  it  traverses  every  subject,  and  con- 
cerns itself  with  each  phase  of  animism  in  turn.  I  shall 
treat  this  chapter,  therefore,  as  an  epitome  of  those  that 
precede  it,  and  follow  fish  heraldry  in  particular  through 
the  same  aspects,  and  in  the  same  sequence,  as  I  have 
dealt  with  fish-lore  in  general. 

Fish  crests  and  badges  have,  it  seems  to  me,  been 
acquired  by  three  means — from  -the  resemblance  of  name, 
from  privileges  of  fishery,  and  from  incidents  in  personal 
history.  To  the  first  class  belong  the  impresas  of  the 
families  of  Barbel,  Breame,  Chub,  Codd,  Crabbe,  Dolphin, 


FISH  IN  HERALDRY.  67 

Eales,  Fish,  Fry,  Goujon,  Haddock,  Hake,  Herring,  Karp- 
fen,  Loach,  Mackerel,  Mullet,  Pike,  Roach,  Seal,  Shelley, 
Smelt,  Sprat,  Sturgeon,  Tench,  Troutbeck,  Whalley,  Whiting, 
and  no  doubt  many  others.  A  number  more  take  their 
cognisance  from  local  names,  such  as  Butt  (flounder), 
Chabot  (miller's  thumb),  Dare  (dace),  Geddes  and  Lucy 
(pike),  Sparling  (smelt),  Tubbe  (gurnard),  Gobyon  (gudgeon), 
Cobbe  (herring-fry),  Garvine  (garvie  or  sprat),  and  Carter 
(carter-fish  or  sole)  ;  while  very  many  others  adopt  as  a 
crest  either  some  fish  which  bears  a  name  of  proximate 
resemblance,  as  Bar  (barbel),  Sammes  (salmon),  Conghurst 
(congers),  Piketon  (pike),  Garling  (gar-fish),  Heringot 
(herring),  Tarbutt  (turbot),  Ellis  or  Elwis  (eels) ;  or  else 
one  upon  which,  more  heraldico,  they  can  pun  or  make  a 
joke,  as  the  head  of  a  bull  for  the  Gurneys  (a  gurnard 
being  also  called  the  "  bull's  head ") ;  a  fish-skeleton  for 
armorial  bearings  because  an  otter  was  the  crest.  The 
Caters  have  a  salmon  because  that  fish  was  often  the 
"  standard "  of  an  entertainment  that  had  been  properly 
catered  for ;  the  Cheneys  a  burbot,  or  coney-fish,  with  a 
rabbit ;  the  Dishingtons  a  scallop-shell,  the  pilgrim's  dish. 
The  Lucy  family  has  the  pike's  head,  which  is  arrived  at 
in  two  ways :  first  as  the  head  of  the  luce  (the  pike),  and 
second  as  the  fleur-de-luce  (the  fleur-de-lis),  which  in  its 
shape  is  like  the  head  of  a  halberd  or  pike. 

Another  variety  of  the  fish-crest  (but  still  connected  with 
the  name)  is  that  in  which  any  fish  for  which  a  particular 
river  happens  to  be  famous,  is  adopted  in  the  arms  of 
families  who  take  their  name  from  that  river  or  an  estate 
upon  it.  For  instance,  Yarrell  bears  the  ruffe  which 
abounds  in  the  Yare ;  Way  (from  Wey),  a  salmon  ;  Streat- 
iey,  an  eel-spear,  that  place  being  noted  for  that  form  of 
sport.  The  Broughams  bear  a  pike,  from  the  abundance 

F  2 


68  FISHES   OF  FANCY. 

of  that  fish  in  the  Lowther ;  and  the  Glynns  a  salmon- 
spear,  from  the  fishery  at  Glynn-Ford,  on  the  Fowey. 

As  other  instances  of  "privilege"  (personal)  may  be 
noted  the  Lostwithiel  crest  of  fish,  the  Earls  of  Cornwall 
having  feudal  rights  of  fishery  in  the  Fowey,  and  the  horn 
of  tenure  of  the  Hungerford  burgesses  ;  while  among  other 
English  crests  typical  of  the  franchise  of  rivers  are  eel- 
baskets,  oyster-dredges,  fish-weirs,  nets,  and  fish-hooks. 
The  cognizance  of  the  "  Stern  Falconbridge  " — "  the  thrice 
victorious  Lord  of  Falconbridge,  Knight  of  the  noble  Order 
of  St.  George,  Worthy  Saint  Michael,  and  the  Golden 
Fleece,  great  Mareschal  to  Henry  VI.,  of  all  the  wars 
within  the  realm  of  France"* — was  "the  fysshe  hoke." 
In  Germany,  this  heraldic  indication  of  rights  in  waters 
is  very  frequent,  the  fishing-spear,  or  "  pheon,"  t  recurring 
abundantly  in  family  escutcheons. 

Analogous  to  this,  of  course,  is  the  representation  on  the 
civic  seals  of  fishing  towns,  of  the  particular  fish  that  was 
most  important.  Thus  Kingston-on-Thames  bears  the 
salmon,  in  reference  to  "the  privilege  of  fishery"  long 
enjoyed  by  the  town.  "  By  charter  of  Philip  and  Mary, 
a  fishing-weir  is  held  by  the  Corporation  of  Kingston  in 
consideration  of  repairing  the  bridge,  which  was  formerly 
of  wood,  but  has  been  lately  rebuilt  with  stone,  and  the 
emblems  of  their  privilege,  three  salmon,  are  sculptured 
over  the  centre  arch."  For  the  same  reason  the  burghs 
of  Peebles,  Lanark,  and  Helmsdale,  show  the  same  fish 
on  their  seals  —  the  salmon  fishery  at  Helmsdale  (in 
Sutherlandshire)  being  one  of  the  ancient  privileges  of 

*  The  fishing- spear,  or  "pheon,"  better  known  now  as  the  broad- 
arrow,  has  been  the  royal  mark  of  possession  from  the  days  of  Coeur- 
de-Lion. 

t  «  Henry  VI.,'  Part  I.,  act  iv.,  scene  7. 


FISH  IN  HERALDRY.  69 

the  dukedom.  The  town  seal  of  Coleraine  shows  the 
salmon ;  and  the  Lords  of  the  Isles,  as  masters  of  many 
fisheries,  bear  the  same  fish.  The  town  of  Stafford  (Izaak 
Walton's  birthplace)  is  on  the  Sow,  a  river  noted  for  its 
trout  and  grayling.  A  charter  from  King  John  confirmed 
the  privileges  which  had  been  held  by  the  town  from 
remote  antiquity,  and  the  corporation  seal,  showing  the 
fish  in  the  stream,  with  the  castle  on  the  bank,  alludes  to 
this  right  of  fishing.  So,  too,  Newcastle  (on  Trent)  bears 
an  allusion  to  a  "  franchise  "  of  fishery.  Yarmouth  has,  of 
course,  herrings,  and  has  carried  them  ever  since  King 
John  gave  the  burgesses  their  charter  with  the  right  of 
the  fishery,  of  which  till  then  the  privilege  had  vested  in 
the  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports.  Wexford  displays  the 
hake ;  and  on  the  seal  of  Congleton  (in  Cheshire)  two 
congers  glare  at  each  other.  Kilrenny,  in  Fifeshire,  carries 
fish-hooks  on  its  shield  as  typical  of  its  chief  source  of 
revenue.  Dunwich,  Southwold,  and  Inveraray,  all  confess 
their  gratitude  to  the  herring  ;  and  Truro,  Looe,  Fowey,  and 
other  Cornish  towns,  to  the  pilchard. 

As  illustrative  of  the  third  class,  the  fish-crests  com- 
memorative of  incidents  of  personal  history  are  the  Con- 
stantinople dolphins  of  the  Courteneys ;  the  whale  of  the 
Enderbys,  whose  ancestors  were  mighty  fishers  in  the 
Northern  Seas  ;  the  barbels  of  the  Colstons,  one  of  those 
fishes  having  the  credit  of  stopping  a  leak  in  a  ship  in 
which  a  Colston  was  embarked  ;  the  shark  of  the  Watsons, 
Sir  Brook  Watson  having  lost  his  leg  from  the  bite  of  a 
shark  in  the  harbour  of  Havannah. 

For  the  connection  of  heraldry  with  the  sea-myths  of 
antiquity  it  would  really  be  only  necessary  to  instance  the 
dolphin.  It  is  with  heralds  the  "  chief  of  fish  ";  and  just 
as  in  Hellenic  devices  it  was  always  used  to  represent  the 


70  FISHES   OF  FANCY. 

fish-world  in  general,  being  placed  at  the  feet  of  Venus,  on 
the  tripod  of  Apollo,  in  the  beard  of  Poseidon,  at  the  heels 
of  Orpheus,  and  employed  perpetually  to  symbolize  the 
ocean  itself, — so  in  the  modern  art  of  emblematic  designing 
it  is  the  hieroglyph  of  fish  in  general.  Thus  a  great  many 
towns  that  owe  their  prosperity  to  their  fisheries  bear  a 
dolphin  as  their  cognizance.  Two  dolphins  embowed  within 
a  shield  are  upon  the  seal  of  Brighton.  Poole  carries  a 
dolphin  and  mermaid.  So,  too,  among  many  others  on 
the  Continent,  Dunkirk,  Dornheim,  Otranto,  Bernbach, 
Onoltzbach,  Swartzac,  bear  the  dolphin  as  a  "  fish." 

Old  gems  show  us  Neptune  on  a  dolphin,  Arion  on 
another,  Amphitrite  in  her  shell  drawn  by  a  team  of 
dolphins,  and  ships  always  attended  by  friendly  dolphins. 
Emperors  of  Rome  had  the  dolphin  and  anchor*  for  the 
device  of  their  seals,  and  under  the  Greek  empire  the 
dolphin  continued  an  imperial  cognizance.  So  in  later 
times  English  admirals  took  the  sea-god  or  the  dolphin 
for  their  supporters.  Italian  academies  bore  the  emblem 
of  Arion  with  his  harp — 

"  A  fiddler  on  a  fish  through  waves  advanced  ; 
He  twanged  his  catgut,  and  the  dolphin  danced." 

Princesses  borrowed  Amphitrite's  shell  and  steeds,  and 
European  kings  adopted  the  ensigns  of  bygone  empires. 
Fortune  on  a  dolphin  was  the  device  of  Charles,  Archduke 
of  Austria.  Admiral  Chabot  had  the  dolphin  and  anchor 
of  Titus  and  Vespasian,  as  also  had  that  Adolphus  of  Nassau 
who  was  killed  at  the  Battle  of  the  Spurs.  Charles  V. 

*  A  dolphin  twisted  round  the  anchor,  with  the  legend  "  Hasten 
slowly  "  (so  the  English  family  of  On-slow).  Analogous  devices  are 
the  crab  and  butterfly  of  Augustus,  and  the  tortoise  rigged  with  sails  ol 
the  Tuscan  Dukes. 


FISH  IN  HERALDRY.  71 

used  the  dolphins  for  supporters,  as  bettering  in  swiftness 
the  azure  greyhounds  which  formerly  held  that  place  of 
honourable  trust ;  and  Portugal  among  its  royal  crests 
has  the  dolphin  and  ship.  Another  fish-antiquity  that 
has  survived  is  the  remora.  Thus  Giovanni  Battista 
Bottigella,  of  Padua,  who  fought  in  the  Italian  wars  under 
Ferranti  Gonzaga,  took  for  device  a  ship  in  full  sail,  with 
the  remora,  or  sucking-fish,  attached  to  it,  and  the  motto, 
sic  frustra.  Another  motto  for  a  similar  crest  is  Sic  parvis 
magna  cedunt,  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  Spenser  employs 
the  figure  in  his  verse.  The  mythical  fragrance  of  the 
cuttle-fish  suggested  to  Domenichi  to  give  the  Cardinal 
Ferrara  as  device  a  sepia,  with  the  motto,  Sic  tua  non 
virtus,  "  meaning  that  as  the  cuttle-fish  by  its  sweet  odour 
attracts  other  fish  around  it,  so  the  Cardinal,  by  the 
sweetness  and  affability  of  his  disposition,  drew  all  men 
after  him."  By  the  ancients,  again,  the  seal  was  supposed 
to  enjoy  immunity  from  lightning,  and  among  those  who 
borrowed  the  protection  of  its  skin  was  the  Emperor 
Augustus,  who  always  wore  a  belt  of  seal-fur.  The  idea 
arose  from  the  fancy  that  the  seal  sleeps  most  profoundly 
during  thunderstorms,  and  a  seal  slumbering  peacefully 
on  a  rock  in  the  midst  of  a  stormy  sea,  still  survives  as  one 
of  the  devices  of  the  Dukes  of  Mantua.  The  crab  again 
was  believed  by  the  ancients  to  grow  only  during  the 
waxing  of  the  moon  ;*  hence  the  crab  of  the  Costi  family, 
looking  gratefully  at  the  moon  which  warms  the  sea  and 
makes  the  shelled  thing  comfortable,  with  the  motto,  "I 
take  my  form  from  its  varied  aspect." 

From   the   old   fiction  of  the    sea-mouse  piloting    the 

t  "That   planet,"  says  Pliny,  "is  comfortable  in  the  night-time, 
and  with  her  warm  light  mitigateth  the  cold  of  the  night." 


72  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

whale,*  James  V.  of  Scotland  took  his  device  of  the  whale 
and  little  fish,  with  the  motto  "Urget  majora." 

As  perpetuating  other  old  superstitions,  should  be  cited 
the  sea-lions  borne  by  the  Earls  of  Thanet  (where,  says 
Moule,  "  the  inhabitants,  partaking  of  the  amphibious 
character  of  the  sea-lion,  live  by  sea  and  land,  making  the 
most  of  both  elements  as  farmers  and  fishermen  ") ;  the 
black  sea-lions  of  the  Harlands ;  the  blue  one  of  the 
Duckworths.  The  sea-horses,  as  an  emblem  of  naval 
dominion,  are  among  the  insignia  of  our  Admiralty  ;  and, 
among  other  coats-of-arms,  are  to  be  found  in  that  of 
David  Garrick.  The  Earls  of  Cardigan  also  display  the 
sea-horse. 

Heraldic  variations  of  other  terrestrial  monsters  of  fancy 
are  the  sea-griffin  (to  be  seen  on  a  pillar  in  IfHey  Church), 
the  sea-unicorn  of  the  Prussian  arms,  and  the  antlered 
fish. 

The  mermaid  and  her  relatives  are  especially  popular 
as  devices ;  and  the  half-human  half-fish  monster  that 
from  the  Cannes  of  ancient  Chaldaea  to  the  Nibanaba  of 
the  Canadian  Indian,  has  always  held  a  place  in  popular 
belief,  is  a  very  conspicuous,  and  indeed  beautiful,  device 
in  heraldry.  In  French  heraldry  the  mermaid  is  called 
the  Siren ;  in  Germany  she  has  two  tails ;  in  the  Italian 
she  carries  a  harp  ;  and  in  many  cases  in  each  country 
she  is  crowned.  In  England  it  is  a  very  ancient  crest ; 
'and  among  others  the  Lords  Byron,  the  Earls  of  Ports- 
mouth (a  black  mermaid  with  golden  hair),  with  the 
families  of  Bonham,  Broadhurst,  Garnyss,  Hastings,  John- 
son, Lapp,  Lauzun,  Mason,  Rutherford,  Moore,  and  many 

*  "  For  whereas  the  whale  hath  no  use  of  his  eies  (by  reason  of  the 
heavie  weight  of  his  eie-brows  that  cover  them),  the  other  swimmeth 
before  him." 


FISH  IN  HERALDRY.  73 

others,  display  the  sea-maiden  in  their  armorial  bear- 
ings. With  her  comb  and  looking-glass  she  smiles  at  us 
from  the  shields  of  the  Holmes,  Ellises,  Lapps ;  and  as  a 
supporter  holds  up  the  arms  of  the  Viscounts  Boyne  and 
Hood,  the  Earls  of  Howth  and  Caledon,  and  is  borne  by 
the  heads  of  the  families  of  Sinclair  of  Rosslyn,  and  Scott 
of  Harden.  Two  mermaids  crowned  are  the  supporters 
of  the  Boston  arms.  La  Mellusine,  "  a  very  beautiful 
syren  in  a  bath,  who  with  one  hand  combs  her  thick  hair 
over  her  shoulders,  and  with  the  other  holds  a  mirror,"  is 
an  instance  of  its  very  frequent  device  in  French  heraldry ; 
and  another,  on  a  coronet,  holding  a  bottle  and  a  glass, 
a  specimen  of  the  Belgian  "  Mermaid." 

Her  kindred,  the  tritons,  are  also  familiar  badges.  As 
a  crest,  a  triton  leaving  the  sedges  is  borne  by  the  Tatton 
Sykes  ;  a  merman  with  a  hawk's  bill  is  the  crest  of  the 
Lany  and  Cratfield  families.  Two  Tritons  support  the 
Lyttelton  arms,  and  other  instances  are  displayed  on 
the  shields  of  the  Earls  of  Sandwich,  and  some  of  the 
Campbells. 

Of  fishes,  religious  and  ecclesiastical,  the  science  takes 
comprehensive  notice,  and  from  the  walls  of  Dendereh  and 
the  tombs  of  the  martyrs,  the  fish  symbol  has  come  down 
to  our  own  day,  and  the  Pisces  may  be  seen  on  the  doorway 
of  Iffley  Church,  in  the  nave  of  Peterchurch  in  Hereford- 
shire, and  elsewhere.  Whales  are  the  insignia  of  Whalley 
Abbey  ;  bream  of  Peterborough  ;  haddock  of  Petershausen  ; 
herring  of  St.  Edmund's,  and  also  of  the  Black  Friars 
Priory  at  Yarmouth.  The  arms  assumed  by  monasteries 
were  sometimes  those  of  their  benefactors,  as  the  pike  of 
Calder  Abbey,  largely  endowed  by  the  Lucy  family,  and 
the  salmon  of  St.  Augustine's  at  Bristol,  in  memory  of  the 
fishery  attached  to  that  abbey  by  the  Lords  of  Berkeley. 


74  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

Many  prelates  and  some  primates  have  borne  fish  crests. 
Thus  Peter  Courtenay,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  afterwards  of 
Rochester,  bears  the  dolphin  of  Constantinople — a  previous 
Peter  of  the  house  having  attained  to  the  purple,  and 
transmitted  it  to  his  sons  Robert  and  Baldwin.  An  azure 
dolphin  curves  itself  upon  the  arms  of  John  Fyshar, 
another  Bishop  of  Rochester,  who  also  bore  three  eel-spears 
— Rochester  Cathedral  being  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew, 
who  was  put  to  death  with  those  instruments.  William 
James,  Bishop  of  Durham,  also  bore  a  black  dolphin ; 
Henry  Robinson,  Bishop  of  Carlyle,  a  flying-fish  ;  John 
Cameron,  Bishop,  and  James  Beaton,  Archbishop,  of  Glas- 
gow, carry  the  salmon  of  the  city  arms  ;  Cardinal  Benli- 
venga,  a  grayling ;  Richard  Cheney,  Bishop  of  Gloucester, 
the  ling ;  Cardinal  Enrique  de  Guzman,  two  pots  of  eels  ; 
William  Attwater,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  three  crayfish ;  and 
so  on  through  a  lengthy  catalogue  of  prelates  who  have 
gone  to  the  fish-world  for  their  crests.  Archbishop  Herring, 
and  Thomas  Sprat,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  display  on  their 
coats  the  fishes  of  their  own  name. 

Of  the  higher  dignities  of  fish  in  heraldry,  imperial  and 
royal  examples  have  already  been  given.  Among  the 
remainder,  barbel  appear  in  the  royal  arms  of  Bohemia 
and  Hungary,  and  again  in  the  arms  of  Queen  Margaret 
of  Anjou;  salmon  on  those  of  the  Princes  of  Lorraine; 
a  dried  cod  crowned  is  the  arms  of  Iceland,*  and  borne 
by  the  Kings  of  Denmark  ;  the  crab,  "  an  emblem  of  incon- 
stancy," says  Moule,  appears  on  the  shield  of  Francis  I, 
and,  according  to  Sir  Samuel  Meyrick,  is  an  allusion  to 
the  advancing  and  retrograde  movements  of  the  English 
army  at  Boulogne. 

Crustaceans,  indeed,  are  curiously  frequent.     "  The  lob- 

*  "  Of  Iceland  to  write  is  little  nede,  save  of  stock-fish  "  (Hakluyt). 


FISH  IN  HERALDRY.  75 

ster,  as  an  enemy  to  serpents,  was,"  says  Moule,  "  some- 
times used  as  an  emblem  of  temperance,  and  two  lobsters 
fighting  as  an  emblem  of  sedition."  The  union  of  a 
lobster  with  the  human  form  is  an  impresa  of  very  old 
date,  but  the  families  on  the  Continent  that  bear  this 
crustacean  for  a  badge  probably  refer  it  back  to  no  earlier 
times  than  the  chivalric  days  when  knights  went  forth  to 
fight  in  that  armour  of  overlapping  plates  which  were 
called  "  ecrivisses."  Prawns  and  shrimps  are  among  the 
heraldic  bearings  of  the  Crafords  and  Atseas  of  Kent ; 
and  the  crayfish,  also  an  English  crest,  was  the  badge 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  betrayed  that  warrior  to 
imprisonment  when  he  had  hoped  to  escape  identifi- 
cation among  a  heap  of  the  killed  after  the  battle  of 
St.  Aubin  du  Cormier.  The  crab  frequently  recurs — the 
golden  crabs  of  the  Scropes,  Danbys,  and  Bythesees  being 
instances.  The  turtle  is  not  common,  there  being  perhaps 
only  six  in  English  heraldry  ;  and  among  the  miscellanea  of 
the  sea  are  found  the  starfish,  sea-urchins  (Echinidae),  and 
numerous  shellfish. 

A  scallop  on  a  shield  shows,  or  should  show,  that  an 
ancestor  had  been  in  the  Crusades,  as  it  was  the  cognizance 
of  St.  James,  and  after  him  of  all  who  fought  against  the 
infidels,  and  so  of  all  pious  pilgrims.  The  badge  of  the 
Order  of  St.  James  of  Spain  is  a  sword  with  a  cross 
handle  and  a  scallop  on  the  pommel.  The  same  shell 
forms  the  badge  and  collar  of  the  Order  of  St.  James 
in  Holland,  and  Saint  Louis  instituted  the  "  Order  of  the 
Ship  and  Escallop  "  for  the  decoration  of  the  nobility  who 
accompanied  him  to  the  Holy  Land.  The  collar  of  the 
Order  of  St.  Michael,  founded  by  Louis  XL,  was  garnished 
with  golden  scallops.  The  cockle,  whelk,  and  several  of 
the  genera  Turbo  and  Cyprcea  found  among  modern  crests 


76  FISHES   OF  FANCY. 

and  shields,  date  back  to  the  palmy  days  of  Phoenicia, 
when  Tyre  and  other  cities  of  the  Mediterranean  stamped 
their  medals  and  coins  with  them.  The  nautilus,  a  favourite 
emblem  in  Southern  Europe,  bears  in  the  badge  of  the 
Affidati  Academy  the  motto,  "  Safe  above  and  below,"  in 
allusion  to  the  old-world  description  of  its  habits. 

"  But  among  the  greatest  wonders  of  nature  is  that  fish  which  of 
some  is  called  nautilos,  of  others  pompilos.  This  fish,  for  to  come 
aloft  above  the  water  turneth  upon  his  backe,  and  raiseth  or  heaveth 
himselfe  up  by  little  and  little  ;  and  to  the  end  he  might  swim  with 
more  ease  as  disburdened  of  a  sinke,  he  dischargeth  all  the  water 
within  him  at  a  pipe.  After  this,  turning  up  his  two  foremost  clawes,  or 
armes,  hee  displaieth  and  stretcheth  out  betweene  them  a  membrane 
or  skin  of  a  wonderful  thinnesse  ;  this  serveth  him  instead  of  a  saile  in 
the  aire  above  water.  With  the  rest  of  his  armes  or  clawes  he  roweth 
and  laboureth  under  water,  and  with  his  taile  in  the  mids,  he  directeth 
his  course,  and  steereth  as  it  were  with  an  helme.  Thus,  holdeth  he 
on,  and  maketh  way  in  the  sea,  with  a  faire  shew  of  a  foist  or  galley 
under  saile.  Now  if  he  be  afraid  of  anything  in  the  way,  hee  makes 
no  more  adoe  but  draweth  in  water  to  baillise  his  bodie,  and  so 
plungeth  himselfe  downe,  and  sinketh  to  the  bottom." 

But,  of  course,  the  most  celebrated  and  popular  of  shell 
crests  and  devices  was  the  pearl-oyster.  Charged  with 
its  precious  freight,  it  appears  in  a  hundred  forms,  the 
legend  always  repeating  one  or  other  of  the  curious  and 
beautiful  fancies  of  antiquity.  Every  royal  Margaret,  by 
right  of  name,  claimed  the  precious  thing  as  her  emblem  ; 
princes  and  nobles  bore  it  on  their  impresas,  and  the 
coronets  of  nobility  take  the  degrees  of  rank  from  the 
pearls  upon  them. 

In  German  heraldry,  fish  as  devices  are  even  more 
common,  and  their  positions  on  the  shields  are  infinitely 
more  varied  than  in  the  armorial  bearings  of  England. 
In  France,  also,  where  heraldry  is  more  generally  popular 
than  in  Britain,  there  is  a  striking  fertility  in  design,  and 


FISH  IN  HERALDRY.  77 

the  fish  form  is  very  frequent.  Among  the  curiosities  of 
foreign  heraldry  must  certainly  be  accounted  the  fish 
skeletons  which  we  find  as  baronial  crests  on  the  Con- 
tinent. That  Amsterdam  is  built  on  herring  bones  is  an 
old  saying  ;  but  why  Bavaria,  Franconia,  and  Switzerland 
should  adopt  such  a  singular,  such  a  beggarly,  badge,  is  a 
phenomenon  still  requiring  explanation. 

On  signboards  the  fish  is  a  figure  of  common  recurrence. 
The  trout  is  a  favourite  angler's  cognizance,  and  "the 
golden  perch,"  the  gudgeon,  the  salmon,  and  the  pike  are 
among  the  individual  fishes  that  swing  before  the  doors  of 
riverside  inns.  The  Elephant  and  Fish — unless  fish  means 
"  dragon,"  which  in  tradition  is  the  hereditary  foe  of  the 
elephant — is  a  device  that  puzzles  the  herald  ;  nor  is  the 
Cock  and  Dolphin  more  obvious  in  its  significance.  The 
dolphin,  of  course,  is  everywhere,  in  all  kinds  of  curious 
combinations,  and  passing  through  as  large  a  range  of 
colours  as  the  fabled  creature  when  dying. 

Moule  only  glances  at  piscine  heraldry  in  his  admirable 
work.  "  Frequently,"  he  says,  "  the  sign  of  the  fish  is  seen 
without  any  further  specification  ;  in  this  case  it  is  probably 
meant  for  the  dolphin,  which  is  the  signboard  fish  par 
excellence.  The  fish  sign  is  a  very  common  public-house 
decoration  at  the  present  day,  probably  for  the  same 
reason  as  the  swan,  because  he  is  fond  of  liquor — nay,  to 
such  an  extent  goes  his  reputation  for  intemperance,  that 
to  '  drink  like  a  fish  '  is  a  quality  of  no  small  excellence 
with  publicans."  In  Carlisle,  however,  there  are  two  signs 
of  the  Fish  and  Dolphin,  a  rather  puzzling  combination, 
unless  it  has  reference  to  the  dolphin's  chase  after  the 
shoal  of  small  fishes.  The  Fish  and  Bell,  Soho,  may  either 
allude  to  a  well-known  anecdote  of  a  certain  numskull, 
who,  when  he  caught  a  fish  which  he  desired  to  keep  for 


;8  FISHES   OF  FANCY. 

dinner  on  some  future  occasion,  put  it  back  into  the  river 
with  a  bell  round  its  neck,  so  that  he  should  be  able  to 
know  its  whereabouts  the  moment  he  wanted  it ;  or  it  may 
be  the  usual  bell  added  in  honour  of  the  bell-ringers.  A 
quaint  variety  of  this  sign  is  the  Bell  and  Mackerel,  in  the 
Mile  End  Road.  The  Three  Fishes  was  a  favourite  device 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  crossing  or  interpenetrating  each 
other  in  such  a  manner  that  the  head  of  one  fish  was  at  the 
tail  of  another. 

"  The  Three  Herrings,  the  sign  of  James  Moxton,  a  book- 
seller in  the  Strand,  near  York  House,  in  1675,  is  evidently 
but  another  name  for  the  Three  Fishes  ;  at  the  present 
day  it  is  the  sign  of  an  ale-house  in  Bell  Yard,  Temple 
Bar.  Several  taverns  with  this  sign  are  mentioned  in  the 
French  tales  and  plays  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Two 
of  them  seem  to  have  been  very  celebrated,  one  in  the 
Faubourg  St.  Marceau,  the  other  near  the  Palais  de  Justice. 
This  last  one  seems  to  have  been  particularly  famous,  for 
it  is  named  as  a  rival  to  the  celebrated  Pomme  de  Pin. 
The  Fish  and  Quart,  at  Leicester,  must  be  passed  by  in 
silence,  as  the  combination  cannot  immediately  be  ac- 
counted for.  Were  it  in  France  a  solution  would  be  easier, 
for  in  French  slang  a  'poisson,'  or  fish,  means  a  small 
measure  of  wine.  The  Fish  and  Eels  at  Roydon,  in  Essex, 
the  Fish  and  Kettle,  Southampton,  and  the  White  Bait, 
Bristol,  all  tell  their  own  tale,  and  need  no  comment.  The 
Salmon  is  seen  occasionally  near  places  where  it  is  caught. 
The  Salmon  and  Ball  is  the  well-known  ball  of  the  silk- 
mercers  in  former  times  added  to  the  sign  of  the  salmon ; 
whilst  the  Salmon  and  Compasses  is  the  masonic  emblem 
that  is  added  to  the  sign.  Both  these  occur  in  more  than 
one  instance  in  London." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FISHES  IN   MODERN   FOLK-LORE. 

Survival  of  Zoolatry  in  Modern  Folk-lore — Mermaid  Superstitions — 
Water-horses  and  Water-bulls — How  Fishes  got  their  Shapes — 
Feminine  influences  Sinister — Parsons  of  ill-omen  to  Fishermen 
—Fish  annoyed  by  Bells— Fish-prognostications— As  Weather- 
prophets— Fishes  in  Medicine — Superstitions  as  to  Origin  of 
certain  Fishes. 

FACE  to  face  with  the  living  myths. and  superstitions  of 
the  present,  one  feels,  as  I  think  it  is  Max  Miiller  says, 
like  a  geologist  who  in  a  country  ramble  should  sud- 
denly find  himself  confronted  with  a  herd  of  megatheria. 
For  the  world  has  not  all  grown  old  together,  and  there 
are  still  in  existence  to-day  people  who  have  not  aged 
a  bit  in  their  intelligence  since  the  "  once-upon-a-time " 
period  which  we — the  precocious  youngsters  and  the  wise- 
acres of  the  human  family — only  now  retain  as  the  com- 
mencement of  children's  fairy-tales.  We  ourselves,  for 
instance,  have  long  ago  learned  to  look  down  as  from 
a  superior  pedestal  upon  the  beast-world,  and  loftily 
bespeak  sympathy  for  the  "poor  dumb  brute."  But  it  is 
not  so  all  the  world  over ;  for  there  are  nations  breathing 
the  same  air  with  us,  sharing  the  same  sun  and  moon, 
launching  boats  on  the  same  seas,  who  still  to-day,  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  in  the  age  of  electricity,  speak 
respectfully  of  beasts,  birds,  and  fishes  as  of  equals. 
There  are  actually  some  also  who  still  look  up  to  and 


8o  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

reverence  the  things  in  fur,  feathers,  and  scales  as  their 
superiors. 

The  Red  Indian  calls  them  his  "younger  brothers,"  and 
though  compelled  to  eat  them,  he  does  so  with  apologies. 
He  excuses  himself  for  the  painful  necessity  of  making  a 
meal  off  his  "  dear  cousin  "  ;  deprecates  the  anger  of  the 
eaten  thing's  relations  by  formulas  of  propitiation,  and 
hopes  by  posthumous  ceremonials  of  respect  to  the  skull 
and  bones  and  skin,  to  condone  the  consumption  of  the 
meat  and  fat.  This  is  all,  no  doubt,  grotesque  enough, 
but  it  is  very  much  like  meeting  a  megatherium  in  a 
country  lane.  One  begins  to  feel  the  clothes  slipping  off 
one's  back.  The  fingers  itch  to  chip  flints.  Time  seems 
to  wheel  backwards  through  the  intervening  cycles,  and 
we  are  again  the  contemporaries  of  primitive  man.  In 
this  savage  theology,  this  zoolatry,  that  sees  divinity  itself 
— or  emanations  from  divinities,  or  symbols  of  divinity — 
in  the  beast-world,  the  fishes  afford  a  very  interesting  study. 
Throughout  the  Pacific,  modern  folk-lore  is  still  the  same 
clan-animal  worship  that  I  have  referred -to  in  Chapter  III. 
The  fish  are  lords  of  the  sea.  In  the  Tongan,  Fiji, 
and  other  groups  of  islands,  reverence  for  the  whale  and 
shark,  eel  and  sun-fish,  and  many  another  creature  of  the 
waters,  influences  the  daily  life  of  the  people,  controls  their 
habits,  and  colours  their  thought.  Among  tutelary  spirits 
— the  "  aitu  "  of  the  Samoans,  the  "  atua  "  of  New  Zealand — 
we  find  all  the  larger  and  more  dangerous  fishes ;  and  just 
as  in  the  Far  West  we  find  fish  among  the  medicine- 
animals  and  the  totems  of  the  Red  Man,  so  in  South  Africa 
we  have  "The  Fishes"  tribe  of  the  Bechuana,  the  Batlapi  ; 
and  among  the  tutelary  "  Kobongs "  of  the  Australian 
savage  are  numerous  fish.  And  with  these,  their  habits, 
predilections,  and  potencies,  the  modern  folk-lore  of  these 


FISHES  IN  MODERN  FOLK-LORE.  81 

people  solely  concerns  itself.  They  think  and  live,  in  fact, 
in  the  old  world  of  zoological  myths. 

To  take  the  Polynesians  only  in  illustration  of  the  rest : 
fish  and  fishing  are  everything  with  them — their  religion, 
their  history,  their  art,  their  poetry,  their  daily  life.  They 
have  fish  gods,  fish  feasts,  fish  sacraments.  In  every-day 
matters,  all  quarrels  arise  out  of  fishing  affairs,  and  every 
narrative  of  an  incident  commences  "when  out  fishing." 
Similes  of  beauty  and  personal  grace  are  drawn  from 
fish.  They  use  sea  produce  as  currency,  and  divide  off 
the  water  surface  into  individual  holdings  with  the  accuracy 
of  land  surveys.  For  are  they  not,  after  all,  the  descend- 
ants of  fish  themselves  ?  and  is  not  the  earth,  a  gift  of  the 
sea,  a  fish  also  ?  One  of  their  original  gods  was  out 
fishing,  and  letting  a  hook — made  out  of  a  bone  of  "  an 
ancestress  "  (fish-hooks  are  still  made  out  of  fish  bones) — 
over  the  boat-side,  hooked  the  earth,  and  drew  it  up  to 
the  surface.  In  the  true  spirit  of  zoolatry  he  returned  at 
once  to  sacrifice  a  portion,  but  while  he  was  away,  his 
companions,  unable  to  restrain  their  appetites,  began  eating 
the  fish,  which  flopped  and  flung  itself  about.  This 
accounts  for  the  earth  being  so  hilly  and  irregular.  Had 
the  hungry  ones  duly  waited  till  the  propitiatory  "  first- 
lings "  had  been  offered,  the  earth  would  probably  have 
been  smooth  and  flat  (as  all  savages  would  like  it  to  be), 
for  the  fish  would  have  understood  that  though  it  was 
being  eaten,  the  proper  formalities  of  respect  had  been 
observed,  and  would  have  placidly  accepted  the  apologetic 
offering. 

One  of  the  most  important  incidents  of  their  folk-lore 
is  that  which  tells  us  how  Kae  stole  a  whale.  Not  that 
this  cetacean  lends  itself  very  handily  to  the  industry  of 

the  pickpocket,  or   seems  a  suitable  article  for  stealing. 
VOL.  in.— H.  G 


82  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

But  then  Kae  was  a  magician.  Moreover,  the  whale  was 
a  tame  one.  It  belonged  to  the  god  Tinirau,  who,  when 
visitors  dropped  in  upon  him,  would  occasionally  hand 
round  bits  of  his  pet  whale,  as  our  forefathers  used  to 
hand  round  comfits,  or,  as  everywhere  in  the  East,  the  tray 
still  circulates  among  callers  with  the  complimentary  car- 
damum  or  clove.  And  one  day  Kae  whistled  the  whale 
away  from  its  master,  and  ate  it  up  in  the  seclusion  of 
his  own  parlour.  But  Tinirau  guessed  where  his  pet  had 
gone,  and  told  his  wife,  and  she,  with  some  of  her  lady 
friends,  went  and  kidnapped  the  magician,  and  brought 
him  back  in  bonds  to  Tinirau,  who  very  properly  put  him 
to  death,  and  gave  him  "  to  the  sharks  and  whales  "  to  eat. 

In  another  direction,  the  shapes  of  fishes,  the  Polynesians 
have  a  lively  mythological  imagination.  Why  some  fish 
are  flat  is  thus  explained  :  Ina,  the  daughter  of  Vaitooringa 
and  Ngaetna,  attempted  to  flee  to  the  Sacred  Isle.  She 
had  asked  one  fish  after  another  to  bear  her  thither,  but 
they  were  unable  to  sustain  such  a  burden,  and  upset  her 
in  shallow  water.  She  at  last  tried  the  sole,  and  was  suc- 
cessfully borne  to  the  edge  of  the  breakers.  Here  again 
she  was  unshipped,  and  the  heavenly  maid  (tantaene 
animis  !)  was  so  provoked  that  she  stamped  on  the  head 
of  the  unfortunate  fish,  and  with  such  energy  that  the 
underneath  eye  was  squeezed  through  to  the  upper  side ! 
"  Hence  the  sole  is  now  obliged  to  swim  flat,  with  one  side 
of  its  face  having  no  eye."  But  the  day's  work  was  by  no 
means  over,  for  Ina  now  summoned  the  shark,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  the  Sacred  Island.  Feeling  thirsty 
during  the  voyage,  Ina  cracked  a  cocoa-nut  on  the  shark's 
forehead,  and  this  accounts  for  the  bump  now  found  on 
the  forehead  of  all  sharks,  and  called  Ina's  bump. 

Now,  though  all  this  is  as  old  as  the  hills,  and  older 


FISHES  IN  MODERN  FOLK-LORE.  83 

perhaps  than  some,  it  is  nevertheless  modern  folk-lore,  and, 
though  of  course  in  a  modified  form,  to  suit  other  circum- 
stances and  conditions,  is  the  prototype  of  fishing  folk-lore 
all  the  world  over.  Away  up  among  the  icebergs  live 
people  as  truly  ichthyophagous  as  any  that  Pliny  knew  of, 
and  to  whom  a  single  species  of  fish  is  as  all-important  as 
the  palm-tree  to  South  Sea  Islanders,  or  the  banana  to 
central  Africa.  They  look  upon  the  land  as  a  pensioner 
of  the  sea,  as  indeed  they  well  may,  seeing  that  not  only 
they  themselves,  but  their  cattle  and  dogs,  live  upon  the 
produce  of  the  water.  Their  coasts  and  rocks  are  the 
home  and  haunts  of  water-powers,  whom  they  propitiate 
by  deference ;  and  the  shapes  of  fish  are  explained  by 
superstitious  traditions  as  incredible  as  the  incidents  of 
Polynesian  theology.  But  let  us  come  nearer  home.  Ask 
the  Scandinavian  why  salmon  are  red  and  have  such 
fine  tails,  and  you  will  be  told  that  the  ruddy  colour  of 
the  flesh  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  gods,  when  heaven 
was  on  fire,  threw  the  flames  into  the  sea,  and  the  salmon 
swallowed  them  (indeed  this  fish  is  accepted  by  some 
mythologists  as  symbolizing  fire)  ;  and  the  delicacy  of  the 
tail  of  the  fish  is  explained  to  the  Norseman  by  Loki 
having  turned  himself  into  a  salmon  when  the  angered 
gods  pursued  him.  He  would  have  escaped  if  Thor  had 
not  caught  him  by  the  tail,  "  and  this  is  the  reason  why 
salmon  have  had  their  tails  so  fine  arid  thin  ever  since." 
Or  go  even  to  Yorkshire,  and  ask  why  the  haddock  has 
those  dark  marks  on  its  shoulders.  You  will  be  told  either 
the  old  story  about  St.  Peter,  or  else  that  when  the  devil, 
in  order  to  bother  the  fishermen,  was  building  Filey  Bridge, 
he  dropped  his  hammer  into  the  sea.  A  haddock  tried  to 
make  off  with  it,  but  Satan  was  too  quick  for  the  fish,  and 
gave  it  such  a  pinch  that  no  haddock  has  ever  forgotten 

G  2 


84  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

it.  And  why  has  the  stickleback  to  build  a  nest  ?  Because 
during  the  Deluge  it  pulled  the  tow  out  of  the  bilge-hole 
of  the  Ark,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  hedgehog  who 
plugged  up  the  leak  with  its  own  body,  Noah  would  have 
had  an  exciting  time  of  it,  baling  out  his  boat. 

Those  who  read  these  pages  do  not  probably  believe  in 
mermaids,  or  in  the  sea-cattle  which  they  have  helped  to 
herd  ever  since  the  days  of  Proteus,  and  long  before  that. 
Yet  the  belief  in  the  mermaid  is  a  contemporary  fact, 
and  in  the  British  Isles  too.  From  the  Shetland  Isles  to 
Cornwall,  and  in  the  Sister-isle  as  well,  the  coast  is  still 
the  resort  of  kelpy,  and  nix,  and  water-sprite  ;  while  sea- 
bulls — lineal  descendants  of  those  sea-calves  with  which 
Neptune  terrified  the  hostile  charioteer — and  sea-horses, 
such  as  whirled  the  car  of  Poseidon  over  the  waves  he 
ruled,  still  come  out  on  dry  land  in  the  Isle  of  Man  and 
the  Hebrides,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  those  who  own 
land-cattle.  And  what  are  these  sea-things  but  the  prin- 
cipalities, and  powers,  and  possessions  over  which  the 
Morskoi  Tsar,  the  Water-King  of  Russian  folk-tale,  lineal 
descendant  of  Neptune,  holds  the  sceptre  ?  In  Ralston's 
delightful  pages  we  see  him,  a  somewhat  shadowy  form 
but  a  patriarchal  monarch,  living  in  subaqueous  halls  of 
light  and  splendour,  whence  he  emerges  at  times  to  seize 
a  human  victim.  It  is  generally  a  boy  whom  he  gets  into 
his  power,  and  who  eventually  obtains  the  hand  of  one  of 
his  daughters,  and  escapes  with  her  to  the  upper  world. 
And  so  through  the  cycle  of  the  sea-trow  myth  we  come 
to  our  own  coasts  and  our  own  day,  and  in  the  land  of 
Thule  find  the  old,  old  fancy  still  in  all  its  unmarred  charm. 
Along  the  sandy  margin  of  the  voes  of  Uist  the  beautiful 
maiden  still  comes  up  from  her  home  beneath  the  waves  to 
enjoy  the  sunshine,  and  if  the  tourist  should  chance  to  see 


FISHES  IN  MODERN  FOLK-LORE.  85 

a  sealskin  or  other  "  ham  "  lying  on  the  rock,  he  ought  at 
once  to  seize  it,  for  there  will  come  to  claim  it  bye-and-bye 
the  pretty  Nereid  to  whom  it  belongs,  and  who,  without  it, 
cannot  return  to  her  caves  and  her  friends.  He  must  be 
careful,  of  course,  not  to  jump  rashly  to  conclusions,  and 
carry  off  a  bather's  clothes,  or  some  fisherman's  oilskin  laid 
down  for  a  moment  by  the  owner,  who  has  perhaps  just 
gone  round  the  corner.  But  if  he  finds  the  real  thing,  it 
will  all  happen  just  as  I  have  said,  and  the  maiden  will  beg 
very  prettily  for  her  skin,  and  if  he  refuses  it  she  will  accept 
her  destiny,  put  her  hand  in  his,  and  if  he  does  not  mind 
being  seen  walking  along  a  turnpike  road  with  a  girl  in  the 
garb  of  Eve,  he  may  lead  her  back  into  the  town  and 
straight  to  the  altar  of  the  little  church  that  overlooks  the 
billowy  sea  where  his  bride's  friends  live — but  which  she, 
so  long  as  he  hides  her  skin  from  her,  will  never  be  able  to 
remember  again.  But  sometimes  it  happens  that  husbands 
of  mermaids,  grown  careless  by  the  lapse  of  time,  leave 
the  "  ham  "  (as  the  sea-nymph's  fish-tail  covering  is  called) 
lying  about  in  an  attic  or  an  unlocked  box,  and  then,  alas ! 
all  is  grief  for  the  motherless  bairns.  For  one  unlucky  day 
the  wife  finds  her  old  garment,  and  there  comes  upon  her 
the  sudden  recollection  of  another  world  which  she  once 
lived  in,  and  a  longing — that  she  cannot  understand,  and 
still  less  resist — to  put  on  the  familiar  thing  overtakes  her. 
She  yields,  and  lo !  in  a  twinkling,  she  has  forgotten  all 
her  earth-life,  her  husband's  love,  and  her  children,  and 
hurries  away  straight  to  the  sea,  and  is  gone  for  ever. 

So  "  gone  back  to  the  sea "  is  a  pretty  and  decorous 
euphemism  for  "  run  away  from  home." 

To  refuse  to  marry  a  mermaid,  when  in  your  power,  is 
what  no  man  should  do  who  has  any  regard  for  his  family. 


86  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

For  not  only  will  he  die  mad  himself,  but  he  will  bequeath 
insanity  to  his  heirs  for  ever.  Remember  Duke  Magnus. 

So  much,  then,  for  modern  mermaids  and  their  kith  and 
kin.  Their  cattle  include  both  water-horses  and  water- 
bulls.  These  are  still  seen  on  our  coasts.  The  former  is  a 
harmless  and  sociable  beast  that  grazes  with  common 
cattle,  but  if  any  attempt  at  capture  is  made,  it  at  once 
rushes  over  the  cliffs  into  the  sea.  The  water-bull  is  more 
troublesome,  does  much  mischief,  and  even  kills  its  terres- 
trial equivalents  in  combat.  Before  it  disappears  under 
the  water  it  always  gives  a  defiant  bellow.  By  this  you 
may  always  know  a  water-bull. 

The  world  therefore  is  still  young  ;  and  coming  to  religious 
superstitions,  we  find  the  vestiges  of  an  ancient  fish-cultus 
in  vigorous  existence  among  our  own  fishing  population. 
Some  of  the  charms,  incantations,  and  propitiatory  offerings 
are  very  significant,  and  when  the  interpreter  arises — a 
Tylor,  or  Lyell,  or  Ralston — large  inductions  of  principle 
will  be  drawn  from  them  and  the  great  code  of  superstitious 
observances  which  influence  both  the  social  and  industrial 
lives  of  these  people,  be  shown  in  its  breadth  and  length  to 
be  the  survival  of  the  zoolatry  that  still  flourishes  elsewhere 
in  pristine  force.  At  present  popular  superstition  is  a 
mass  of  unexplained  items,  but  all  the  same  they  bring 
us,  so  to  speak,  face  to  face  with  the  megatherium.  Thus, 
ten  years  ago  a  herring-fisher  was  brought  to  a  police 
court  for  repeatedly  ill-using  his  wife.  He  admitted  the 
conduct,  but  explained  it  was  done,  not  from  ill-will  towards 
his  wife,  but  to  attract  the  herrings  ! 

Is  it  due  to  the  grudge,  dating  back  to  Paradise,  and  the 
day  when,  as  the  negro  preacher  said,  "  dat  woman  robbed 
de  orchard,"  that  fishermen  consider  feminine  influences  so 
sinister  ? 


FISHES  IN  MODERN  FOLK-LORE.  87 

In  the  Isle  of  Skye,  if  a  woman  crosses  the  water  during 
the  fishing,  the  luck  is  doomed.  At  Flamborough,  if  a 
woman  happens  to  enter  a  cottage  when  the  men  are 
preparing  their  lines,  she  is  not  allowed  to  depart  until  she 
has  knelt  down  and  repeated  the  Lord's  Prayer.  In  Lap- 
land, the  fishermen  avoid  spreading  their  captured  fish  on 
that  part  of  the  shore  frequented  by  the  women,  as  the 
next  expedition  would  be  a  failure.  In  very  many  parts 
of  our  coast  it  is  most  unlucky  for  a  woman  to  walk  over 
the  nets  or  any  of  the  fishing-tackle,  although  they  take 
a  very  active  part  in  collecting  bait. 

Burn  the  teeth  of  fish  you  catch,  or  your  luck  will  be  bad 
next  day — pins  found  in  church  make  good  fish-hooks — 
a  quarrel  on  the  beach,  if  blood  be  drawn,  will  drive  the 
herring  from  the  coast  for  the  rest  of  the  season  (Scotch) — 
stolen  tackle  is  lucky  (Swedish) — herrings  eaten  on  New 
Year's  Day  bring  luck  all  the  twelvemonth  through  (N. 
German). 

Flamborough,  by  the  way,  is  conspicuous  for  the  tenacity 
with  which  it  has  preserved  superstitions.  As  late  as  three 
years  ago  the  fishermen  would  not  put  to  sea  if  any  one 
mentioned  a  pig  when  they  were  baiting  their  lines.  In 
Scotland  the  salmon  is  equally  unmentionable,  and  is  only 
obliquely  alluded  to  by  a  circumlocution.  It  is  called 
So-and-So's  fish.  As  being  somehow  connected  with  the 
powers  of  evil,  it  often  receives  for  a  pseudonym  the  name 
of  the  tax-collector  of  the  nearest  village. 

The  days  to  be  avoided  or  selected  for  fishing  enterprises 
are  religiously  observed.  But  the  fisherman's  religion  is  not 
always  that  of  the  Church,  as,  for  instance,  on  the  coast  of 
Lancashire,  where  the  custom  is  to  set  sail  on  the  Sunday. 
A  clergyman  of  the  town  once  prayed  against  this  breach 


88  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

of  the  Sabbath,  as  he  called  it,  but  to  neutralise  his  prayers 
the  fishermen  made  a  small  image  of  rags,  and  piously  burnt 
the  parson  in  effigy. 

At  Buckie,  not  long  since,  the  fishermen  dressed  up  a 
cooper  fantastically,  his  bright  flannel  shirt  bestuck  with 
burs,  and  carried  him  in  procession  through  the  town  in 
a  hand-barrow.  This  was  done  to  "  bring  better  luck  "  to 
the  fishing.  It  happened,  too,  in  a  village  where  there 
are  no  fewer  than  nine  churches  and  chapels  of  various 
kinds,  and  thirteen  schools.  Now,  whence  arose  these 
ludicrous  practices  and  credulities  ?  And  how  came  "  the 
parson  "  to  be  a  personage  of  ill-omen  to  so  many  fisher- 
men? His  influences  are  hardly  less  adverse  than  those 
of  women,  and  the  practices  which  I  have  noted  as  con- 
nected with  the  ill-omen  of  feminine  interference  apply 
also  to  the  clergy.  The  herring  all  left  one  part  of  the 
Irish  coast  because  they  heard  the  new  parson  say  he  was 
going  to  tithe  the  fishery ;  and  in  Lapland  and  on  the 
coasts  thereof  fish  need  never  be  looked  for  where  a 
church  is  in  sight.  The  Finns  make  the  sign  of  the 
cross  when  they  catch  certain  species  of  flat  fish,  and  the 
Irish  will  not  eat  the  skate  (sometimes  called  the  maid), 
because  it  is  supposed  to  bear  a  very  questionable  resem- 
blance to  some  of  the  grotesque  mediaeval  delineations  of 
the  Virgin  Mary. 

The  avoidance  of  the  neighbourhood  of  churches  referred 
to  above  finds  some  illustration  in  the  fisherman's  belief  in 
the  great  quickness  of  the  hearing  of  fishes.  In  Sweden, 
for  instance,  the  church  bells  are  not  rung  during  the  bream 
season,  lest  the  fish  should  take  fright;  and  where  the 
pilchard  is  fished,  the  people  are  no  less  careful  of  their 
sensitiveness  to  sound.  From  this  half-mystic  belief  in 
the  sympathies  of  fishes  has  no  doubt  sprung  the  idea 


FISHES  IN  MODERN  FOLK-LORE.  89 

that  they  foretell  the  death  of  their  owner  by  fighting 
among  themselves  in  their  fish-ponds.  Oliver  Cromwell's 
death  was  "  foretold"  by  fish,  and  also  that  of  Henry  II. 

As  barometers  and  weather  prophets  generally,  fish  are 
of  as  much  interest  to  the  fisherman  as  birds,  beasts,  and 
insects  are  to  the  man  of  woodcraft,  the  trapper  or  the 
forester,  and  some  of  these  traditions  of  prognostication  are 
founded  upon  the  experiences  of  many  generations.  Thus 
Wellsford,  in  his  '  Secrets  of  Nature,'  refers  to  several 
which  are  of  great  antiquity,  and  of  which  the  following 
are  of  interest,  if  only  as  a  sample  of  the  sea-folks'  weather- 
lore  : — 

"  Porpoises,  or  sea-hogs,  when  observed  to  sport  and 
chase  one  another  about  ships,  expect  then  some  stormy 
weather.  Dolphins,  in  fair  and  calm  weather,  pursuing  one 
another  as  one  of  their  waterish  pastimes,  foreshow  wind, 
and  from  that  part  whence  they  fetch  their  frisks  ;  but  if 
they  play  thus  when  the  seas  are  rough  and  troubled,  it  is 
a  sign  of  fair  and  calm  weather  to  ensue.  Cuttles,  with 
their .  many  legs,  swimming  on  the  top  of  the  water,  and 
striving  to  be  above  the  waves,  do  presage  a  storm.  Sea- 
urchins  thrusting  themselves  into  mud,  or  striving  to 
cover  their  bodies  with  sand,  foreshow  a  storm.  Cockles, 
and  most  shell-fish,  are  observed,  against  a  tempest,  to 
have  gravel  sticking  hard  into  their  shells,  as  a  providence 
of  nature  to  stay  or  poise  themselves,  and  to  help  weigh 
them  down  if  raised  from  the  bottom  by  surges.  Fishes 
in  general,  both  in  salt  and  fresh  waters,  are  observed  to 
sport  most,  and  bite  more  eagerly,  against  rain  than  at  any 
other  time." 

When  they  feel  an  earthquake,  the  Malagassies  say  "  the 
whales  are  turning  over,"  or  "  the  whales  are  bathing  their 
children."  The  serpent  or  dragon  turning  over  and  causing 


90  FISHES  OP  fANCY. 

an  earthquake  is  a  widely-spread  myth,  and  the  whale  of 
ancient  astronomy  is  really  a  sea-dragon. 

In  medicine,  fishes  filled  an  absurdly  large  space,  nearly 
every  species  being,  at  one  time  or  another,  held  a  cure  for 
some  impossible  ailment.  Shark's  teeth,  rubbed  on  the 
gums,  helped  children  speedily  through  dentition.  The 
liver  of  the  Muroena  cured  poisonous  bites.  The  eyes 
of  pike,  powdered,  were  wonderful  in  their  effects — so 
said  the  Duchess  of  Portland  of  merry  memory.  Petted 
as  the  lamprey  once  was  by  Rome,  its  supposed  affinity 
to  the  fabulous  remora  of  the  ancients  has  earned  it  the 
reputation  of  being  a  thing  of  ill-omen.  Yet  its  fat 
removed  small-pox  scars.  Fever  is  cured  (in  Abyssinia) 
with  an  electric  eel,  and  in  Wiltshire  with  a  common  eel. 
Rheumatism  yields,  if  you  cannot  procure  the  hand 
of  a  drowned  man,  to  a  rubbing  with  red-herrings ; 
cramp  (in  Ulster  and  N.  Scotland)  to  an  application  of 
fresh  eel-skin ;  toothache  (in  N.  E.  Scotland)  can  be  got 
rid  of  by  carrying  about  the  person  a  piece  of  a  dog- 
fish, the  fish  being  returned  alive  to  the  water  after  the 
excision  ;  a  sprain  is  cured  (in  Ulster)  with  eel-skin  ;  deaf- 
ness by  powder  of  eel's  liver  ;  jaundice  by  applying  a  split 
tench  to  the  soles  of  the  feet  (Yorkshire),  but  you  must  not 
forget  to  bury  the  tench  when  it  is  done  with  ;  haemorrhage 
can  be  stopped  with  the  brain  of  the  same  fish ;  cancer 
needs  only  a  crab  tied  on  to  the  spot  to  disappear ;  hooping- 
cough  can  always  be  banished  by  putting  a  live  fish  into 
the  child's  mouth.*  This  tradition  is  found,  not  only  over 

*  An  old  fisherman,  formerly  well  known  at  the  Foye,  Keswick,  once 
caught  a  fish,  which  he  put  into  the  mouth  of  a  child  suffering  from 
hooping-cough.  He  then  replaced  the  fish  in  the  water.  He  affirmed 
that  the  fish  gave  the  complaint  to  the  rest  of  its  kind,  as  was  evident 
from  the  fact  that  they  came  to  the  top  to  cough  ! 


FISHES  IN  MODERN  FOLK-LORE.  91 

a  large  area  of  Europe,  but  also  in  America.  A  corre- 
spondent of  Notes  and  Queries  gives  an  account  of  a  similar 
practice  in  America.  "  One  morning,  during  the  fall  of  the 
year  1875,"  he  writes,  "  I  was  wandering  along  the  banks 
of  the  Schuykill  river,  when  a  young  woman,  carrying  a 
child  two  years  old,  approached  two  anglers,  and  asked 
one  of  them  for  a  fish  he  had  caught.  Receiving  it,  she 
seated  herself  on  the  bank,  deliberately  opening  the  child's 
mouth,  and,  thrusting  in  the  head  of  the  fish,  held  it  there, 
despite  the  child's  struggles,  for  the  space  of  a  minute  or 
more.  She  then  threw  it  into  the  river."  A  turtle  is  a 
regular  medicine  chest.  "The  stone  from  its  eye"  is  a 
specific  for  ophthalmia ;  its  legs  will,  by  simple  application, 
cure  varicose  veins  ;  its  shell,  powdered  up  with  some  of  its 
liver,  affords  an  antidote  to  various  poisons.  But  even  in 
this  aspect  alone,  the  medicinal  fish-lore  is  far  too  vast  for 
more  than  this  meagre  recognition  here. 

Of  the  origin  of  fishes,  folk-lore  is  full  of  information  of 
its  own  kind.  That  birds  were  once  fish  I  have  already 
noticed,  and  now  that  the  palaeontologists  are  agreed  that 
the  Iguanodon,  that  mighty  eft,  walked  like'  a  bird  on 
two  legs  "in  his  oolitic  pride  and  his  bloom,"  the  French 
tradition  may  help  forward  the  derivation  of  the  birds  from 
the  fishes  through  the  great  sea-lizards. 

Eels  are  to  be  accounted  for  in  various  ways.  When  the 
Brittany  fishermen  happen  to  catch  the  "  lotte  "  they  throw 
them  back  into  the  water,  as  they  are  supposed  to  turn 
into  eels.  In  England  they  are  supposed  (as  in  Yorkshire) 
to  be  bred  from  dew  in  the  months  of  May  and  June,  or 
(as  in  Derbyshire)  from  the  hairs  of  horses  or  kine  which 
drop  into  cart-ruts,  or  into  drinking-troughs  and  springs, 
and  there  quicken  after  rain.  The  origin  of  this  belief  is 


92  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

of  course  obvious  to  those  who  have  seen  the  hair-worm 
in  fresh  water.  Soles,  so  the  French  say,  are  bred  from 
prawns. 

But,  as  I  have  said,  the  time  for  reading  the  true  sig- 
nificances of  these  local  traditions  has  not  yet  come.  Folk- 
lore is  still  waiting  for  its  interpreters. 


(    93    ) 


APPENDIX. 


A  SEA-DREAM. 

I  HAD  to  go  on  business  the  other  evening,  after  the  regular  hours,  to 
the  Fisheries  Exhibition.  The  public,  duly  informed  by  placards  that 
"  the  Exhibition  will  close  to-day  at  seven  o'clock,"  had  already  ebbed 
out  of  the  buildings,  and,  trickling  away  by  a  thousand  rills,  had  dis- 
appeared into  its  hidden  springs  in  the  suburbs.  The  buffets  were 
desolate  and  the  sections  a  waste.  Here  and  there  a  care-taker,  with 
a  scarlet  badge  upon  his  forehead,  flitted  through  the  gathering  gloom, 
tapping  and  tinkering  at  the  woodwork  like  some  human  woodpecker. 
Here  and  there  an  "  executive,"  like  some  black-beetle  creature  of  the 
twilight,  hurried  across  the  silent  sections,  his  arms  laden  with  papers. 
Occasional  lamps  threw  a  spot  here  and  there  into  sudden  reliefs  of 
light  and  shade,  but  between  them  stretched  long  dim  spaces  of 
twilight,  an  eerie  sort  of  gloaming  in  which  all  the  exhibits  conspired 
together  to  look  mysterious.  The  stands  of  the  boats  had  disap- 
peared from  view,  and  yawl  and  smack  and  canoe  seemed  veritably 
afloat.  A  doorway  opened  somewhere,  and  the  draught  made  the 
fishing  nets  hanging  overhead  wave  and  wobble,  and  in  the  deep-sea 
gloom  that  surrounded  me  I  almost  began  to  fear  that  perhaps  some 
mistake  had  occurred  ;  that  I  was  really  and  truly  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea ;  when  lo  !  turning  round  a  rock,  I  found  myself  suddenly  face 
to  face  with  a  gigantic  specimen  of  the  thresher  shark.  Turning  to 
retreat,  I  found  a  bottle-nosed  whale  barring  the  doorway,  while  some 
fathom  and  a  half  above  me  a  Japanese  spider-crab,  with  all  its  legs 
outstretched,  was  hideously  floating  down  through  the  dim  space  upon 
my  hat. 

I  sped  on,  narrowly  escaping  collision  with  a  great  white  whale  that 
lay  glimmering  under  the  shadow  of  the  rock-wall  and  passing  directly 
under  an  enormous  ribbon-fish — a  slab-sided  ghost  of  misery — that 
happened  to  be  crossing  overhead.  But  in  a  few  steps  more  I  was 
safe,  and  sitting  down,  regardless  of  spat,  on  an  oyster-bed,  I  looked 
back  into  the  ocean  cave  from  which  I  had  just  escaped.  (Poets,  I 
observe,  always  do  this,  as  it  gives  them  an  opportunity  of  describing 


94  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

the  same  scene  twice.)  Sounds  of  'water  trickling  here,  plashings 
there,  bubbling  up  from  springs,  or  sluicing  down  the  salmon  ways, 
filled  the  air,  and  every  now  and  again  the  ear  could  catch  the  sudden 
splash  of  pike  meeting  pike,  or  flurry  of  reconnoitring  lobsters  un- 
expectedly colliding.  Far  away  in  the  distance  were  lights  and  what 
seemed  to  be  human  figures  moving  to  and  fro — Naiads  and  Tritons, 
no  doubt,  but  strangely  provided,  for  folk  of  that  kind,  with  long- 
handled  brooms  and  poke  bonnets  ;  yet  as  I  sat  there  watching  them 
sweeping  the  sea  floor  and  dusting  the  rocks,  with  the  figures  of  the 
ocean-monsters  looming  up  between  me  and  them,  I  became  aware 
that  the  great  sea-things  were  talking  together.  The  white  whale  had 
the  floor,  and  it  spoke  in  a  dull,  plaster-of-Paris  voice,  while  ever  and 
again  the  husky  voices  of  narwhal  and  shark,  sturgeon  and  sun-fish, 
speaking  as  one  who  was  stuffed  with  hay  might  speak,  murmured  a 
subdued  "  House-of-Lords  "  applause. 

I  caught  but  little  of  what  was  said.  So  many  trout  were  hatching 
in  the  ponds  close  by  that  it  was  difficult  to  follow  the  speaker.  But 
the  drift  of  the  bulky  one's  utterances  was  unmistakable.  It  was 
grumbling  consumedly.  Whoever  had  heard  of  such  nonsense  as 
studying  the  manners  and  customs  of  whales  and  sharks  on  dry  land  ? 
Why  was  not  the  Exhibition  held  off  the  Dogger  Banks  in  thirty 
fathoms  of  good  sea-water  ?  There  was  the  place  to  see  things  as  they 
really  were.  The  right  way  to  study  the  manners  and  customs  of  a 
shark  (and  the  white  whale  was  quite  sure  the  honourable  exhibit 
from  Otaheite  would  agree  with  him)  was  for  the  public  to  get  into 
water  out  of  their  depth,  for  he  had  been  informed  that  sharks  always 
turned  over  on  their  backs  before  disposing  of  swimmers,  and  the 
public  would  thus  have  the  opportunity  of  seeing  both  sides  of  the 
shark.  At  present  they  could  only  see  one  side,  as  the  late  Frank 
Buckland  had  cemented  the  other  down  to  the  blocks  they  lay  on. 
Or  how  could  any  one  arrive  at  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  his  friend 
the  sting-ray  unless  they  met  him  at  home?  and  what  was  the  dis- 
tinction between  an  electric  eel  and  any  other  kind,  if  the  former  had 
no  opportunity  of  illustrating  the  difference  ?  "If  the  British  public  is 
so  interested  in  us  and  our  ways,  why  don't  they  come  down  and  see 
us  in  our  daily  lives,  let  their  children  play  with  live  lobsters  in  the 
cracks  of  the  rocks,  tickle  the  torpedo  fish,  and  play  bo-peep  with  an 
octopus?  They  would  learn  more  in  one  afternoon  intelligently 
devoted  to  romping  with  a  spider-crab  than  in  a  whole  life  spent  out 
of  water."  At  least  so  the  white  whale  thought — and  all  the  other  sea- 
things  agreed  with  him. 

Some  of  his  remarks  struck  me  as  being  both  ingenious  and  just. 


APPENDIX.  95 

"  The  human  beings,"  said  he,  "  who  have  organised  this  exhibition 
live  on  dry  land,  on  the  uppermost  crust  of  it.  Even  superficially 
measured,  the  extent  of  their  habitation  is  far  smaller  than  our  own, 
while  in  depth  there  is  not  any  possible  comparison.  And  yet  they 
have  arranged  this  Exhibition  solely  according  to  their  own  divisions 
of  the  surface  of  the  dry  land,  instead  of  according  to  the  divisions  of 
the  sea.  There  appears  to  me  in  this  arrangement  an  assumption  of 
superiority  that  is  hardly  warranted  under  the  circumstances.  Sup- 
posing madrepores  were  to  hold  an  exhibition,  and  to  apportion  off 
the  world  according  to  the  different  varieties  of  corals  !  Should  we 
not  laugh  at  them  ?  Now,  it  happens  that  human  beings  cannot  live 
under  water.  Indeed,  it  has  come  under  my  own  experience  that,  if 
they  remain  beneath  the  surface  even  for  a  very  inconsiderable  time, 
they  die  from  choking."  (Some  whitebait  began  snickering  at  this, 
and  were  suppressed.)  "And  the  result  is,"  continued  the  speaker, 
"  that  because  they  cannot  live  under  water  themselves,  they  look  at 
everything  from  a  dry-land  point  of  view.  Our  marine  industries, 
such  as  sinking  vessels  or  ramming  them,  the  destruction  of  nets 
which  gives  occupation  to  such  vast  numbers  amongst  us,  the  con- 
sumption of  fish-hooks  and  angling-gear  generally,  and  so  forth,  are 
surveyed  from  a  purely  arbitrary  terrestrial  standpoint.  Our  marine 
mysteries  again — what  can  these  land-folk  know  of  them  ?  They  are 
actually  discussing  among  themselves  whether  our  life  is,  or  is  not, 
'  silent,  monotonous,  and  joyless  ! '  They  are  disputing,  believe  me, 
as  to  whether  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  sea-serpent  or  a  cuttle-fish 
big  enough  to  seize  and  founder  a  yacht  under  full  sail !  Now,  if 
these  human  beings  are  sincere  in  their  desire  for  information,  why 
do  they  not  let  us  organise  a  Grand  Inter-elementary  Fisheries 
Exhibition,  and,  in  a  proper  spirit  of  justice,  consent  to  see  things  for 
once  from  the  sea-things'  point  of  view?  Think  of  the  exhibits  we 
could  produce  relating  to  lives  and  ships  lost  at  sea  in  what  they  call 
an  '  inexplicable  '  way.  Why,  our  Polar  Expedition  relics  alone  would 
suffice  to  draw  the  whole  world  together  to  see.  Who  but  ourselves 
knows  the  true  story  of  Arctic  explorers  that  have  disappeared  ?  Let 
human  beings,  then,  meet  us  fairly.  Let  them  give  over  using  the 
word  'fishy'  in  the  opprobrious  sense  they  now  use  it.  Let  them 
remember  that  the  sea  contains  within  it  duplicates  of  nearly  every- 
thing the  earth  contains,  and  a  great  deal  besides  that  the  earth 
cannot  match ;  that  though  they  speak  of  sea  as  an  interruption  to 
continents,  we  look  upon  continents  as  interruptions  to  sea — good  sea 
run  to  land ;  and,  remembering  all  this,  let  them  recognise  the  true 


96  FISHES  OF  FANCY. 

majesty  of  the  water-worlds,  and  arrange  for  holding  the  next  Exhi- 
bition— at  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean." 

When  he  had  finished  speaking,  the  whole  aquarium  began  firing 
off  motions  and  amendments,  and  as  the  electric  eels  in  their  excite- 
ment began  to  get  luminous,  there  was  sufficient  light  to  see  the  Irish- 
member  kind  of  scene  that  ensued.  Each  fish  had  apparently  moved 
that  the  Exhibition  be  immediately  adjourned  to  its  own  particular 
habitat,  and  as  the  fresh-water  creatures  could  not  agree  with  the  salt- 
water ones,  they  all  began  behaving  like  French  Deputies.  But  the 
sea-things  proved,  on  the  vote  which  was  ultimately  taken,  to  be 
greatly  in  the  majority,  and  though  the  fresh-water  fish  kept  on  rising 
to  questions  of  privilege  and  points  of  order,  and  otherwise  obstruct- 
ing, the  original  motion,  thanks  to  the  assiduous  hammering  of  the 
hammer-headed  shark,  was  eventually  carried. 

It  was  to  the  effect  that  the  next  Great  Interoceanic  Fisheries 
Exhibition  be  held  in  the  middle  of  the  South  Atlantic — with  an 
ironical  amendment  by  the  white  whale  that  if  the  site  did  not 
commend  itself  to  the  fresh-water  fish,  they  might  hold  an  Exhibition 
of  their  own  in  any  "  land-puddle "  they  liked.  An  executive  com- 
mittee was  at  once  appointed,  the  Gulf  Stream  fixed  upon  as  the 
central  office,  the  Sea-Serpent  invited  to  be  present  on  the  opening 
day,  and  the  prizes  scheduled.  Gold  and  silver  medals  were  awarded 
for  the  whales  that  sank  the  biggest  schooner  and  drowned  the  most 
Dundee  whalers  respectively  ;  the  same  for  the  sharks  that  swallowed 
the  biggest  man  (if  dressed  in  tarpaulins  at  the  time  an  extra  honour- 
able mention)  ;  and  the  same  for  the  sword-fishes  that  rammed  their 
snouts  deepest  into  ships.  The  list  was  a*  very  long  one — for  every 
fish  had  a  suggestion  to  make  for  its  own  benefit — and  it  closed  with  a 
copper  badge  for  the  oyster  that  could  choke  an  American. 

All  seemed  happily  settled,  and  the  meeting  was  relapsing  into 
quiescence,  when  I  became  aware  of  a  deputation  of  monsters  in  the 
aisle  on  my  left.  It  was  the  sea-animals,  who  had  been  patiently 
waiting  to  see  what  arrangements  would  be  made  for  them,  and  the 
silence  was  now  broken  by  the  voice  of  an  aged  walrus  hoarsely 
inquiring  whether  he  was  a  fish.  A  "  movement,"  as  the  French  say, 
was  at  once  apparent  in  the  assembly,  but  no  one  replied.  "  For,"  said 
the  walrus,  "  it  appears  to  me  that,  as  I  am  fished  for,  I  am  a  fish, 
and  entitled,  therefore,  to  be  treated  as  such."  A  chorus  of  approval 
broke  from  the  narwhals,  seals,  sea-lions,  manatees,  and  dugongs,  and 
the  argument  finding  no  contradiction,  it  was  agreed  that  some  ice- 
bergs and  other  conveniences  should  be  provided  for  the  animals. 


APPENDIX.  97 

Upon  this  another  difficulty  arose,  for  the  polar  bear,  who  had  walked 
over  from  the  Terra  Nuova  annexe,  gruffly  put  forward  a  claim  on  his 
own  behalf.  "  This  Exhibition,"  said  he,  "  is  not  only  for  fishes  but 
for  fishers  as  well ;  and  though  I  should  never  think  of  asking  any 
one  to  call  me  a  fish,  I  am  entitled  to  be  called  a  fisherman."  The 
outrageous  bad  taste  of  this  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  whole 
assembly,  and  calls  for  Captain  Gossett  resounded  through  the  dim 
aisles.  But  the  bear  persisted  that  he  had  a  right  to  take  his  place  in 
any  Fisheries  Exhibition  that  might  be  held,  and  that  the  rights  of  his 
constituents  deserved  as  much  respect  as  those  of  any  other  com- 
munity represented  in  the  House.  But  the  fish  would  not  hear  of  it, 
and  after  what  is  called  "a  disgraceful  scene,"  the  sea-lions  were 
deputed  to  chuck-out  the  polar  bear — which  they  did. 

I  followed  the  party  out  of  the  building,  and  when  I  had  seen  the 
polar  bear — still  grumbling  immensely  and  threatening  public  demon- 
strations when  he  got  back  to  Greenland — balanced  in  his  old  place 
on  the  top  of  his  pyramid  in  the  Terra  Nuova  annexe,  and  the  sea- 
lions  on  guard  all  round  him,  I  turned  back.  But  whether  I  missed 
my  road,  or  whether  the  fish  had  had  the  doors  shut,  I  could  not  find 
my  way  back  into  the  convention.  So  I  went  home. 

PHIL  ROBINSON. 


VOL.   III. — H. 


ANGLING   CLUBS 

AND 

PRESERVATION    SOCIETIES 

OF 

LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES. 


BY 


J.    P.    WHEELDON, 

LATE  ANGLING  EDITOR  OF    '  BELL'S  LIFE.' 


VOL.   III.— H.  H   2 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
.    101 


INTRODUCTION • 

THAMES  AND  SEA,  CONDITION  OF         .*  I02 

METROPOLITAN  AND  DISTRICT  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  FISHERY 

ASSOCIATIONS •        •        •        * 

PROVINCIAL  CLUBS  : 

ENGLAND J32 

SCOTLAND 139 

SHORT  ACCOUNTS  OF  PROMINENT  ANGLING  CLUBS       .        .143 
LONDON  ANGLING  CLUBS l65 


THE 


ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION  SOCIETIES 
OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES, 


INTRODUCTION. 

IN  writing  this  handbook  it  was  my  original  Intention  to 
give  something  like  a  short  history  of  the  formation  and 
present  position  of  some,  at  any  rate,  of  the  chief  Angling 
Societies  of  the  metropolis.  Considering  that  there  are 
certainly  over  1 50  of  these  societies  in  London  alone,  I  well 
knew  that  I  had  set  myself  no  light  task.  Mapping  the 
matter  over  in  my  own  mind,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  only  course  for  me  to  adopt  was  to  seek  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  societies  themselves,  asking  through  their  various 
secretaries  for  information  as  to  their  origin,  and  also  what, 
if  any,  good  work  they  were  doing  in  the  present.  With 
this  view  a  letter  was  sent  to  the  secretaries  of  the  various 
metropolitan  clubs,  apprising  them  of  my  design  and 
intention.  I  have  to  thank  a  small  proportion  of  these 
gentlemen,  and  I  regret  to  say  a  very  small  one,  for  the 
courtesy  of  a  reply.  The  larger  number  evidently  con- 
sidered the  matter  beneath  their  valuable  notice,  and  so 
ignored  it  altogether.  The  situation  hardly  requires  further 
comment. 


102      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

With  regard  to  the  provincial  societies,  the  line  adopted 
has  been  entirely  different — not  in  so  far  as  I  personally 
was  concerned,  because  the  same  letter  was  addressed  to 
each  and  all,  but  in  the  matter  of  politeness  and  courteous 
consideration  towards  myself.  The  result  leaves  me  little 
room  for  doubt  that  the  gentlenesses  of  modern  society  are 
cultivated  far  more  abroad  than  they  are  at  home.  Many 
gentlemen  have  taken  considerable  trouble  in  affording 
me  especially  valuable  information ;  to  all  such  I  tender 
my  warmest  and  heartiest  thanks — not  so  much  perhaps 
for  the  knowledge  conveyed  in  their  letters,  as  for  the 
kindly  sentiments  which  accompanied  it. 

Thus  much  by  way  of  introduction.  For  the  reason 
stated,  I  regret  very  much  that  my  little  book  does  not 
contain  fuller  and  more  concise  information.  I  leave  it, 
however,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  my  readers. 


It  would  probably  be  very  difficult  for  the  angler  of 
to-day  to  realise  what  the  Thames  and  the  Lea  were  like 
some  fifty  years  ago.  Those  are  the  two  great  home  rivers, 
centres  of  all  the  persevering  efforts  made  day  by  day,  week 
by  week,  and  month  after  month,  by  the  London  angler, 
whose  great  aim  it  is  to  catch  a  big  fish  of  some  sort — it 
matters  very  little  what — and  have  his  name  go  down 
to  posterity,  decked  with  emblematic  laurels  as  the 
"champion"  in  such  and  such  a  class  of  fishing.  Such 
happy  fate  may  be  preserved  for  all  time — until  at  any  rate 
the  record  is  beaten — upon  the  tablets  of  fame  connected 
with  some  small  local  angling  club. 

But  fifty  years  ago — and  what  a  paradise  for  sports- 
men the  Thames  must  have  been  then ! — swans  were  kept 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  103 

within  bounds,  and  at  that  time  it  was  not  necessary  to 
employ  bands  of  men,  as  it  is  in  the  present  day,  to  drive 
these  handsome  but  terribly  destructive  birds  from  the 
line  of  weed-fringed  roots  dependent  from  stubbly  pollards 
lining  the  bank,  and  upon  which  spawning  perch  have 
deposited  their  riband-like  strings  of  ova,  nor  from  "  the 
hills "  in  the  weir  streams,  where  the  great  and  bonny 
mother  trout  has  frequented  during  that  time  when  she  was 
simply  obeying  Nature's  urgent  laws. 

Steam  launches,  probably  the  greatest  of  all  great  curses 
to  him  who,  following  the  example  of  a  writer  of  other 
days,  would  fain — 

"Live  harmlessly,  and  by  the  brink 
Of  Thames  or  Avon  have  a  dwelling  place, 

Where  I  may  see  my  quill  or  cork  down  sink 
With  eager  bite  of  perch  or  bleak  or  dace, 

And  on  the  world  and  my  Creator  think, 

were  then  absolutely  unknown.  In  any  event,  there  were 
none  of  those  thrice  detestable  "  puffers,"  with  silent  engines 
and  dull  moaning  whistle,  which  daily  and  hourly  tear 
through  the  water  at  the  rate  of  12  to  20  miles  an  hour, 
doing  direful  and  deadly  injury  every  yard  they  go.  It 
may  be  said  that  this  language  is  excessive  in  its  strength, 
and  overstrained  in  its  application.  Not  a  whit,  take  my 
word  for  it.  I  have  seen  more  damage  done  to  the  ova  of 
spawning  fish  in  one  season,  and  particularly  perch  and 
pike,  by  the  everlasting  swash  and  wash  of  these  deadly 
pests,  more — aye,  far  more  than  an  army  of  poachers  and 
fishermen  could  do  in  five  years,  had  they  even  combined 
their  forces,  without  absolutely  netting  the  river  wholesale 
every  day,  and  harried  every  fish  to  death  that  came 
within  their  ken. 

At  the  first  glance  this  woirtd  seem  to  be  an  overwhelming 


104      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

statement,  hastily  and  rashly  made.  One  moment's  con- 
sideration will  suffice  to  impress  any  thoughtful  man's  mind 
with  an  assurance  of  its  truth.  A  pike  wirer,  it  is  true, 
may  kill  a  female  fish,  ripe  and  full  of  ova,  and  hence  many 
thousands  of  future  pike  are  lost  to  the  fair  fisher.  But 
where  he  kills  one  or  two  fish  without  detection,  the  steam 
launches  are  perpetually  and  everlastingly  ploughing 
through  the  water,  not  only  washing  away  the  ova  de- 
posited upon  the  weeds  and  sheltering  roots,  but  destroying 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  tiny  just-hatched  fry,  which 
would  otherwise  have  probably  grown  up,  and  made  in  time 
mature  fish,  the  source  and  foundation  of  good  sport  to  the 
fair  fishermen. 

In  those  far-off  days  of  the  past  there  were  such  delight- 
ful and  fishful  nooks  as  one  misses  nowadays.  Com- 
paratively speaking  the  Thames  was  a  great  stretch  of 
maiden  water,  where  the  unharried  fish  dwelt  in  a  sense  of 
the  most  perfect  security.  Their  chief  enemy  was  then, 
probably,  the  village  poacher,  with  his  rude,  yet  none  the 
less  dangerous,  ash  pole  and  bit  of  dangling  copper  wire. 
Lazy  and  idle — as  indeed  some  few  perhaps  of  the  village 
loungers  of  to-day  may  be — this  worthy  would  stroll 
down  to  the-  river  side,  where  mayhap,  amongst  bonny 
sweet-smelling  hay-fields  lined  with  meadow-sweet,  and 
where  glorious  purple  loosestrife  bounds  the  river's  marge, 
he  met  not  a  solitary  living  soul  the  whole  summer's  day. 
Here  he  would  pry  about,  until  he  might  haply  descry, 
basking  amongst  the  water  weeds,  a  big  pike,  with  the  tip 
of  his  nose  and  tail  clear  of  the  water,  or  the  dorsal  fin  of  a 
great  lumbering  carp.  Then  the  fatal  noose  would  be 
brought  into  play,  and  towards  night,  when  reeling  home 
from  "  The  Haymakers,"  the  gloriously  happy  fellow  might 
possibly  reflect,  and  withal  possessed  of  an  infinite  sense  of 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  105 

satisfaction,  that  he  was  a  very  lucky  dog  indeed  to  be 
able  to  get  such  a  skinful  of  good  old  ale  with  so  little  real 
trouble. 

But  the  injury  done  to  the  fisheries  of  a  river  in  such  a 
case — and  examples  of  it  are  now  happily  almost  extinct — 
is  increased  a  millionfold  every  year  by  that  wrought  by 
the  terrible  rate  at  which  traffic  up  and  down  the  stream 
is  permitted.  I  have  seen,  for  instance,  the  wave  raised 
by  a  fast  launch  or  heavy  steam-tug  rushing  along  the 
bank  nearly  a  yard  high,  sweep  up  some  little  inland  bay 
where  the  water  perhaps  shallowed  from  a  foot  or  so 
at  its  mouth  to  only  a  few  inches  in  depth  in  its  interior. 
That  little  bay,  and  all  such  like  it,  is  full  to  this  day,  I 
hope,  of  tiny  mites  of  baby  fish.  I  have  seen,  as  I  have 
said,  the  wave  sweep  across  it,  and  as  it  receded  it  left 
hundreds,  possibly  thousands,  of  little  fish  to  die  amongst 
the  pebbles  and  rank  grass  growing  along  the  shore.  Talk 
about  the  destruction  effected  by  a  pair  of  otters,  talk 
about  the  war  waged  by  the  idle  village  lout  upon  the 
finny  inhabitants  of  a  river — why,  the  argument  falls  flat 
and  becomes  both  baseless  and  ridiculous  as  opposed  to 
the  terrible  havoc  wreaked  by  these  puffing  pests,  deter- 
mined enemies  as  they  are  to  good  sport,  peace,  and 
quietude. 

It  may  be  in  the  recollection  of  some  few  of  the  readers 
of  this  little  book  that  I  have  for  years  waged  war,  with 
both  voice  and  pen,  for  the  suppression  of  what  I  cannot 
help  seeing  is  the  chief  enemy  to  the  fisheries  of  the 
river.  My  work  has  borne  at  least  some  little  fruit,  inas- 
much as  a  Bill  for  the  better  regulation  of  steam  traffic  upon 
the  river  has  gone  through  a  select  Committee  of  the  Com- 
mons, and  is  now  before  the  House  of  Lords ;  and  all  good 
anglers  will,  I  am  convinced,  say  amen  to  my  prayer  for  its 


106      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

success.  But  suppose  it  passes  and  becomes  law,  as  I 
earnestly  hope  it  may  do,  it  will  still  be  an  abortive  and 
useless  measure,  unless  the  "  Angling  Clubs  of  London  " — 
and  here  I  strike  the  key-note  of  my  book — help  it  by  their 
united  support  and  assistance.  It  is  useless  for  Tom  to 
wait  while  Jack  or  Harry  strikes,  in  the  event  of  any 
outrage  upon  propriety.  Tom,  being  the  spectator  of  an 
abuse  of  the  existing  law,  should  strike  at  once,  and  then 
perhaps  others  will  follow  his  example,  so  that  in  the  event 
of  any  breach  of  law  in  the  future,  the  result,  affecting, 
recollect,  the  angler's  dearest  and  nearest  interests  in  con- 
nection with  his  sport,  rests  with  the  angler  himself.  As 
there  are  twenty  "  clubmen  "  fishing  the  Thames  to  one 
unassociated  with  any  such  body,  this  warning,  and  it  is  a 
very  grave  one,  is  addressed  particularly  to  them. 

Practically,  I  think,  or  at  any  rate  to  any  great  extent, 
poaching  on  the  fisheries  of  the  Thames  is  very  nearly 
extinct.  Now  and  again  there  is  a  raid  made,  it  is  true,  by 
some  of  those  determined  spirits  always  to  be  found  in 
villages  and  large  towns,  and  who  would,  every  man-Jack 
of  them,  infinitely  prefer  one  poached  hare  or  pheasant, 
obtained  at  the  price  of  a  little  adventure  and  devilry,  to  a 
brace  got  by  fair  means  ;  but  I  hardly  fancy  that  the  extent 
of  the  mischief  done  is  very  great.  The  reason  lies  in  the 
fact  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  river  is  now  pro- 
tected either  by  the  keepers  and  officers  of  the  Thames 
Angling  Preservation  Society  or  by  the  officials  of  some 
one  or  other  of  the  local  associations,  all  of  whom  are  in 
reality  offshoots  from  the  parent-tree  just  named.  There 
can  jpe  little  doubt  that  the  growth  of  the  angling  clubs  of 
London  has  been  largely  fostered  by  the  efforts  made  by 
the  "  Thames  Angling  Preservation  Society "  in  the  con- 
servation and  preservation  of  its  fisheries.  In  tracing, 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.   107 

therefore,  an  imperfect  history  of  the  growth  of  the  angling 
clubs,  due  credit  should  be  given  to  the  leading  Preservation 
body,  which  exercises  such  an  important  control  over  the 
interests  of  the  great  home  river.  It  may  therefore,  at 
this  point,  be  a  fair  opportunity  for  a  short  description  of 
establishment  and  progress  up  to  the  present  time. 

The  Thames  Angling  Preservation  Society  was,  I  believe, 
first  established  in  the  year  1838.  Somewhere  about  that 
time,  a  report  was  certainly  promulgated  to  the  effect 
that  "the  Fisheries  of  the  River  Thames  had  of  late 
afforded  so  little  sport,  owing  to  incessant  poaching  and 
the  destruction  of  the  young  brood  and  spawn  during  the 
fence  seasons,  that  it  was  almost  useless  to  attempt  angling 
in  certain  districts  at  all."  Fortunately,  that  report  found 
its  way  to  a  sympathetic  quarter,  and  it  occurred  to  those 
into  whose  hands  it  fell  that  if  a  proper  representation  of 
the  facts  were  made  to  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  (then 
Sir  John  Cowan)  he  might  probably  be  induced,  in  his 
official  capacity  as  Conservator  of  the  River  Thames,  to 
help  those  early  pioneers  of  fish  preservation  in  the  course 
they  were  endeavouring  to  take  for  the  good  alike  of  anglers 
and  the  river  itself.  Acting  upon  this  view,  a  meeting  was 
convened  on  the  i/th  of  March,  1838,  and  was  afterwards 
held  at  the  "  Bell  Inn,"  Hampton.  It  was  attended  by  the 
following  good  anglers,  most  of  whom,  I  am  afraid,  have 
gone  to  that  shadowy  bourne,  from  which  no  angler, 
however  good  he  may  have  been,  ever  returns — Mr.  Henry 
Jephson,  Mr.  C.  C.  Clarke,  Mr.  Henry  Perkins,  Mr.  W.  H. 
Whitebread,  Mr.  Edward  Jesse,  Mr.  Richard  Kerry,  and  Mr. 
David  Crole.  These  gentlemen  having  met,  fully  discussed 
the  important  issues  brought  before  them,  and  that  meeting 
was  the  groundwork  upon  which  the  present  important  work 
of  the  Thames  Angling  Preservation  Society  was  founded 


io8      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

They  therefore  resolved  themselves  into  a  Society  for  "  the 
protection  of  fish  from  poachers  ; "  and  one  of  the  earliest 
steps  taken  was  the  appointment  of  a  staff  of  river-keepers, 
selected  principally  from  amongst  the  professional  fishermen 
who  gained  a  livelihood  upon  the  Thames.  The  valuable 
action  of  this  small  preservative  body  was  from  the  outset 
fully  recognised  by  the  Lord  Mayor,  and  warrants  were 
then  granted  to  the  river-keepers  to  act  as  water-bailiffs, 
while  certain  bye-laws  were  framed  for  the  better  protec- 
tion of  the  fisheries  of  the  river.  Under  these  by-laws 
the  position  and  power  of  the  river-keepers  is  thus  defined  : — 
They  are  empowered  "  to  enter  any  boat,  vessel,  or  craft  of 
any  fisherman  or  dredgerman,  or  other  person  or  persons 
fishing  or  taking  fish  or  endeavouring  to  take  fish,  and 
there  to  search  for,  take  and  seize  all  spawn,  fish,  brood  of 
fish,  and  unsizable,  unwholesome,  or  unseasonable  fish,  and 
also  all  unlawful  nets,  engines,  and  instruments  for  taking 
or  destroying  fish  as  shall  then  be  in  any  such  boat,  vessel, 
or  craft  in  and  upon  the  river,  and  to  take  and  seize  on 
shore  or  shores  adjoining  to  the  said  river  all  such  spawn, 
fish,  and  also  all  unlawful  nets,  engines,  and  instruments 
for  taking  and  destroying  fish  as  shall  there  be  found." 

The  extent  of  water  taken  under  control  was  from 
Richmond  to  the  City  Stone  at  Staines,  and  immediately 
efforts  were  made  to  preserve  the  various  deeps  in  the 
course  indicated,  thus  making  them  "  harbours  of  refuge  " 
for  the  fish.  The  position  of  such  preserves  may  be  shortly 
pointed  out  as  follows. 

Richmond. — The  preserve  is  westward  of  the  bridge  to 
the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's,  700  yards.  Twickenham.— The 
preserve  is  the  west  end  of  lawn,  Pope's  Villa,  to  the  ait, 
400  yards.  Kingston. — The  preserve  is  from  the  Lower 
Malthouse  at  Hampton  Wick  to  the  east  end  of  Mr.  J.  C. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  109 

Park's  lawn  at  Teddington,  including  the  back-water 
known  as  the  Crolock,  1060  yards.  Thames  Ditton  and 
Long  Ditton. — The  preserve  is  from  Lord  Henry  Fitz- 
gerald's, running  eastwards,  512  yards.  Hampton. — The 
preserve  is  from  the  west  end  of  Garrick's  Lawn,  including 
the  Tantling  Bay,  to  the  lower  end  pile  below  Moulsey 
Lock,  1514  yards.  Sunbury. — The  preserve  is  from  the 
weir  westward  to  the  east  end  pile  of  breakwater,  683  yards. 
Walton. — The  preserve  is  at  the  east  end  of  Tankerville 
and  west  of  Horse  Bridge,  called  Walton  Sale,  250  yards. 
Shepperton. — The  preserve  is,  Upper  Deep,  200  yards ; 
Old  Deep,  east  of  the  creek  rails,  240  yards  ;  Lower  Deep, 
east  of  the  drain,  200  yards.  Weybridge. — The  preserve 
is  from  the  weir  to  Shepperton  Lock,  830  yards.  Chertsey. 
— The  preserve  is  the  weir  to  80  yards  eastward  of  the 
bridge,  445  yards.  Laleham  and  Penton  Hook. — The 
preserve  at  Penton  Hook  is  from  the  guard  piles  eastward 
round  the  Hook  to  the  east  end  of  the  lock.  Staines. — The 
preserve  is  the  City  boundary  stone  to  210  yards  eastward 
of  the  bridge. 

From  time  to  time  these  preserves  have  been  rendered 
more  efficient  by  the  sinking  of  old  punts,  brick  burrs,  and 
by  driving  stakes  into  the  river  bed,  as  a  protection  against 
netting  operations.  The  last  of  such  established  preserves 
was  that  at  Kingston,  which  was  made  in  the  year  1857. 
Upon  application  being  made  to  the  Lord  Mayor,  the  move- 
ment was  opposed  by  some  of  the  professional  fishermen, 
but  such  opposition  was  overruled,  and  the  following  is  a  list 
of  the  obstacles  sunk : — "  Five  old  punts,  two  iron  waggons, 
7  feet  3  inches  in  length  by  4  inches,  and  2  feet  6  inches  in 
height,  open  at  one  end  ;  450  stakes  driven ;  six  2-horse 
loads  of  large  brick  burrs  ;  twenty  egg  chests  with  tenter 
hooks ;  fifty  large  flint  stones ;  ten  tar-barrels,  tenter- 


no      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

hooked  ;  two  large  sugar  casks,  tenter-hooked ;  two  punt 
loads  of  old  iron  gas  lamps  and  other  useful  things  ;  and 
three  sacks  of  tin  cuttings  for  the  landing-places  along  the 
shore." 

In  December  1857  the  Board  of  Thames  Conservancy 
became  invested  with  fuller  powers  in  its'  government,  and 
an  application  made  by  the  Thames  Angling  Preservation 
Society  for  a  continuance  of  the  powers  vested  in  their 
bailiffs  or  water-keepers  was  at  once  granted.  The  next 
step  taken  for  the  further  preservation  of  the  fisheries  of  the 
Thames  was  in  1869,  when  an  application  was  made  for  the 
whole  abolition  of  netting  between  Richmond  Bridge  and 
the  City  Stone  at  Staines.  This  was  supported  by  the 
entire  body  of  Thames  fishermen,  and  in  consequence  of 
the  Conservancy  Board  acceding  to  the  application  the 
following  notice  was  inserted  in  several  of  the  London 
papers : — 

"Be  it  ordered  and  established  that  the  i6th  item  of 
the  rules,  orders,  and  ordinances  for  the  fisheries  in  the 
Thames  and  Medway,  made  on  the  4th  day  of  October, 
1785,  be  repealed,  and  that  henceforth  no  person  shall 
use  any  net  for  the  purpose  of  catching  fish  in  the  River 
Thames  between  Richmond  Bridge  and  the  '  City  Stone ' 
at  Staines,  except  a  small  net  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
bait  only,  of  the  following  dimensions — namely,  not  ex- 
ceeding 13  feet  in  circumference,  and  an  angler's  landing 
net,  under  penalty  to  forfeit  and  pay  £5  for  every  such 
offence.  The  seal  of  the  Conservators  of  the  River 
Thames  was  this  23rd  day  of  January,  1860,  affixed  by 
order." 

But  the  most  important  work,  after  all,  effected  by 
the  Thames  Angling  Preservation  Society  was  perhaps 
the  abolition  of  snatching  and  laying  night  lines.  It  is 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES,  in 

absolutely  impossible  to  overestimate  the  destruction 
effected  amongst  spawning  fish,  or  to  others  flocking  to 
certain  places  where  a  sewage  discharge  induced  them  to 
harbour,  than  was  effected  by  the  detestable  and  unsports- 
manlike practice  of  snatching.  The  sewer  at  the  Joot  of 
Richmond  Bridge  was  a  noted  place  where  the  so-called 
angler  was  in  the  habit  of  exercising  his  unworthy  craft. 
The  modus  operandi  was  very  much  as  follows :  an  angler 
— heaven  save  the  mark  ! — perhaps  pretended  to  be  fishing 
for  dace,  and  attached  to  his  tackle  he  had  a  dozen  stout 
hooks  set  at  intervals  on  his  line,  some  of  them  baited — 
others  with  not  even  that  shallow  pretence — with  a  fragmen- 
tary portion  of  worm.  All  day  long  these  delightful  gentry 
kept  dropping  a  heavily  shotted  line  into  the  swim,  and 
instantly  jerking  it  upwards  again  with  a  powerful  stroke. 
Thus  many  a  great  carp  has  been  impaled,  many  a  lusty 
bream  dragged  nolens  volens  from  his  watery  home.  The 
same  kind  of  thing  was  done  openly  and  in  broad  daylight, 
along  the  parade  at  Kingston,  and  the  operators  pretended 
they  were  fishing — legitimately  fishing  !  Now  and  again  a 
bold  sportsman,  rendered  hardy  and  brave  with  impunity, 
disdained  to  use  the  shallow  artifice  of  the  bit  of  worm  at 
all,  and  boldly  lowered  amongst  the  gathering  shoals  of 
bream  or  dace  a  cruel  implement  of  sport,  consisting  of  a 
bunch  of  bare  triangles  weighted  with  a  sinker.  It  may 
well  be  in  the  recollection  of  a  great  many  disgusted 
spectators,  even  as  the  memory  is  likely  to  abide  with  me 
for  all  time,  of  the  shameful  and  detestable  scenes  that 
were  wont  to  be  enacted  day  after  day  at  many  of  the 
accessible  weirs,  when  the  dace  were  heading  up.  I  have 
seen  them  slaughtered  in  scores,  and  scores  of  hundreds ; 
and  this  little  game  went  on  day  after  day,  for  weeks.  It 
was  stopped  at  last,  and  high  time  too.  The  only  wonder 


1 1 2     THE  ANGLING  CL  UBS  AND  PRESER  VA  TION 

I  have,  thinking  back  upon  such  scenes,  is  this  :  How  was  it 
that  many  a  good  angler,  who  must  have  shuddered  with 
indignation  at  the  cruel,  shameful  waste  of  life,  the  pain 
inflicted  upon  the  hapless  fish,  escaped  trial  for  man- 
slaughter at  the  Old  Bailey,  consequent  upon  trying  to 
effect  the  death  by  drowning  of  one  or  other  of  the  manly 
and  noble  crew  ?  I  know  not. 

As  to  the  practice  of  laying  night  lines,  its  results  were 
all  too  palpably  apparent  to  him  who  reads  by  the  wayside 
as  he  runs.  Many  and  many  a  grand  Thames  trout,  the 
pride  and  crown  jewel  of  some  deep  reach,  has  met  his 
d«2ath  ignobly  at  the  end  of  a  night  line,  ostensibly  laid 
for  the  capture  of  eels.  Then  it  was  that  the  lucky  captor 
would  knock  his  prize  on  the  head,  and  straightway  take 
it  up  to  the  village  house  of  a  well-to-do  and  worthy 
inhabitant,  who  had  probably  tried  a  round  dozen  of  times 
to  effect  his  capture  legitimately.  Some  such  scene  and 
dialogue  as  this  then  followed  : — 

A  trim  and  natty  servant-maid  appearing  at  the  door, 
honest  old  Bill  Boozier,  the  hard  and  horny-handed,  who 
never  told  an  untruth  in  his  life,  or  pretended  to  bait  a 
barbel  swim  when  he  had  not  had  a  worm  near  his 
premises  for  a  month,  rush  basket  in  hand,  thus  addresses 
her  :— 

"  Mornin',  Mary,  my  dear.  Why,  Lard  a  mussy,  what 
cheeks  them  is  o'  yourn,  surelie.  Redder  'n  the  best  Ribson 
pippen  as  I  ever  seen.  Lard,  ef  I'd  only  bin  a  younger 
man." 

"  Go  along  with  you  ;  a  married  man  and  all.  You 
oughter  bin  ashamed  o'  yourself,"  is  naturally  red-cheeked 
Mary's  retort. 

"  Well,  so  'tis,  Mary.  Mortal  'shamed  of  myself  I  is,  and  so 
J  don't  deceive  you.  Muster  Fubsy  in?  But,  theer,  I  needn't 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  113 

arst.  Aint  them  his  brekfus'  things  agoin*  in  ?  Course 
they  is  ;  new  laid  heggs  there  is,  which  they're  werry  good 
at  times,  and  a  leetle  bit  o'  bacon  frezzled  crisp.  Tray 
bung,  as  the  Frenchmen  says,  and  now,  Mary,  my  dear, 
will  you  be  so  good  as  to  give  Muster  Fubsy  ole  Bill 
Boozler's  compliments,  and  say  he's  sorry  to  say  as  that 
theer  trout  has  a-come  to  a  huntimely  hend  at  larst." 

The  natty  one,  having  delivered  her  message,  is  nearly 
upset  by  the  anxious  Fubsy,  who  rushes  out,  spec- 
tacles on  nose,  the  Times  in  one  hand,  and  loosely 
arrayed  in  his  dressing-gown.  He  opens  upon  William  at 
once. 

"William — William  Boozier,  you  don't  mean  to  say 
that  you've  er — er — caught  that  trout,  after  all  the  number 
of  times  I've  been  out  with  you,  and  the  pounds  and 
pounds  I've  spent  ?  " 

"  Suttenly  not,"  cries  the  worthy  William,  with  an  air  of 
mingled  grief  and  astonishment.  "  No,  sir,  suttenly  not.  But 
this  blessid  mornin'  as  ever  was,  I'se  a  goin'  down  to  Bun- 
kin's  Ait  in  the  little  skiff,  to  see  about  the  eel  barskits,  and 
I  hears  a  floppin'  and  prancin'  about  in  my  old  punt — that 
one  what  the  Westa,  confound  her !  stoved  in — and  so  I 
sculls  across  softly,  thinkin'  it  was  rats.  Soap  me  never, 
marster,  I  was  that  knocked-a-cock  as  I  could  ha'  drunk 
arf-a-pint  o'  ole  ale  quick,  just  as  I  could  at  this  heer  minnit, 
fur  theer  lay  that  theer  loverlly  trout,  a  nine-pounder  ef  he 
weighs  a  hounce,  wi'  just  a  kick  and  no  more  left  in  him  ; 
and  I  takes  him  in  my  two  hands  tenderly  as  ef  I  was  a 
lefting  a  babby,  and  'olds  his  'ed  up  stream.  But  it  worn't  a 
mossel  'o  use,  he  was  stone  gone ;  and  I  says  to  myself,  I 
does,  '  Bill,  this  punt  is  yourn  ' — which  it  is,  cause  why,  my 
own  brother's  sister's  husband  built  her,  best  pine  deal  and 
oak  stretchers,  which  well  it  is  beknown  down  at  the  bridge, 

VOL.  in. — H. 


ii4      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

and  at  the  ferry  ;  but,  '  Bill/  says  I,  '  this  trout  ain't  yourn, 
and  for  why,  cause  Muster  Fubsy  bin  a  fishin'  wi'  you,  Bill, 
off  and  on,  a  matter  of  a  score  o'  times,  ole  days  and  arf 
uns ' — though  I  never  was  the  man  to  arst  for  a  ole  day's 
pay  for  a  arf  un— '  and  that  theer  trout,  Bill,'  says  I,  '  is 
Muster  Fubsy's  fish  by  rights ' ;  and  so  I  brings  him 
straight  up  to  you,  sir,  and  theer  he  lays — a  beauty  as 
he  is — wi'  spots  on  him  as  big  as  a  crown  piece,  werry 
nigh." 

"  But,  in  the  name  of  fate,  William,"  cries  Fubsy,  carefully 
putting  his  spectacles  on  the  bridge  of  his  nose,  "  how 
did  the  trout  get  into  your  punt  ? " 

"  Chucked  hisself  in,  sir — chucked  hisself  in,  which  it  is 
well  known  they  will  do  arter  a  bait,  or  else  a  leaping  out 
o'  the  water  arter  a  butterfly  or  what  not,  and  so  the  pore 
creater  hadn't  the  sense  to  chuck  hisself  back  again,  and 
theer  he  is.  Blessed  if  I  ain't  as  dry  as  bones,  a-talking  so 
much." 

"  William,  you're  a  very  worthy  and  honest  fellow — a 
very  worthy  fellow  indeed,  William.  There's  a  sovereign 
for  you,  and  I'm  much  obliged  to  you,  while  Mary  will 
draw  you  a  jug  of  ale.  Good  morning,  William.  Good 
morning." 

The  end  draws  nigh.  William  at  any  time  during  that 
day  may  be  discovered  at  the  bar  of  the  "  Angler's  Rest," 
where  for  the  hundredth  time,  at  least,  he  tells  the  story  of 
"that  theer  trout  a-chucking  hisself  high  and  dry  into  the 
old  punt."  The  trout  goes  to  Cooper,  and  when  it  comes 
home,  at  the  expiration  say,  of  six  to  twelve  months,  it 
may  perhaps  bear  an  inscription  to  this  effect :  "  Thames 
Trout  caught  by  A.  J.  Kubsy,  spinning.  Weight,  nine 
pounds." 

In  my  own  opinion  the  abolition  of  night-lining  is  the 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  115 

sole  and  only  reason  for  the  immense  increase  in  late  years 
of  the  stock  of  trout  in  the  river. 

The  new  by-laws  as  to  snatching  and  night-lining  were 
approved  by  Her  Majesty  at  the  Court  of  Balmoral  on  the 
28th  of  October,  1879.  They  are  as  follows  : 

"Snatching  of  fish. — It  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any 
person  to  fish  for,  or  to  take,  or  attempt  to  take,  any  fish 
by  using  a  wire,  or  snare,  or  hooks  (baited  or  unbaited),  or 
any  other  engine  for  the  purpose  of  foul  hooking,  commonly 
called  *  snatching  or  snaring.' 

"  Night  lines. — It  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  person  to  lay 
night  hooks  or  night  lines  of  any  description  whatever 
between  the  *  City  Stone '  at  Staines  and  Kew  Bridge ;  and 
any  person  laying  fixed  lines  of  hooks  by  night  or  day 
(commonly  called  night  lines),  or  taking,  or  attempting  to 
take,  eels  or  fish  of  any  description  by  such  means,  shall  be 
deemed  as  committing  a  breach  of  this  by-law." 

The  Thames  Angling  Preservation  Society  continues  its 
jurisdiction  as  far  as  Staines,  and  at  that  point  the  first  of 
the  local  associations  for  the  preservation  of  the  river 
commences  its  work.  This  is  the  Windsor  and  Eton 
Society,  which  is  supposed  to  look  after  something  like 
about  twelve  miles  of  water  extending  from  Staines  Bridge 
to  Monkey  Island.  Throughout  that  stretch,  some  of  the 
finest  water  in  the  Thames  is  to  be  found,  and  if  this 
society  were  more  thoroughly  supported  by  the  public,  it  is 
probable  that  no  similar  length  of  water  would  be  more 
splendidly  productive.  It  is  the  fashion,  however,  to  rail  at 
the  promoters  and  managers  of  any  incorporated  body 
whose  objects  may  not  appear  to  be  carried  out  well  and 
to  the  point.  It  escapes  probably  the  notice  of  those  who 
gibe  and  speak  harshly  about  the  work  done  by  the 
Windsor  and  Eton,  that  it  is  simply  impossible  for  the 

I  2 


ii6      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

Society  to  keep  going  unless  the  angling  public  provides 
the  sinews  of  war.  This  section  of  the  public  will  know  in 
an  instant  whether  they  have  done  so  or  not. 

It  is  at  once  an  injustice  and  a  wrong  to  brand  a  body  of 
men  with  shortcomings  in  their  work,  when  the  very  work 
itself  is  dependent  upon  the  help  which  a  local  association 
like  the  Windsor  and  Eton  receives  from  the  public  who 
fish  its  waters.  I  venture  to  think  that  few,  if  any,  of  the 
hundreds  of  men  who  yearly  go  to  Windsor  and  its 
charming  environs  from  London,  sometimes  taking  good 
bags  of  fish  home  with  them,  ever  subscribe,  or  ever  did 
subscribe,  one  single  penny  to  its  funds. 

The  Maidenhead,  Cookham,  and  Bray  Angling  Society, 
whose  headquarters  are  at  Skindle's  Hotel,  and  whose 
excellent  secretary  is  Mr.  W.  G.  Day,  takes  up  the  work  of 
preservation  at  Monkey  Island,  continuing  their  operations 
over  an  important  section  of  the  Thames.  There  is  pro- 
bably none  other  of  the  local  associations  which  has  done 
such  wonderfully  good  work.  But  then  the  reason  is  not 
far  to  seek  ;  they  are  not  only  supported  fairly  by  the  local 
gentry  and  inhabitants,  many  of  whom  are  themselves  keen 
lovers  of  angling,  but  also  by  a  considerable  number  of 
London  anglers,  principally  members  of  the  leading  clubs. 
That  just  makes  all  the  difference,  and  although  I  do  not 
pretend  to  say  that  the  Windsor  and  Eton  has  not  done  all 
in  its  power  with  the  funds  which  it  had  at  command,  the 
Maidenhead  and  Cookham  sets  such  a  brilliant  example,  by 
stocking  their  waters  with  splendid  Wycombe  trout,  and 
that  too  in  the  most  liberal  manner,  that  their  example 
possibly  commanded  the  support  they  have  unquestionably 
received  to  a  certain  extent  from  a  small  section  of  the 
angling  public. 

I  say  a  small  section  advisedly,  because  where  a  society, 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  117 

like  that  under  notice,  proves  that  it  is  doing  a  valuable 
and  extensive  work,  it  ought  to  be  recognised,  in  no  matter 
how  small  a  degree,  by  every  angler  who  fishes  its  waters. 

Now  is  this  the  case,  or  anything  approaching  to  it  ?  I 
say  no — emphatically  no.  I  have  seen  scores  and  hundreds 
of  men,  during  the  many  years  which  I  have  fished  the 
Thames,  pursuing  their  sport  on  the  Maidenhead  waters, 
and  but  very  few  of  them  ever  contribute  a  single  farthing. 

If  this  state  of  things  were  confined  solely  to  the  coarse 
fish  of  this  or  any  other  section  of  the  river,  it  would  not 
possibly  matter  so  much — but  then  it  is  not.  Trout  fishers 
come  and  take  fish — not  confining  themselves  in  some 
instances  very  strictly  to  size — and  those  very  trout 
represent  so  much  hard  cash  deducted  from  the  Society's 
income.  Still  the  Society  goes  on  its  way  quietly,  and 
year  by  year  does  good  and  worthy  work.  They  are 
assisted  by  an  excellent  body  of  keepers,  under  the 
command  of  Harry  Wilder,  who  is  himself  a  rare  good 
fisherman,  and  year  after  year  show  an  admirable  return 
for  their  labours. 

In  justice  to  Harry  Wilder  and  Captain  A  Styan,  one  of 
the  early  founders  of  this  Association,  it  should  be  added 
that  they  were  really  the  first  to  start  the  Society.  Wilder 
informs  me  that  he  originated  the  idea  of  stocking  this 
part  of  the  river  with  Wycombe  trout,  and  that  he  and 
Captain  Styan  raised  a  subscription  for  that  purpose.  Such 
a  subscription  was  raised,  and  in  the  year  before  the  Associa- 
tion was  really  started  over  50  brace  of  fine  Wycombe  trout 
were  turned  into  the  river  opposite  the  Ray  Mead  Hotel. 

It  may  now  be  interesting  to  trace  the  absolute  history 
of  tLi  Society  itself. 

The  Maidenhead,  Cookham  and  Bray  Thames  Angling 
Association  was  started  so  recently  as  1874.  The  objects 


n8     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

in  view  were,  generally  speaking,  to  preserve  and  improve 
the  fishing  from  the  Shrubbery  to  Monkey  Island,  that 
is  to  say,  the  water  between  the  Great  Marlow  and  the 
Windsor  and  Eton  Districts. 

Prior  to  their  establishment  poaching  and  illegal  fishing 
were  rampant  in  this  district ;  and  I  am  informed,  by  those 
who  speak  from  personal  knowledge,  that  netting  on  the 
meadows  adjacent  to  the  river  during  flood  time  was  carried 
on  wholesale,  and  large  quantities  of  all  kinds  of  river 
fish,  the  greater  part  undersized,  were  captured  and  sold. 
Wiring  fish  in  the  ditches,  where  they  had  retreated  for 
spawning  operations,  was  also  a  very  common  practice. 

Ten  years  ago  trout  had  become,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, a  very  rare  fish  in  these  parts,  and  a  young  trout  of 
greater  rarity  still.  Angling  was  almost  at  a  standstill, 
and  anglers  were  seeking  other  waters  which  promised 
greater  success. 

Several  gentlemen  belonging  to  London,  and  to  the 
locality  of  Maidenhead,  feeling  that  a  great  deal  could  be 
effected  in  the  way  of  improvements  at  a  comparatively 
small  cost,  if  a  good  system  were  pursued,  took  the  matter 
in  hand.  Support  was  solicited  from  the  various  classes  of 
the  community  interested  in  the  results,  and  it  ended  in  this 
Association  being  formed. 

Their  first  step,  after  forming  a  good  working  committee, 
was  to  make  arrangements  with  the  several  riparian  owners 
in  the  districts,  by  which  the  Society  obtained  the  rights 
to  drag  their  ditches  and  prosecute  poachers,  and  I  am 
pleased  to  say  that  they  found  little  difficulty  in  obtaining 
these  powers. 

The  Society  then  took  into  its  service  several  of  the 
fishermen  of  the  district,  and  at  their  request  the  Thames 
Conservancy  granted  deputations  for  each,  by  which  they 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  119 

were  empowered  to  enter  boats  to  search  for  fish  unlawfully 
taken,  and  seize  any  unlawful  net,  &c.  The  Society  also 
had  an  understanding  with  its  water-bailiffs,  that  they  were 
to  net  the  ditches  adjacent  to  the  river  immediately  after 
floods,  and  that  they  were  to  be  constantly  on  the  watch 
for  any  infringement  of  the  Thames  Conservancy  By-laws. 

During  the  nine  years  which  have  elapsed  since  their 
establishment,  a  number  of  prosecutions  have  resulted  from 
the  vigilance  of  their  officers,  and  several  convictions  have 
been  obtained.  The  Society  has  also,  after  floods,  dragged 
the  ditches  in  their  district,  from  whence  large  quantities  of 
fish  have  been  returned  to  the  river.  The  water-bailiffs 
have  also  tajcen  a  number  of  night-lines  at  different  times, 
and  I  feel,  I  may  say  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  the 
Thames  Conservancy  By-laws  are  now  far  more  respected 
in  this  district  than  they  ever  were  before. 

With  a  view  to  improve  the  fishing,  the  Society  turned  in, 
by  way  of  experiment,  a  large  quantity  of  golden  bream, 
which  were  kindly  placed  at  their  disposal  by  the  Bedford 
Angling  Association,  but  the  fish  appear  to  have  left  this 
locality  altogether,  probably  because  the  water,  except  in 
certain  places,  was  entirely'  unsuitable  to  their  habits. 

From  time  to  time  a  large  quantity  of  good  sized  Wycombe 
trout  have  been  turned  in,  running  from  half  to  five  pounds 
in  weight.  I  should  mention  that  this  Society  wisely  recog- 
nised from  the  first  that  it  was  worse  than  useless  to  turn 
in  fish  below  half  a  pound  in  weight ;  and  if  one  may  judge 
from  the  quantity  of  trout  of  that  breed  now  taken,  and  the 
numbers  of  young  fish  seen  in  the  Maidenhead  waters,  the 
Society  has  been  successful  in  that  branch  of  their  under- 
taking, or  at  any  rate  so  far  as  the  limited  means  at  their 
disposal  would  permit. 

The  difficulty   experienced    in  purchasing  trout  of  the 


120     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

right  sort  and  size  induced  the  Society,  some  time  since,  to 
obtain  competent  advice  as  to  the  practicability  of  breeding 
and  rearing  them.  With  this  view  one  of  the  vice-presidents, 
Mr.  W.  H.  Grenfell,  of  Taplow  Court,  who  has  always  shown 
a  lively  interest  in  the  success  of  the  Society's  undertaking, 
expressed  his  willingness  to  place  at  their  disposal  a  likely 
place  for  the  purpose.  In  every  respect  but  one  it  was 
pronounced  suitable,  but  it  was  soon  found  that  the  con- 
stantly recurring  floods  would  render  attempts  at  breeding 
useless,  and  hence  the  scheme  was  not  prosecuted  farther. 

The  Great  Marlow  Thames  Angling  Association  does 
capital  work,  and  is  thoroughly  well  officered.  The 
honorary  secretary  is  Major  Simpson  Carson,  who  most 
efficiently  helps  the  Society  in  their  efforts  for  the  general 
good  of  the  river.  Here  again  a  large  share  of  the  Society's 
income  is  laudably  spent  in  the  purchase  of  trout  of 
excellent  size  from  the  Wycombe  waters,  which  are  turned 
into  the  Thames  at  an  age,  and  when  they  have  attained 
such  a  size,  as  enables  them  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

The  Reading  and  District  Angling  Society  comes  next,  and 
in  the  hands  of  its  worthy  and  efficient  secretary,  Mr.  Arthur 
Butler,  of  Zinzan  Street,  Reading,  prospers  exceedingly. 
This  Society  has  made  the  most  strenuous  efforts  to  re-stock 
that  portion  of  the  river  more  immediately  under  their 
own  control,  and  I  have  little  doubt  that  their  efforts  have 
met  with  the  success  they  deserved.  It  was  only  a  few 
years  ago  that  the  fisheries  of  the  Reading  district  bore  a 
most  unenviable  reputation  from  the  extent  of  netting  going 
on.  To  my  certain  knowledge  now  there  is  no  section  of 
the  river  which  is  better  looked  after  and  where  I  think  less 
netting  or  poaching  is  prosecuted.  Much  of  this  happy  state 
of  things  is  due  to  Mr.  Butler,  who  is  not  only  a  hard 
practical  worker,  but  a  man,  moreover,  who  never  walks 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON' AND  THE  PROVINCES.    121 

about  the  world  with  his  eyes  shut.  Such  a  man  is  bound 
to  do  good,  and  Mr.  Butler  does  it  without  stint. 

'  This  flourishing  Thames  Preservation  Society — one  of  the 
most  useful  and  influential  on  the  river — was  formed  in 
December,  1877,  at  a  meeting  at  the  Queen's  Hotel,  Reading, 
at  which  upwards  of  100  gentlemen  of  position  were  present. 
The  intention  at  first  was  to  protect  and  improve  the  fishing 
in  the  fine  stretch  of  water  between  Mapledurham  and 
Sonning — then  so  denuded  of  fish  that  even  the  poachers 
let  it  alone.  Henry  John  Simonds,  Esq.,  J.P.,  was  appointed 
the  first  president ;  Charles  Stephens,  Esq.,  J.P.,  treasurer  ; 
and  Mr.  Arthur  Butler — the  originator  of  the  movement 
—honorary  secretary,  dn  office  he  still  holds.  Mr.  Stephens 
still  acts  as  treasurer.  It  was  soon  found  desirable  to  ex- 
tend the  operations  of  the  association  both  up  and  down 
stream,  and  its  district  now  reaches  from  Goring  Lock  to 
Shiplake  Lock.  The  first  president  resigned  in  February 
1881,  and  James  Simonds,  Esq.,  J.P.,  who  still  occupies  the 
position,  was  chosen  in  his  stead. 

The  association  has  done  a  really  great  work  for  the 
public,  and  all  its  operations  have  been  attended  with 
success.  Since  its  formation  about  60,000  trout  have  been 
turned  in,  a  large  proportion  having  been  reared  in  a  stream 
belonging  to  the  association ;  and,  as  a  result,  trout  fishing 
has  vastly  improved.  Six  years  ago  the  trout  were  very 
"  few  and  far  between  ;  "  this  season  at  least  1 50,  ranging 
from  two  to  nine  pounds  in  weight,  have  been  landed  in 
the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Reading.  Coarse  fish 
have  by  no  means  been  neglected.  Tens  of  thousands  of 
pike,  perch,  roach,  dace,  &c.,  have  been  recovered  from  the 
ditches  after  floods,  &c.,  and  restored  to  the  river;  and 
several  reservoirs  and  lakes  have  from  time  to  time  been 
netted,  by  the  kind  permission  of  the  owners,  and  great 


122      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

numbers  of  perch,  carp,  tench,  rudd,  &c.,  thus  added  to  the 
stock. 

Coarse  fish  culture  has  this  year  been  undertaken  with 
surprising  success.  Two  large  "  Lund  "  hatching-boxes  — 
stocked  with  fine  Kennet  perch  —  have  been  filled  with 
spawn,  all  of  which  hatched  out  ;  and  since  the  perch  fry 
were  liberated,  a  great  quantity  of  carp  spawn  has  been 
hatched. 

No  less  than  eleven  bailiffs  are  employed  by  the  com- 
mittee, and  their  work  has  been  so  effectual  that  illegal 
practices  have  been,  practically,  entirely  stamped  out.  It 
is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  state  that  every  prosecution 
undertaken  by  the  committee  has  resulted  in  a  conviction. 

Extensive  private  rights  of  fishing  have  lately  been 
acquired  for  the  members  (an  annual  extra  charge  of  five 
shillings  being  made).  From  these  waters,  fish  may  not  be 
taken  under  the  following  sizes  :  trout  2lbs.,  pike  3lbs.,  tench 
2lbs.,  perch  Jib.,  barbel  3lbs.,  carp  3lbs.  —  a  sportsmanlike 
standard,  which  the  committee  recommend  for  observance 
also  in  the  public  fisheries. 

The  minimum  subscription  to  the  association  is  los.  6d.  ; 
but  subscribers  of  £i  is.  and  upwards  have  the  privilege  of 
cheap  railway  tickets  to  28  fishing  stations.  There  are  at 
present  117  subscribers  (elected  by  ballot)  on  the  books. 
Last  year's  income  was  £109  19^.  7*/.,  and  the  expenditure 


The  Henley  and  District  Thames  Angling  Association 
does  no  doubt  excellent  service,  and  certainly  not  before  it 
was  wanted  in  that  much  be-poached  district. 

The  honour  of  originating  this  Society  belongs  to  the 
late  honorary  secretary,  Charles  H.  Cook,  Esq.,  whose 
bad  health  unfortunately  compelled  him  to  retire.  They 
preserve  the  Thames  between  Temple  and  Hurley  Locks, 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.   123 

and  have  turned  into  the  river  considerable  numbers  of 
trout.  Hardly  is  this  a  very  satisfactory  district,  I  am 
afraid,  but  certainly  the  improvement  made  in  the  fisheries 
of  the  neighbourhood  redounds  very  much  to  the  credit  of 
the  Association.  The  president  of  the  Association  is  the 
Right  Hon.  W.  H.  Smith,  M.P.,  while  the  present  secretary 
is  Mr.  J.  W.  Knight. 

The  Wycombe  Angling  and  Preservation  Society  is 
another  body  of,  shall  I  say,  private  conservators,  from 
whom  the  Thames  itself  derives  a  very  large  amount  of 
good.  All  the  splendid  trout  which  have  been  turned  into 
the  river  at  Maidenhead,  Marlow,  and  other  places,  come 
from  the  water  under  the  control  of  this  association,  and 
the  following  short  particulars  embody  nearly  all  that  is 
necessary  to  say  about  a  Society  whose  reputation  as  trout 
preservers  is  a  very  great  one.  It  has  been  in  existence 
for  nearly  four  years.  It  originally  commenced  with 
about  one  hundred  members,  who  paid  a  low  annual  fee, 
but  it  was  found  necessary  to  gradually  reduce  their 
number  and  raise  the  subscriptions.  At  present  it  consists 
of  30  members  who  each  pay  an  annual  fee  of  from 
three  to  five  guineas.  This  number  also  includes  six 
artisan  members  at  a  nominal  subscription.  The  club 
preserves  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  Wycombe  stream, 
and  possesses  a  magnificent  stock  of  trout.  The  president 
is  the  Rt.  Hon.  Lord  Carrington  ;  honorary  secretary  and 
treasurer,  J.  Thurlow,  Esq. 

The  last  of  the  Preservation  Societies  of  which  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  speak  in  connection  with  the  Home 
District  is  the  Newbury  and  District  Angling  Association. 
The  following  short  history  of  its  position  at  the  present 
time  is  full  of  interest  to  anglers  frequenting  the  lovely 
Kennet  Valley,  over  which  this  Association  has  jurisdiction. 


124      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

This  very  young  association  was  started  on  the  i8th  of 
June,  1878,  with  the  object  of  protecting  the  rivers  in  and 
about  Newbury — putting  a  stop  to  poaching  which  had 
been  going  on  for  years,  and  also  the  practice  of  taking 
fish  out  of  season,  which  was  very  rife. 

After  considerable  trouble  on  the  part  of  its  chairman 
and  committee  it  succeeded  in  obtaining  leave  to  exercise 
its  protective  right  over  the  whole  of  the  waters  under  the 
control  of  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Newbury,  also  more 
than  seven  miles  of  the  Kennet  and  Avon  Canal ;  and  it  also 
rents  on  a  long  lease  about  one  mile  of  the  river  Lambourne, 
abounding  with  trout,  and  on  which  stream  only  the  fly  is 
allowed. 

The  streams  over  which  this  association  exercises  con- 
trol are  the  Kennet  and  many  of  its  back  streams,  the 
Lambourne,  and  the  Kennet  and  Avon  Canal. 

The  fish  found  in  these  streams  are  all  very  fine,  and 
comprise  trout,  pike,  perch,  chub,  barbel,  roach,  dace,  carp, 
tench,  eels,  gudgeon  and — last,  but  by  no  means  least — very 
famous  crayfish.  Indeed,  not  many  miles  up  the  stream 
there  is  an  old  saying  concerning  them,  running  as  follows — 

"  Hungerford  crayfish, 

Catch  me  if  ye  can  ; 
There's  no  such  crawlers, 
In  the  o-ce-an." 

In  a  short  sketch  like  this  it  is  impossible  to  do  more 
than  glance  at  one  or  two  of  the  notable  fish  for  which  this 
neighbourhood  is  celebrated. 

Its  trout  are  beaten  nowhere,  having  been  taken  up  to 
20  Ibs.  While  Pope  pleasantly  says  of  its  eels — 

"  The  Kennet  swift, 
For  silver  eels  renowned." 

And    travellers    of    a    nearly    bygone    age    in     the    old 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  125 

coaching  days  could  tell  of  the  great  gastronomic  attractions 
of  the  Kennet  eel, 

"  At  the  house  below  the  hill." 

There  it  was  that,  in  the  days  when  the  "  Pelican "  did 
flourish,  seventy  coaches  in  the  day  and  night  passed 
through  the  good  old  town. 

But  I  must  pass  to  the  present  time  and  the  working 
of  the  Association.  Well,  from  small  beginnings  it  has 
grown  so  much  that  at  the  meeting  previous  to  the  next 
angling  season  this  question  will  have  to  come  to  the  fore 
— either  the  Committee  must  raise  the  price  of  the  tickets 
or  place  a  restriction  upon  the  number  of  the  members. 

It  may  be  as  well  to  add  that  no  profit  whatever  is 
made  out  of  the  Association,  as  it  is  only  in  existence  to 
preserve  the  water  and  improve  sport,  and  all  its  Committee 
of  Management  wish  to  see  is  enough  to  pay  the  outgoing 
expenses.  They  are  of  necessity  large,  when  consideration 
is  given  to  keeping  up  a  stock  of  fish,  by  turning  in  hun- 
dreds at  the  proper  season,  the  pay  of  the  keepers  all  the 
year,  and  the  constant  supervision  that  is  required. 

Many  fine  specimens  of  Kennet  fish  may  be  seen  in  the 
Western  Quadrant  of  the  Fisheries  Exhibition  now  open 
at  South  Kensington. 

It  only  remains  to  add  that  all  particulars  may  be 
obtained  of  the  worthy  chairman  of  the  Association,  Mr. 
John  Packer,  87  Northbrook  Street,  Newbury,  who  will 
forward  rules  and  all  needed  information  upon  application, 
and  from  whom  alone  tickets  can  be  had. 

There  is  yet  another  Society  doing  good  work  upon  the 
Thames,  called  the  Oxford  Angling  Association,  but  I 
regret  that  I  received  no  particulars  as  to  its  constitution 
until  too  late  for  insertion  in  this  book. 

Finding   it   to   be   a  matter  of  exceeding   difficulty  to 


126     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

obtain  reliable  information  as  to  the  origin  and  growth 
of  the  various  preservation  societies  scattered  about  the 
country,  I  was  compelled  to  fall  back,  either  upon  the 
horns  of  a  dilemma,  or  upon  the  charity  of  my  very  good 
friend,  Mr.  R.  B.  Marston,  the  editor  of  the  Fishery  Gazette 
who  has  very  kindly  placed  at  my  disposal  "  The  British 
Fisheries  Directory,"  a  valuable  little  book  of  reference, 
dedicated  to  Mr.  Birkbeck,  the  Chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  International  Exhibition.  From  that 
little  volume  I  extract  much  of  the  following  information 
with  regard  to  the  London  and  Provincial  Preservation  and 
Angling  Societies  of  this  country. 


METROPOLITAN  AND  DISTRICT  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND 
FISHERY  ASSOCIATIONS. 

The  Fisheries  Preservation  Association,  22  Lower  Seymour  Street, 
Portman  Square,  London. 

The  National  Fish  Culture  Association  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  Royal  Courts  Chambers,  2  Chancery  Lane. 

Thames  Angling  Preservation  Association.  Thomas  Spreckley, 
president;  W.  H.  Brougham,  secretary.  Office,  7  Ironmonger 
Lane,  E.  C. 

Thames  Rights  Defence  Association,  Francis  Francis,  chairman; 
J.  M.  R.  Francis,  Hon.  sec.  Office,  1 1  Old  Jewry  Chambers,  E.C. 

United  London  Angling  Associations  Fisheries  Society,  Star  and 
Garter,  St.  Martin's  Lane,  Charing  Cross,  W.C. 

West  Central  Association  of  London  and  Provincial  Angling 
Societies,  P.  Geen,  president;  T.  Hoole,  hon.  sec.  Club-House — The 
Portman  Arms,  Great  Quebec  Street. 

LONDON  CLUBS. 

Albert     ....     The  Crown  Coffee  House,  Coronet  Street, 

Old  Street. 

Alliance  .         .         .     ClerkenweU  Tavern,  Farringdon  Rd.,  E.C. 

Alexandra  .         .     Crown  and  Anchor,  Cheshire  St.,  Bethnal 

Green. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.   127 


Amicable  Brothers  . 
Amicable  Waltonians 

Angler's  Pride 
Acton  Piscatorial  Society 
Albert  Edward 
Anchor  and  Hope    . 

Act  on  the  Square  . 
Admiral  Brothers  . 
Acorn  .  •  • 
Acme  .... 

Bostonian        •         . 

Battersea  Friendly  . 
Bloomsbury  Brothers 
Bermondsey  Brothers 

Brothers  Well  Met  . 
Beresford         .         .         . 
Burdett  .... 
Bridgewater  Brothers 

Brunswick       .         •         • 

Brentford         .         .         . 
Buckland         ... 
Barbican          .         .         • 
Battersea  Piscatorials 
Cadogan          ... 

City  of  London        .         • 
Cavendish        .          .         . 
Clerkenwell  Amateurs 
Convivial         •          . 

Carlisle  ,         •         • 

Clapham  Junction    .         . 


Bald  Faced  Stag,  Worship  St.,  Finsbury. 

Horse  and  Groom,  St.  John's  Street, 
Clerkenwell. 

Five  Bells,  Bermondsey  Square,  S.E. 

George  and  Dragon,  High  St.,  Acton,  W. 

Tile  Kiln,  Tullerie  Street,  Hackney  Road. 

William  the  Fourth,  Canal  Bridge,  Old 
Kent  Road. 

The  Ferry  Boat,  Tottenham. 

Admiral  Hotel,  Francis  Street,  Woolwich. 

Duke  of  York,  Gloucester  St.,  Clerkenwell. 

Weaver's  Arms,  Drysdale  Street,  Kings- 
land  Road. 

Dalby  Tavern,  Prince  of  Wales  Road, 
Kentish  Town. 

Queen's  Hotel,  Queen's  Road,  Battersea. 

Rose  and  Crown,  Broad  St.,  Bloomsbury. 

Alscot  Arms,  Alscot  Road,  Grange  Road, 
Bermondsey. 

Berkeley  Castle,  Rahere  St.,  Goswell  Rd. 

Grove  House  Tavern,  Camberwell  Grove. 

Joiners' Arms.  118  Hackney  Road. 

Three  Tuns,  Bridgewater  Gardens,  Bar- 
bican. 

Brunswick  Arms,  Stamford  St.,  Black- 
friars. 

Angel  Inn,  Brentford  End,  Brentford. 

Middlesex  Arms,  Clerkenwell  Green. 

White  Bear,  St.  John  Street,  Clerkenwell. 

Queen's  Head,  York  Road,  Battersea. 

Prince  of  Wales,  Exeter  Street,  Sloane 
Street,  S.W, 

Codger's  Hall,  Bride  Lane,  Fleet  Street. 

Duke  of  York,  Wenlock  Street,  Hoxton. 

George  and  Dragon,  St.  John  Street  Road. 

Bull  and  Bell,  Ropemakers'  Street,  Moor- 
fields,  E.C. 

Hall  of  Science  Club  and  Institute,  Old 
Street,  E.C. 

Lord  Ranelagh,  Verona  Street,  Clapham 
Junction. 


128     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 


Canonbury      .         . 
Cambridge  Friendly         . 
Cobden  .         .         .         . 

Clerkenwell  Piscatorials   . 
Crescent          . 

Critchfield 

Crown     .... 

Crown  Piscatorials  . 
Dalston  .... 
De  Beauvoir    . 
Duke  of  Cornwall     . 

Duke  of  Norfolk      . 

Ealing  Dean   . 

Excelsior 

Excelsior 

Eustonian 

Edmonton  and  Tottenham 

Friendly  Anglers 

Foxley    .... 

Golden  Tench. 

Golden  Barbel 

Good  Intent    . 

Grafton  .... 

Grange  . 

Great  Northern  Brothers 

Globe     .        •        . 

Gresham  .         . 

Hammersmith  Club 
Hammersmith  United 

Hearts  of  Oak          .        • 


Monmouth   Arms,   Haberdasher    Street, 

Hoxton. 
Rent  Day,  Cambridge  Street,  Hyde  Park 

Square. 

Cobden   Club,  Landseer  Terrace,  West- 
bourne  Park. 

Horse  Shoe,  Clerkenwell  Close. 
Giraffe     Tavern,     Newington    Crescent, 

Kennington  Park  Road. 
Myddleton  Arms,  Queen's  Rd.,  Dalston. 
Crown  and  Sceptre,  Friendly  St.,  Dept- 

ford. 

Crown  Tavern,  Clerkenwell  Green. 
Hope,  Holies  Street,  Dalston. 
Lord  Raglan,  Southgate  Road,  Islington. 
Duke    of    Cornwall,     Lissmore     Circus, 

Haverstock  Hill. 

Ledbury  Arms,  Ledbury  Road,  Bayswater. 
Green  Man,  Ealing  Dean,  W. 
The  Hope,  Bird  Street,  Kennington. 
Palmerston,  Well  Street,  Hackney. 
King's  Head,  Swinton  St.,  Gray's  Inn  Rd. 
Three  Horse  Shoes,  Silver  St.,  Edmonton. 
Albion  Tavern,  Albion  St.,  Hyde  Park. 
Foxley  Arms,  Elliot  Road,  Brixton. 
Somers  Arms,  Ossulton  St.,  Euston  Rd. 
York  Minster,  Foley  Street,  Portland  Rd. 
Crown  Inn,  Church  Street,  Shoreditch. 
King's  Arms,  Strutton  Ground,  Wesmins- 

ter. 
Grange  Club  and  Institute,  Bermondsey, 

S.E. 
Robin  Hood,  Southampton  Street,  Penton- 

ville. 
Bank  of   Friendship,   Blackstock  Road, 

Highbury  Vale. 

Mason's  Hall  Tavern,  Basinghall  St.,  E.G. 
Grove  House,  Hammersmith  Broadway. 
Builders'  Arms,  Bridge  Road,  Hammer- 
smith. 
Dolphin,  Church  Street,  Shoreditch. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  129 


Highbury         .         . 

Hoxton  Brothers      .         , 
Hampstead      .         . 

Isledon  Piscatorials 
Izaak  Walton  .         • 

Jovial     .         .         •         . 
Junior  Piscatorial     .         , 

Jolly  Piscatorials 
Kentish  Perseverance 
Kenningtonian 
Knights  of  Knightsbridge 

King's  Cross  United 
Kingfishers      .         •         « 

Kentish  Brothers      . 

L.  &  S.  W.  Railway 

Larkhall 

Limehouse  Brothers          , 

Little  Independent  .         « 

Metropolitan  .         •         « 
Marylebone     .         •         . 

Nautilus  .         •         « 

Norfolk  .         •         •         « 

« 
North  London          •         , 

North  Eastern          •         * 
North  Western        •        , 

New  Globe      .         •         « 
Never  Frets  •         • 

VOL.   III.— II. 


Plimsoll  Arms,  St.  Thomas's  Road,  Fins- 
bury  Park. 

Cherry  Tree,  Kingsland  Road,  Shoreditch. 

Cock  and  Crown,  High  Street,  Hamp- 
stead. 

Crown  and  Anchor,  Cross  St.,  Islington. 

Old  King  John's  Head,  Mansfield  Street, 
Kingsland  Road. 

Jolly  Anglers,  Whitecross  Row,  Richmond, 
Surrey. 

Duke  of  Cornwall,  South  Island  Place, 
Clapham  Road. 

Sugar  Loaf,  Great   Queen   Street,  W.C. 

Corner  Pin,  Cold  Bath,  Greenwich. 

The  Clayton  Arms,  Kennington  Oval. 

Grove  Tavern,  Grove  Place,  Brompton 
Road,  S.W. 

Prince  Albert,  Wharfdale  Road,  King's 
Cross. 

Oliver  Arms,  Westbourne  Terrace,  Har- 
row Road. 

George  and  Dragon,  Blackheath  Hill. 

Brunswick  House,  Nine  Elms. 

The  Larkhall,  Larkhall  Lane,  Clapham. 

Dunlop  Lodge,  70  Samuel  St.,  Limehouse. 

Russell  Arms,  Bedford  Street,  Ampthill 
Square. 

The  Rose,  Old  Bailey. 

Prince  Albert,  Sherbourne  Street,  Bland- 
ford  Square,  W. 

British  Lion,  Central  Street,  St.  Luke's. 

Norfolk  Arms,  Burwood  Place,  Edgware 
Road. 

Prince  Albert,  Hollingsworth  St.,  Hollo- 
way. 

Shepherd  and  Flock,  Little  Bell  Alley, 
Moorfields. 

Lord  Southampton,  Southampton  Road, 
Haverstock  Hill. 

Albion,  Bridge  Road,  Stratford. 

Crown  and  Shuttle,  High  St.,  Shoreditch. 

K 


130      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 


Nelson    . 

Odds  and  Evens 
Original  Clerkenwell 
Original  Alexandra  . 

Peckham  Perseverance 
Pictorial . 
Penge     . 
Phoenix  . 

Prince  of  Wales 

Portsmouth  Waltonian 
Peckham  Brothers   . 

Princess  of  Wales     . 
Perseverance  . 

Pike  and  Anchor     . 
Queen's  .         • 

Reform  .         •         . 
Royal  George  . 

Richmond  Piscatorial 
Royal  Piscatorial 
Rodney  . 
Second  Surrey 
South  Essex    . 
Sportsman       . 
Suffolk    . 
South  Essex    . 
St.  John's 

Savoy  Brothers 
Silver  Trout    .         . 

St.  Alban's      .         . 


Nelson  Working  Men's  Club,  90  Dean  St., 
Soho. 

Albion,  East  Road,  Hoxton,  N. 

White  Hart,  Aylesbury  St.,  Clerkenwell. 

Duke  of  Wellington,  Three  Colt  Lane, 
Bethnal  Green. 

Eagle,  118  Trafalgar  Road,  Camberwell 

King's  Arms,  Tottenham  Court  Road. 

Lord  Palmerston,  Maple  Road,  Penge. 

Tavistock  Arms,  Wellington  St.,  Oakley 
Square. 

Victory,  Newnham  Street,  John  Street, 
Edgware  Road. 

Golden  Fleece,  High  Street,  Landport. 

Prince  Albert,  East  Surrey  Grove,  Peck- 
ham. 

Prince  of  Wales,  Gt.  Barlow  St.,  Man- 
chester Square,  W. 

The  Perseverance,  Pritchard's  Row, 
Hackney  Road. 

Pike  and  Anchor,  Ponder's  End. 

Queen's  Arms,  Bomore  Road,  Netting 
Hill,  W. 

Jolly  Coopers,  Clerkenwell  Close. 

Hope  Tavern,  Tottenham  St.,  Tottenham 
Court  Road. 

Station  Hotel,  Richmond. 

Foxley  Tavern,  Elliott  Road,  Brixton. 

Albion,  Rodney  Road,  Walworth,  S.E. 

Queen's  Head,  Brandon  St.,  Walworth. 

The  Elms,  Leytonstone,  E. 

Lady  Owen  Arms,  Goswell  Road. 

Suffolk  Arms,  Boston  St.,  Hackney  Rd. 

Victoria  Dock  Tavern,  Canning  Town,  E. 

Three  Compasses,  Cow  Cross  Street, 
Farringdon  Street. 

Green  Man,  St.  Martin's  Lane. 

Star  and  Garter  Hotel,  St.  Martin's  Lane, 
W.C. 

Royal  George,  Great  New  St.,  Kenning- 
ton  Park  Road. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  131 


Sir  Hugh  Myddleton 

South  London. 
St.  Pancras  Club 
Stanley  Anglers       .     ^    • 

Star        .... 
Stepney  .  . 

South  Belgravia 
Surrey  Piscatorial    . 

South  Eastern. 

Sussex    .... 

Sociable  Brothers     . 

Social  Brothers 

St.  James's  and  Soho 

Stoke  Newington 

St.  John's  Wood       . 

Society  of  Caxtonians 
The  Piscatorial 

Trafalgar         .         . 

True  Waltonians     . 
Three  Pigeons          .         . 

United  Brothers       • 
United  Essex  .         . 

United  Society  of  Anglers 
United  Marlboro'  Brothers 
Woolwich  Piscatorials 
West  Ham  Brothers 
Woolwich  Invicta     .         . 
Waltonians      .         . 
Walton  and  Cotton  .         . 

Walworth  Waltonians 


Empress  of  Russia,  St.  John  Street  Road, 

Clerkenwell. 

George  and  Dragon,  235  Camberwell  Rd. 
2  Crescent  Place,  Burton  Crescent. 
The  Lord  Stanley,  Camden  Park  Road, 

Camden  Town. 

King's  Arms,  Charles  Street,  City  Road. 
Beehive,  Rhodeswell  Road,  Stepney. 
Telegraph,  Regency  Street,  S.W. 
St.   Paul's  Tavern,  Westmoreland  Road, 

S.E. 

Prince  Arthur,  Stamford  Street,  S.E. 
Sussex  Arms,  Grove  Road,  Holloway. 
Princess,  237  Cambridge  Rd.,  Mile-End. 
Prince  Regent,  Dulwich  Rd.,  Herne  Hill. 
39  Gerrard  Street,  Soho,  W. 
Myddleton  Arms,  Mansfield  St.,  Kings- 
land  Road. 
Queen's  Arms,  Lower  William  Street,  St. 

John's  Wood. 

Falcon  Tavern,  Gough  Square,  E.C. 
Ashley's  Hotel,  Henrietta  Street,  Covent 

Garden. 
Star  and  Garter,  Green  Street,  Leicester 

Square. 

White  Horse,  80  Liverpool  Rd.,  Islington. 
Three  Pigeons,  Lower  Richmond  Road, 

S.W. 
Druid's  Head  Tavern,  Broadway,  Dept- 

ford. 
Dorset  Arms,  Leyton  Rd.,  Stratford  New 

Town. 

Duke  of  Wellington,  Shoreditch. 
Hercules'  Pillars,  7  Greek  Street,  Soho. 
Cricketer's  Arms,  Sand  Street,  Woolwich. 
Queen's  Head,  West  Ham  Lane,  E. 
Golden  Marine,  Francis  St.,  Woolwich. 
Jew's  Harp,  Redhill  St.,  Regent's  Park. 
Crown  and  Woolpack,  St.  John's  Street, 

Clerkenwell. 
St.  Paul's,  Westmoreland  Rd.,  Walworth. 


K   2 


132      1HE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

West  Central  .         .         .     Cross     Keys,    Theobald's     Road,    High 

Holborn. 

Woolwich  Brothers  .         .     Prince  Regent,  King  Street,  Woolwich. 
Westbourne  Park     .         .     Pelican,   All   Saints'  Road,   Westbourne 

Park,  W. 
Walthamstow  .         .         •     Common  'Gate,  Markhouse   Road,  Wal- 

thamstow. 

West  London  .         •         •     Windsor  Castle,  King  St.,  Hammersmith. 
Watford  •         •         •     Leathersellers'  Arms,  Watford,  Herts. 

Wellington      •        •        .     Prince  Regent,  Beresford  St.,  Walworth. 

ENGLAND. 

BEDFORDSHIRE. 

Bedford  Angling  Society,  Bedford. 

Blunham  Angling  Association— C.  Forge,  u  and  12  Addle  Street, 
Wood  Street,  secretary. 

BERKSHIRE. 

Maidenhead,  Cookham,  and  Bray  Thames  Angling  Association—- 
W.  G.  Day,  secretary.  Club-House— Skindlfs  Hotel. 

Newbury  and  District  Angling  Association — J.  Smith,  62  North- 
brook  Street,  Newbury,  secretary. 

Reading  and  District  Angling  Association— Arthur  C.  Butler,  hon. 
sec.  Club-House — Great  Western  Hotel,  Reading. 

Windsor  and  Eton  Angling  Club.  Club-House — Royal  Oak  Hotel, 
Windsor. 

Windsor  and  Eton  Angling  Preservation  Association — Rev.  E. 
James,  Eton,  secretary. 

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 

Great  Marlow  Thames  Angling  Association — Major  Simpson  Car- 
son, Great  Marlow,  hon.  secretary. 

High  Wycombe  Angling  Association,  High  Wycombe. 

Marlow  Angling  Association — A.  Maskell,  Great  Marlow,  secretary. 

CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 

Cambridge  and  Ely  Angling  Society— W.  Purchas,  secretary.  Club- 
House — Lion  Hotel,  Cambridge. 

CHESHIRE. 

No.  i  Crewe  Angling  Society— John  Dickens,  secretary.  Club- 
House — Dog  and  Partridge  Inn,  High  Street,  Crewe. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.    133 

CUMBERLAND. 
Carlisle  Angling  Association — J.  B.  Slater,  Carlisle,  secretary. 

DERBYSHIRE. 

Aquarium  Angling  Society — T.  Winfield,  secretary.  Club-House — 
The  Three  Crowns,  Bridge  Street,  Derby. 

Burton-on-Trent  Angling  Association — Sir  M.  A.  Bass,  Bart.,  M.P., 
president;  John  C.  Perfect,  hon.  sec.  Club-House — Midland  Hotel, 
Burton-on-Trent. 

Castle  Fields  Angling  Club,  Messrs.  Beden's  Factory,  London  St., 
Derby — M.  Bland,  secretary. 

Ctatsworth  Angling  Club,  Chatsworth. 

Chesterfield  Angling  Association— G.  R.  Hornstock,  26  Durrant 
Road,  Chesterfield,  secretary. 

Excelsior  Angling  Club — J.  Hibbert,  secretary.  Club-House— 
Lamb  Inn,  Park  Street,  Derby. 

Mazeppa  Angling  Club,  Traffic  Street,  Derby — F.  Bond,  secretary. 

Melancthon's  Head  Angling  Club,  Park  Street,  Derby — W.  Peet, 
secretary. 

Pride  of  Derby  Angling  Club— W.  Tunnicliff,  secretary.  Club- 
House,  Old  English  Gentleman,  Normanton  Road,  Derby. 

Red  Lion  Angling  Association,  Bridge  Street,  Derby — Joseph  Selvey, 
secretary. 

DEVONSHIRE. 

Avon  and  Erme  Fishery  Association,  Plymouth. 

Culm  Fishery  Association — C.  J.  Upcott,  Shortlands,  Cullompton, 
secretary. 

Exe  Landowners'  Salmon  Fishing  Association— Mr.  Whippell, 
Rudway,  Silverton,  secretary. 

Exe  Occupiers'  Trouting  Association — W.  C.  James,  Thorverton, 
secretary. 

Lower  Exe  United  Fishing  Association,  Exeter. 

Tiverton  Angling  Association,  Tiverton. 

Upper  Culm  Fishery  Association,  Exeter. 

Upper  Exe  Angling  Society,  Exeter. 

GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 

Avon  and  Tributaries  Angling  Association — E.  B.  Villiers,  26  Bath 
Street,  Bristol,  hon.  secretary. 

Bristol  Golden  Carp  Angling  Association — Lewis  Wride,  Digby 
House,  Barton  Hill,  Bristol,  secretary. 


134       THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

Bristol  United  Anglers'  Association — R.  D.  Frost,  48  Victoria  St., 
Bristol,  secretary. 

Cheltenham  Angling  Society — W.  H.  Davis,  7  Priory  Terrace, 
Cheltenham,  secretary. 

City  of  Bristol  Angling  Association — H.  Lewis,  Morton  House, 
Barton  Hill,  Bristol,  secretary. 

HAMPSHIRE. 

Portsmouth  Waltonian  Society— F.  Tranter,  secretary.     Club-House 
— Golden  Fleece,  Commercial  Road,  Portsea. 
Stockbridge  Angling  Club,  Stockbridge. 

Titchfield  Angling  Club — E.  Goble,  solicitor,  Titchfield,  secretary. 

• 

HEREFORDSHIRE. 

Bodenham  Angling  Club,  Bodenham. 

Leominster  Angling  Club — V.  W.  Holmes,  National  Provincial  Bank, 
Leominster,  secretary. 

HERTFORDSHIRE. 

Harefield  Valley  Fishery,  Rickmansworth. 

Watfield  Piscatorial  Society — H.  A.  Vincent,  htm.  sec.  Club- 
House — The  Leathersellers1  Arms,  Watford. 

KENT. 

Maidstone  Angling  and  Medway  Preservation  Society— David  Pine, 
Maidstone,  hon.  secretary. 

Stour  Fishery  Association — Club  House — Fordwich  Arms. 

Tonbridge  Angling  Association — Edwin  Hollomby,  secretary.  Club- 
House—  Bull  Hotel,  High  Street,  Tonbridge. 

LANCASHIRE. 

City  of  Liverpool  Angling  Association,  19  West  Derby  Road, 
Liverpool 

Liverpool  Angling  Association — Richard  Woolfall,  hon.  sec.  Club- 
House — Strawberry  Hotel,  West  Derby  Road,  Liverpool. 

Liverpool  Central  Angling  Association,  181  Dale  Street. 

Manchester  Anglers'  Association — Abel  Heywood,  jun.,  hon.  sec. 

Manchester  and  District  Anglers'  Association — J.  Yiocter,  president ; 
Edwin  Hicks,  6  Belmont  Street,  Eggington  Street,  Rochdale  Road, 
secretary.  The  Association  comprises  sixty-six  different  Clubs. 

Stalybridge  Angling  Society — J.  B.  Udale,  secretary.  Club-House 
—The  Q.  Inn,  Stalybridge. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  135 

Stamford  and  Warrington  Angling  Club.  Club  House — Guide  Post 
Tavern,  Staly bridge. 

Wigari  and  District  Amalgamated  Anglers'  Association — Levi  Booth, 
president;  John  Stones,  secretary.  This  Association  consists  of  twenty- 
six  different  Clubs. 

LEICESTERSHIRE. 

Leicester  Jolly  Anglers'  Club.  Club-House — The  Earl  of  Leicester, 
Inn,  Infirmary  Square,  Leicester. 

North  Britons' Angling  Association.  Club-house — The  York  Castle, 
Northgate  Street,  Leicester. 

LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Boston  Angling  Association — Mr.  Day,  Boston,  secretary. 

Great  Grimsby  Angling  Association.  Club-House — Masons'  Arms 
Hotel,  Great  Grimsby. 

Market  Deeping  Angling  Association — S.  B.  Sharpe,  Market 
Deeping,  hon.  secretary. 

MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

Abergavenny  Fishing  Association  — C.  J.  Daniel,  Cross  St., 
Abergavenny,  treasurer. 

Usk  Fishery  Association — Charles  R.  Lyne,  Tredegar  Place, 
Newport,  secretary. 

NORFOLK. 

Bure  Preservation  Society — C.  J.  Greene,  London  St.,  Norwich, 
secretary. 

East  Anglian  Piscatorial  Society — R.  Palmer,  Great  Eastern  Wine 
Vaults,  Norwich,  secretary. 

Great  Yarmouth  Piscatorial  Society — James  Lark,  St.  George's 
Tavern,  162  King  St.,  Great  Yarmouth,  secretary. 

King's  Lynn  Angling  Association — Frederick  Ludby,  president; 
H.  Bradfield,  hon.  secretary. 

Norwich  Angling  Club — R.  Moll,  hon.  sec.  Club-House — Walnut 
Tree  Shades,  Old  Post-Office  Yard,  Norwich. 

Norwich  Central  Fishing  Club.  Club-House — Old  Oak  Shades 
Lower  Goat  Lane,  Norwich. 

Norwich  Champion  Angling  Club — G.  Daniels,  president. 

Norwich  Piscatorial  Society — Mr.  Capon,  secretary.  Club-House — 
Walnut  Tree  Shades,  Old  Post-Office  Yard,  Norwich. 

Wensum  Preservation  Association — E.  H.  Horsley,  Fakenham, 
hon.  secretary. 


136     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

Yare  Preservation  and  Anglers'  Society— C.  J.  Greene,  London  St, 
Norwich,  secretary. 

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

Northampton  Working  Men's  Angling  Club.  Club-House—Bridge 
Street,  Northampton. 

Wellingborough  and  Higham  Ferrers  Angling  Club— E.  Brummitt, 
WeHingborough,  secretary. 

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

Lenton  Anglers'  Association— George  Tilley,  hon.  sec.  Club-House 
— Black's  Head  Inn,  Lenton,  Nottingham. 

Newark  Piscatorial  Society.  Club-House — Horse  and  Gears  Inn, 
Portland  St.,  Newark. 

Nottingham  and  Notts  Anglers'  Preservation  Association — Mr. 
Clarke,  secretary.  Club-House — The  Minstrel  Tavern,  Market  St., 
Nottingham. 

Wellington  Angling  Association — Club-house — Wellington  Hotel, 
Station  St.,  Nottingham. 

OXFORDSHIRE. 

Henley  and  District  Thames  Angling  Association — Mr.  Cooke, 
Henley,  secretary. 

Oxford  Angling  Society.  Club-house—  The  Pheasant  Inn,  St.  Giles, 
Oxford. 

Oxford  Thames  Angling  Preservation  Society — W.  T.  Mayo,  13 
Cornmarket  Street,  Oxford,  hon.  secretary. 

RUTLANDSHIRE. 
Oakham  Angling  Society,  Oakham. 

SHROPSHIRE. 

Plowden  Fishing  Association  (River  Onny)— A.  B.  George, 
Dodington,  Whitchurch,  hon.  treasurer. 

Shrewsbury  Severn  Angling  Society — F.  H.  Morgan,  hon.  sec, 
Club-House— 57  Mardol,  Shrewsbury. 

SOMERSETSHIRE. 
Kingswood  and  District  Angling  Association,  Kingswood. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.    137 

STAFFORDSHIRE. 

Cobridge  Angling  Society.  Club-House—  Wedgewood  Hotel, 
Waterloo  Rd.,  Burslem. 

Isaac  Walton  Angling  Club — William  Gregory,  secretary.  Club- 
House — Coach  and  Horses,  Stafford  St.,  Longton. 

Isaac  Walton  Angling  Club — Frederick  Higginson,  secretary.  Club- 
House — Dresden  Inn,  near  Longton. 

Longton  Excelsior  Angling  Club — Thomas  Morris,  secretary. 
Club-House — Crown  and  Anchor,  Longton. 

Stoke-upon-Trent  Angling  Society — J.  Hollins,  hon.  sec.  Club- 
House — Pike  Hotel,  Copeland  Street. 

SUFFOLK. 

Dipping  Angling  Preservation  Association — George  Josselyn, 
president ;  W.  C.  S.  Edgecombe,  National  Provincial  Bank,  Ipswich, 
hon.  secretary. 

Norfolk  and  Suffolk  Fish  Acclimatisation  Society — Edward  Birk- 
beck,  W..¥ ., president ;  W.  Oldham  Chambers,  Lowestoft,  hon.  sec. 

SURREY. 

Godalming  Angling  Society — F.  Dowse,  High  Street,  hon.  sec. 
Club-House — Sun  Inn,  Godalming. 

Richmond  Piscatorial  Society — F.  Gaunt,  secretary.  Club-House — 
Station  Hotel,  Richmond. 

SUSSEX. 

Brighton  Anglers'  Association,  Brighton. 

Chichester  Angling  Society — W.  Cooke,  secretary.  Club-House — 
Globe  Hotel,  Chichester. 

Ouse  Angling  Preservation  Society — Hector  Essex,  Hillside,  Lewes, 
hon.  secretary. 

Rother  Fishery  Association — D.  N.  Olney,  Blenheim  House, 
Robertsbridge,  secretary. 

WARWICKSHIRE. 

Birmingham  and  Midland  Piscatorial  Association— James  Gregory, 
39,  Vyse  St.,  hon.  secretary. 

WESTMORELAND. 

Kent  Angling  Association — G.  Fisher,  Kendal,  hon<  secretary. 
Milnthorpe  Angling  Society — W.  Tattersall,  Milnthorpe,  secretary. 


138     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

WILTSHIRE. 

Bradford-on-Avon  Angling  Association. 

Sarum  Angling  Club— -H.  Selby  Davison,  40  King  St.,  London,  E.G., 
secretary. 

WORCESTERSHIRE. 

Evesham  Angling  Club,  Evesham. 

Isaac  Walton  Angling  Society — Club-House,  Plough  Inn,  Silver  St., 
Worcester. 
Teme  Angling  Club — W.  N orris,  Worcester,  secretary. 

YORKSHIRE. 

Aire  Fishing  Club — T.  H.  Dewhurst,  Whin  Field,  Skipton,  secretary. 

Burnsall,  Appletrewick,  and  Barden  Angling  Club — T.  J.  Critchley, 
Brook  St.,  Ilkley,  secretary. 

Costa  Anglers'  Club— J.  H.  Phillips,  22  Albemarle  Crescent,  Scar- 
borough, secretary. 

Derwent  Anglers'  Club.  Address — Mr.  Patrick,  gunmaker,  Scar- 
borough. 

Hawes  and  High  Abbotside  Angling  Association — B.  Thompson- 
Hawes,  secretary. 

Knaresborough  Star  Angling  Club.  Club-House — C.  M 'Nichols, 
Knaresborough. 

Marquis  of  Granby  Angling  Society — T.  H.  Settle,  hon.  sec.  Club- 
House — The  Marquis  of  Granby i  Leeds. 

Middleham  Angling  Association — J.  E.  Miller,  Middleham,  secretary. 

Otley  Angling  Club — Mr.  Pratt,  Otley,  secretary. 

Rockingham  Angling  Society — E.  F.  Atkinson,  president.  Club- 
House — The  Fox:,  Leeds. 

Ryedale  Angling  Club,  Hovingham. 

Sheffield  Anglers' Association— Charles  Styring,  president  \  Messrs. 
Baker,  Gill,  Greaves,  Guest,  Jenkinson,  Leonard,  Sheldon,  Stuart, 
Swinden,  Thompson,  Unwin,  and  White,  committee;  Thomas  Walker, 
24  Blue  Boy  St.,  Sheffield,  secretary.  This  Association  comprises  232 
Clubs  in  Sheffield  and  district. 

Wilkinson  Angling  Association,  Hull. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.    139 

ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  FISHING  ASSOCIA- 
TIONS IN  SCOTLAND. 

ABERDEENSHIRE. 

Dee  Salmon  Fishing  Improvement  Association — William  Milne, 
C.A.,  147  Union  St.,  secretary. 

BERWICKSHIRE. 

Berwick  Anglers'  Club — Robert  Weddell,  solicitor,  Berwick, 
secretary. 

Coldstream  Angling  Club— John  Tait,  High  St.,  Coldstream, 
secretary. 

Ellen  Fishing  Club,  Duns — The  Hon.  Edward  Marjoribanks, 
president;  G.  Turnbull,  58  Frederick  St.,  Edinburgh,  secretary. 

Greenlaw  Fishing  Club — David  Leitch,  Greenlaw,  secretary. 

DUMFRIESSHIRE. 

Esk  and  Liddle  Fisheries  Association — The  Duke  of  Buccleuch, 
K.G.,  president;  Robert  M'  George,  writer,  Langholm,  secretary. 

EDINBURGHSHIRE. 

Cockburn  Angling  Association — George  E.  Y.  Muir,  I  West  Cross- 
causeway,  Edinburgh,  secretary. 

Edinburgh  Angling  Club — William  Menzies,  18  Picardy  Place, 
secretary. 

Edinburgh  Amateur  Angling  Club— J.  Gordon  Mason,  S.S.C., 
secretary. 

Midlothian  Angling  Club— Joseph  A.  Cowan,  53  Rose  St.,  secretary. 

Penicuik  Angling  Club— James  Foulis,  clothier,  Penicuik,  secretary. 

St.  Andrew  Angling  Club — Professor  Williams,  president;  J.  Young 
Guthrie,  S.S.C.,  29  Hanover  St.,  Edinburgh,  secretary. 

Walton  Angling  Club — Professor  Williams,  president;  James  Grant, 
S.S.C.,  12  Howard  Place,  Edinburgh,  secretary. 

Waverley  Angling  Club— John  M'Dougal,  3  Rutland  Place, 
Edinburgh,  secretary. 


i4o     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

FlFESHIRE. 

Dunfermline  Angling  Club— James  Mathewson,  Dunfermline, 
secretary. 

Kirkcaldy  Angling  Club— Patrick  Don  Swan  ,  of  Springfield 
president;  Thomas  Johnston,  solicitor,  Kirkcaldy,  secretary. 

FORFARSHIRE. 

Alyth  Angling  Club— Major  Japp,  president;  James  D.  Murdoch, 
Alyth,  secretary. 

Arbroath  Angling  Club — David  A.  Wilson,  Kirk  Wynd,  Arbroath, 
secretary. 

Brechin  Angling  Club — James  B.  Hodge,  2  Swan  St.,  Brechin, 
secretary. 

Canmore  (Forfar)  Angling  Club— David  Maxwell,  16  Watt  St., 
Forfar,  secretary. 

Dundee  Angling  Club— David  Ireland,  Calcutta  Buildings,  Dundee, 
secretary. 

Dundee  West  End  Angling  Club — Alexander  Mitchell,  Roseangle, 
Dundee,  secretary. 

Dundee  Walton  Club— W.  Mudie,  3  Athole  Terrace,  Maryfield, 
Dundee,  secretary. 

Forfar  Angling  Club — James  Dall,  joiner,  Market  Place,  Forfar,  sec. 

Strathmore  (Forfar)  Angling  Club — James  Paton,  10  Arbroath  Road, 
Forfar,  secretary. 

HADDINGTONSHIRE. 

East  Linton  Angling  Club — The  Rev.  Thomas  Stirling  Marjoribanks, 
Prestonkirk,  president;  George  Smellie,  East  Linton,  secretary. 

Haddington  Fishing  Club — Captain  Houston  of  Clerkington,  presi- 
dent; George  Angus,  35  Court  St.,  Haddington,  secretary. 

KINROSS-SHIRE. 

Kinross-shire  Fishing  Club — Thomas  Steedman,  Clydesdale  Bank, 
Kinross,  secretary. 

Loch  Leven  Angling  Association  (Limited) — Sir  J.  R.  Gibson-Mait- 
land,  Bart,  of  Craigend,  president;  George  Bogie,  solicitor,  Kinross, 
secretary. 

LANARKSHIRE. 

Abington  Angling  Club— David  Oswald,  teacner,  Abington,  sec. 

Buckland  Angling  Club — William  Cross,  41  York  St.,  Glasgow, 
secretary. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  141 

Coatbridge  Angling  Club — David  Gird  wood,  Langloan,  Coatbridge, 
secretary. 

Echaig  Angling  Club — John  Clark,  17  Royal  Exchange  Square, 
Glasgow,  secretary. 

Glasgow  Dodgers. 

Glasgow  Junior  Angling  Club. 

Lanark  Amateur  Angling  Association — David  Gourlay,  Bannatyne 
Street,  Lanark,  secretary. 

Lanarkshire  United  Anglers'  Protective  Association— Crawford 
Brown,  1 10  Garthland  Drive,  Glasgow,  secretary.  (Nine  associated 
Clubs.) 

Loch  Lomond  Angling  Improvement  Association — Alfred  Brown, 
163  West  George  Street,  Glasgow,  secretary. 

Motherwell  Star  Angling  Club — James  Brown,  Braidhurst  Colliery, 
Motherwell,  secretary. 

Stonehouse  Angling  Club— A.  Hamilton,  Stonehouse,  secretary. 

St.  Mungo  Angling  Club— W.  Craig  Ramsay,  writer,  Glasgow, 
secretary. 

Trout  Preservation  Association — David  B.  Macgregor,  51  West 
Regent  Street,  Glasgow,  secretary. 

West  of  Scotland  Angling  Club — David  B.  Macgregor,  51  West 
Regent  Street,  Glasgow,  secretary. 

Western  Angling  Club — John  Wilson,  59  St.  Vincent  Street,  Glasgow, 
secretary. 

LlNLITHGOWSHIRE. 

Armadale  Angling  Club— Robert  Kerr,  South  Street,  Armadale, 
secretary. 

Avon  Conservancy  Association — W.  Horn  Henderson,  Linlithgow, 
secretary. 

Bathgate  Angling  Club — Robert  Bryce,  Bridgend,  Bathgate,  sec. 

PEEBLESHIRE. 

Peebles  Vigilance  Trout  Protection  Association — Charles  Tennant, 
M.P.,  The  Glen,  president ;  James  Anderson,  Peebles,  secretary. 

Peebles  Angling  Association — James  Wolfe  Murray  of  Cringletie, 
president  j  Alexander  Pairman,  grocer,  Peebles,  secretary. 

St.  Ronan's  Angling  Club— James  Cossar,  Innerleithen,  secretary. 

PERTHSHIRE. 

Aberfeldy  Club— James  Forbes,  Chapel  Street,  Aberfeldy,  secretary. 
Aberfoyle  Angling  Club. 


142     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

Blairgowrie  Angling  Club. 

Perth  Anglers'  Club— P.  D.  Malloch,  209  High  Street,  Perth, 
secretary. 

Perthshire  Fishing  Club— Robert  Keay,  City  Chambers,  Perth,  sec. 

ROXBURGHSHIRE.     « 

Kelso  Angling  Association — Sir  G.  H.  S.  Douglas,  Bart.,  of  Spring- 
wood  Park,  president;  Archibald  Steel,  Bridge  Street,  Kelso,  secretary. 

Upper  Teviotdale  Fisheries  Association — The  Duke  of  Buccleuch, 
K.G.,  president ;  Walter  Haddon,  Royal  Bank  of  Scotland,  Hawick, 
secretary. 

SELKIRKSHIRE. 

Caddonfoot  Fishings— H.  W.  Cornillon,  S.S.C.,  139  George  Street, 
Edinburgh,  secretary. 

Gala  Angling  Association — Robert  Hall,  131  High  Street,  Galashiels, 
secretary. 

Selkirk  Angling  Association — John  Anderson,  Elm  Row,  Selkirk, 
secretary. 

STIRLINGSHIRE. 

Bonnybridge  Angling  Club — Alexander  Mitchell,  Greenbank  Cottage, 
Bonnybridge,  secretary. 

Callander  Angling  Club — D.  Melrose,  Callander,  secretary. 

Denny  and  Dudipace  Angling  Club — Robert  Shearer,  Well  Strand, 
Denny,  secretary. 

Dollar  Angling  Club. 

Dollar  and  Devondale  Angling  Club — Peter  Cousins,  Dollar,  sec. 

Doune  Angling  Club— W.  H.  Hogg,  Lanrick  Castle,  Doune,  sec. 

East  Stirlingshire  Association  of  Anglers — John  Hogg,  writer,  Lar- 
bert,  secretary. 

Falkirk  Angling  Club — J.  A.  Miller,  144  High  St.,  Falkirk,  secretary. 

Forth  Angling  Club,  Stirling. 

Haggs  Angling  Club — George  Mirk,  Haggs,  by  Denny,  secretary. 

Muiravonside  and  Polmont  Angling  Club — A.  Campbell,  Blackbraes, 
Falkirk,  secretary. 

Sauchie  and  Whins  of  Milton  Angling  Club— Sir  J.  R.  Gibson-Mait- 
land,  Bart.,  of  Craigend,  president;  Wm.  Reid,  Whins  of  Milton,  by 
Stirling,  secretary. 

Skinflatts  Angling  Club— William  Russell,  Skinflatts,  by  Falkirk, 
secretary. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  143 

Stirling  Forth  and  Teith  Angling  Association — Alexander  M offal, 
Clydesdale  Bank,  Stirling,  secretary. 

Stirling  Fishing  Club— Sir  J.  R.  Gibson- Maitland,  Bart.,  of  Craig- 
end,  president;  Robert  M'Luckie,  Stirling,  secretary. 


The  following  short  descriptions  of  some  of  the  most 
prominent  Angling  and  Preservation  Societies  of  the 
Provinces  are  compiled  mainly  from  the  information 
kindly  supplied  by  the  secretaries  of  each  Association. 
They  are  placed  as  nearly  as  may  be  in  alphabetical 
order,  the  particulars  being  summarised  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, so  as  to  come  within  the  scope  of  this  little  book. 

AIRE  FISHING  CLUB. 

This  club,  which  has  been  in  existence  some  forty-five 
years,  was  founded  and  fostered  by  J.  R.  Tennant,  Esq., 
of  Kildwick  Hall,  Skipton.  It  consists  of  twenty 
members,  paying  an  entrance  fee  of  ten  guineas,  and  an 
annual  subscription  of  the  like  amount,  who  preserve  the 
river  from  Cargrave  to  Eastburn  Brook.  It  has  also  a 
number  of  subscribers,  limited  to  thirty,  paying  an  annual 
subscription  of  thirty  shillings,  who  are  allowed  to  fish  the 
river  from  Carleton  Stone  Bridge  to  Eastburn  Brook.  The 
Hon.  Secretary  is  T.  H.  Dewhurst,  Esq.,  of  Whinfield, 
Skipton,  while  the  President  is  J.  R.  Tennant,  Esq. 

ABERGAVENNY  FISHING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  founded  in  1860,  and  has  been 
carried  on  from  that  time  with  fairly  good  success.  The 
number  of  salmon  and  trout  season  tickets  is  limited  to  20, 
the  holders  of  such  tickets  in  the  previous  years  having 


144      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

the  option  of  renewing  them.  Five  of  these  tickets  are 
reserved  for  persons  living  twenty  miles  from  the  town. 

Rule  6  provides :  That  the  price  of  salmon  and  trout 
season  tickets  be  4<D/-,  except  to  persons  who,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  committee,  are  professional  fishermen, 
who  will  be  charged  ;£io;  season  tickets  for  trout, 
2O/-,  to  admit  the  use  of  fly,  worm,  minnow,  or  gentle; 
season  tickets  for  trout,  if  fly  only  be  used,  io/-.  Day 
tickets  for  salmon  and  trout,  5/-,  to  be  restricted  to 
persons  residing  io  miles  or  more  from  the  town  ;  day 
tickets  for  trout,  fly  only  to  be  used,  2/6  ;  or  5/-  to 
admit  the  use  of  worm,  minnow,  or  gentle.  None  of 
these  tickets  are  transferable,  except  as  provided  for  in 
Rule  8.  Also  that  tickets  for  clodding  for  eels  shall 
be  issued  at  5/-  ;  and  that  tickets  for  dace  fishing  during 
the  trout  closed  season  shall  be  5/- ;  or  to  include  both 
eels  and  dace,  io/-,  such  fishermen  to  be  subject  to 
Rule  io,  as  to  time  of  fishing.  Ladies  may  be  allowed  to 
fish  on  the  payment  of  half  the  price  of  any  of  these 
tickets. 

The  Association  has  about  two  miles  of  water,  most  01 
which  can  be  fished  from  both  banks.  The  Marquis  of 
Abergavenny  gives  the  right  of  fishing  from  his  property 
on  the  left  bank,  while  the  Association  rents  the  right  bank 
from  a  local  landowner. 

THE  BIRDSGROVE  FLY-FISHING  CLUB,  MAYFIELD, 

ASHBOURNE. 

This  club,  which  is  limited  to  twenty  members  paying 
an  annual  subscription  of  five  pounds  each,  was  formed  by 
J.  H.  Villiers,  Esq.,  and  fishes  four  miles  of  the  river  Dove 
situate  about  a  mile  from  Ashbourne,  and  lying  between 
the  Okeover  and  Norbury  Fishing  Clubs.  The  river 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  145 

abounds  in  trout  and  grayling,  and  runs  through  some 
very  fine  scenery. 

The  members  at  present  consist  of  eighteen  gentlemen, 
thus  showing  a  vacancy  for  two  more  rods. 

BRADFORD-ON-AVON  FISHING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  about  ten  years  ago  with 
the  object  of  putting  a  stop  to  the  poaching,  netting  and 
pollution  which  was  then  going  on  in  the  Avon.  The 
principal  supporters  of  it  were  W.  Stevine,  Esq.,  of 
Warleigh,  the  Rev.  George  Baker,  of  Manor  House, 
Freshford,  and  Captain  Sainsbury,  of  Bathford.  It  pre- 
serves the  river  from  Holt  to  Stoke,  which  distance  is 
divided  into  three  sections.  The  charge  for  a  yearly 
ticket  for  the  whole  of  the  water  is  £1,  and  such  ticket  is 
transferable  to  any  member  of  the  owner's  family.  For 
half  the  water  the  cost  of  a  ticket  is  icxr.,  and  for  one  of 
the  sections  it  is  2s.  6d.  per  month.  In  1876  the  water  was 
handed  over  to  an  association  formed  at  Bristol,  of  which 
Mr.  E.  W.  B.  Villiers,  of  26  Bath  Road,  Bristol,  is  secretary. 

BOSTON  ANGLING  ASSOCIATION 

Was  established  in  1871,  having  for  its  object  the  pre- 
vention of  the  wholesale  destruction,  by  netting,  of  fish  in 
the  river  Witham  and  its  tributary  streams,  so  that  good 
angling  might  be  provided  for  the  inhabitants  of  Boston, 
its  visitors,  and  the  neighbourhood.  This  object  the  Asso- 
ciation has  undoubtedly  attained,  and  is  now  one  of  the 
largest  and  best  free  fisheries  for  coarse  fish  in  the  kingdom, 
being  bountifully  supplied  with  pike,  perch,  roach,  rudd, 
chub,  ruffe,  bleak,  bream  (two  kinds),  tench  and  eels. 
Burbot  are  occasionally  taken.  It  is  148  miles  in  extent, 
comprising  the  river  Witham,  and  the  drains  in  the  East, 

VOL.   III. — II.  L 


i46     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

West  and  Wildmore  Fens,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
River  Witham  Drainage  Commissioners,  and  under  whose 
by-laws  the  B.  A.  A.  have  power  and  act.  At  the 
present  time  it  is  the  principal  resort  of  the  Sheffield 
anglers,  it  being  nothing  uncommon  to  witness  two 
thousand  in  a  single  day.  It  is  computed  by  competent 
authorities  that  there  were  not  less  than  30,000  visitors 
last  season.  It  is  regulated  by  a  code  of  rules  twenty 
in  number,  and  supported  by  voluntary  contributions.  The 
officers  consist  of  patrons,  a  president,  vice-presidents, 
treasurer,  secretary,  and  a  committee  of  management. 
The  officers  are  appointed  annually  by  ballot,  on  the  first 
Monday  in  July.  The  committee  meets  monthly  on  the 
second  Wednesday  in  every  month,  having  power  to  call 
special  meetings.  The  quarterly  meetings  are  held  the 
first  Monday  in  October,  January  and  April. 

Besides  the  above  there  is  the  North  and  South  Forty- 
foot  drains,  about  forty  miles  in  extent,  under  the  juris- 
diction and  management  of  the  Black  Sluice  Drainage 
Commissioners.  The  latter  drain  is  large  and  deep,  with 
excellent  water,  and  though  it  has  only  been  preserved 
three  seasons  it  abounds  with  most  kinds  of  the  fish 
previously  mentioned,  but  is  particularly  noted  for  its 
pike  and  perch.  There  is  a  small  annual  fee  of  2s.  6d. 
charged  by  the  Commissioners  on  these  waters. 

BRISTOL  GOLDEN  CARP  ANGLING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  founded  in  September  1879,  and  is 
limited  to  200  members.  The  subscription  for  the  first 
year  is  $j.,  and  2s.  6d.  per  annum  afterwards.  General 
meetings  are  held  the  last  Monday  in  each  quarter,  and 
committee  meetings  last  Monday  in  each  month. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  147 

Secretary,  Lewis  C.  Wride,  Digby  House,  Barton  Hill, 
Bristol. 

CARLISLE  ANGLING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  in  1852  to  preserve  the 
River  Eden  and  its  tributaries.  Up  to  that  time  a  great 
amount  of  poaching  had  existed,  there  being  no  regular 
watchers  on  the  river.  In  the  first  year  of  its  existence  the 
bailiffs  seized  thirty-two  illegal  nets,  in  most  cases  securing 
convictions.  Up  till  1870 'they  were  the  only  preservers 
of  the  river,  then,  however,  the  Eden  Board  of  Conservancy 
was  formed,  having  a  staff  of  ten  men  and  an  inspector, 
whose  salaries  were  paid  out  of  the  funds  arising  from  the 
sale  of  net  and  rod  licences.  The  number  of  salmon  and 
trout  has  steadily  increased  since  the  Association  was 
formed.  In  1878  the  salmon  disease  broke  out  amongst 
the  fish,  and  has  continued  more  or  less  ever  since, 
showing  itself  principally  in  the  spring  and  autumn.  The 
Eden  is  one  of  the  finest  trout  and  salmon  rivers  in  Eng- 
land, abounding  in  fishy  streams  and  runs  with  occasional 
rocky  pools.  There  are  netting-stations  for  fifteen  miles 
from  the  outlet,  but  in  spite  of  these  salmon  and  grilse  run 
up  the  river  in  large  numbers.  The  Hon.  Sec.  is  J.  Bedwell 
Slater,  Esq.,  of  Chatsworth  Square,  Carlisle. 

THE  CHICHESTER  ANGLING  SOCIETY. 

This  Association  was  established  in  1881.  Its  Patron  is 
His  Grace  The  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Gordon,  while  the 
President  is  W.  W.  Baker,  Esq.,  and  Vice-President, 
W.  Kerwood,  Esq.  ;  Treasurer,  Mr.  A.  Purchase ;  Hon. 
Sec.,  Mr.  G.  F.  •  Salter.  The  head-quarters  are  at  the 
"  Globe  Hotel,"  Chichester. 

This  Society  numbers  over  100  members,  and  has  a  fine 

L  2 


,48     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

stretch  of  water  within  a  short  distance  of  the  club-room, 
well  stocked  with  carp,  bream,  perch,  roach,  and  a  few 
tench  and  eels.  Pike  are  also  fairly  represented.  The 
canal  from  the  basin  to  the  lower  lock  is  over  three  miles, 
and  since  the  weed  clearance  by  the  Society  in  1882  is  in 
fine  angling  condition. 

THE  COSTA  ANGLERS'  CLUB. 

The  River  Costa  at  Keld  Head  runs  in  considerable 
volume  at  the  foot  of  the  oolitic  limestone  moorlands, 
lying  north  of  Pickering,  in  the  North  Riding  of  the 
County  of  York.  In  many  respects  it  is  a  remarkable 
stream.  It  is  of  high  uniform  temperature,  rarely  below 
37  degrees,  consequently  it  never  freezes,  and  in  cold 
winters  the  condensation  of  vapour  is  a  striking  phe-. 
nomenon,  rising,  as  it  frequently  does,  high  into  the  air, 
and  may  be  seen  for  many  miles. 

This  high  temperature  naturally  promotes  the  rapid 
growth  of  weed,  and  is  one  of  the  annoyances  which  the 
managing  committee  have  to  contend  with  in  being  com- 
pelled to  cut  and  keep  it  under  so  very  frequently  in  the 
height  of  the  fishing  season.  On  the  other  hand,  this  weed 
forms  a  capital  shelter  for  fish,  and  produces  a  vast  amount 
of  insect  food,  on  which  young  fish  rapidly  increase  in  size 
and  condition. 

The  club  is  only  a  youthful  institution  ;  nevertheless, 
the  managers  have  already  a  breeding  establishment  in 
operation,  and  are  able  to  turn  out  annually  from  15,000  to 
20,000  fry,  consequently  the  stream  is  becoming  fairly 
stocked  with  both  trout  and  grayling.  Those  killed  last 
season,  and  so  far  as  this  one  has  progressed,  have  been 
of  an  average  weight  of  i  £  to  2  Ibs.,  and  a  few  3  Ibs. 

Each  member  is  limited  to  ten  brace  a  day,  not  less  than 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  149 

10  inches  in  length,  and  to  20  days,  angling  during  the 
season,  for  which  he  pays  four  guineas  subscription  and  an 
entrance  fee  of  five  guineas.  There  are  40  subscribing 
members,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Hill,  of 
Thornton  Hall,  near  Pickering,  a  thorough  sportsman  and 
a  county  gentleman  of  the  truest  Yorkshire  type. 

The  Costa  receives  the  Pickering  Beck  near  Kirby 
Misterton,  and  two  or  three  miles  below  the  united  waters 
are  discharged  into  the  Derwent.  J.  H.  Philips,  Esq.,  of 
Scarborough,  is  the  honorary  secretary,  and  it  was  mainly 
through  his  exertions  that  the  club  was  re-established  some 
four  years  ago. 

DERWENT  ANGLERS'  CLUB. 

This  Club  preserves  a  stretch  of  water  extending  from 
two  miles  below  East  and  West  Ayton,  near  Scarborough, 
through  the  celebrated  Forge  Valley,  thence  past  the  highly 
picturesque  village  of  Hackness,  the  seat  of  Lord  Derwent, 
to  Hill's  Green  Bridge  at  the  entrance  of  "  Barnescliffe,"  a 
wild  gorge  of  surpassing  beauty,  running  up  and  forming 
the  eastern  side  of  the  lofty  "Langdale  Rigg,"  from  the 
summit  of  which  there  is  a  magnificent  view  of  a  large 
expanse  of  country.  On  the  east  the  cliffs  of  the  sea  coast, 
with  the  baronial  castle  keep  of  Scarborough  standing  out 
like  a  sentinel  to  guard  that  ancient  borough  and  queen  of 
watering  places — on  the  south  are  the  Great  Wolds,  with 
the  bold  promontories  of  Filey  Brigg  and  Flamborough 
Head  forming  striking  objects,  whilst  on  the  west  the  eye 
stretches  away  to  Malton  and  the  Howardean  Hills,  with 
the  Hambleton  plateau  in  the  far  distance.  On  the  north  is 
large  expanse  of  moorland  lying  in  the  direction  of  Robin 
Hood's  Bay,  and  the  Peak,  flanked  by  the  railway  from 
Pickering  to  Whitby,  emerging  from  Newton  Dale  on  to 


ISO      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

the  heights  above.  It  is  here  on  high  ground,  under  the 
shadow  of  "  Lilla's  Cross,"  that  the  "  Derwent "  takes  its 
rise ;  and,  descending  in  a  meandering  form,  with  many  a 
pretty  waterfall,  it  traverses  the  monotonous  expanse  ot 
moor  in  a  south-easterly  course  until  it  meets  at  the  foot 
of  the  upper  end  of  Langdale  Pike  the  "  Luggerhowe  " 
stream  coming  from  Harwood  Dale,  and  unitedly  they 
enter  the  Barnescliffe  Valley.  From  this  point  to  Hill's 
Green  Bridge  is  a  nice  stretch  of  stream,  full  of  small 
yet  toothsome  trout,  of  which  Lord  Derwent  is  the 
owner,  and  who  liberally  grants  permission  to  honest 
anglers.  That  portion  of  the  Derwent  which  is  preserved 
by  the  club  is  a  pleasant  fishable  stream,  with  abundance 
of  trout  and  a  few  grayling,  though  neither  of  them 
are  of  large  size,  averaging  about  three  to  the  pound. 
The  stream  may  be  briefly  described  as  one  of  alternate 
pool,  with  here  and  there  gravelly  streams,  fringed  on 
both  sides  with  trees  and  bushes  where  trout  love  to  hide 
and  dwell  and  to  watch  for  their  daily  ephemeral  food. 
Through  the  Forge  Valley  the  stream  runs  deep  and 
sluggishly,  but  many  a  lusty  trout  lies  there  in  ambush,  only 
to  be  interviewed  when  there  is  a  wind  blowing  up  or  down 
the  valley.  A  practical  hand  then  may  readily  fill  his 
pannier. 

Lord  Derwent  and  Lord  Londesborough  are  the  chief 
proprietors,  and  are  the  liberal  patrons  of  the  Club,  though 
there  are  other  riparian  owners,  all  of  whom  generously 
place  their  respective  waters  at  the  disposal  of  the  members'. 
The  Derwent  being  at  such  a  convenient  distance  from 
Scarborough  and  easily  accessible  by  rail,  are  great  facilities 
for  the  members  reaching  the  stream.  The  Club  was 
formed  upwards  of  forty  years  ago,  namely  in  1839,  and, 
from  its  many  surroundings,  has  always  been  a  popular 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  151 

one,  especially  with  the  gentry  residing  in  Scarborough. 
The  managers  have  a  breeding  establishment  at  the  Forge 
Cottages,  and  for  many  years  past  have  turned  out  from 
10,000  to  20,000  fry,  so  that  the  stream  is  kept  constantly 
replenished  with  an  abundant  stock  of  fish,  to  supply  diver- 
sion for  its  many  members,  who  occasionally  jostle  each  other 
— as  for  instance  in  the  Mayfly  season,  when  every  one  is 
anxious  for  the  fray  and  to  secure  a  basket.  If,  however, 
the  angler  should  fall  on  an  untoward  day,  when  trout 
decline  conclusions  with  his  "  gentle  art,"  he  has  before  him 
magnificent  scenery  which  will  well  repay  him  for  his  outing, 
though  he  may  have  to  return  home  with  an  empty  creel. 
T.  B.  Etty,  Esq.,  of  Scarborough — a  relative  of  the  dis- 
tinguished painter — is  the  acting  and  obliging  honorary 
secretary  of  the  Club,  which  consists  of  40  members, 
subscribing  two  guineas  each  annually  and  three  guineas 
entrance. 

THE  DART  DISTRICT  FISHERY  BOARD 

Exercises  certain  powers  of  control  over  a  defined  district, 
the  limits  of  which  were  settled  by  a  certificate  from  the 
Secretary  of  State  dated  26th  of  March,  1866,  under  the 
powers  conferred  by  the  Salmon  Fishery  Acts ;  and  under 
the  same  powers  the  members  of  the  Board  are  appointed 
by  the  Magistrates  at  Quarter  Sessions.  The  Board  has 
the  power  to  issue  licences,  without  which  no  person  (not 
excepting  owners  of  property)  can  fish.  The  Chairman  is 
Jeffrey  Michelmore,  Esq.,  of  Totnes,  while  the  Hon. 
Secretary  is  Anthony  Pike,  Esq.,  of  the  same  place. 

DERWENT  VALLEY  ANGLING  ASSOCIATION. 

At  a  public  meeting  held  at  the  Town    Hall,   Shotley 
Bridge,   on    Tuesday,    March   9th,   1865,   to   consider  the 


152     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

propriety  of  forming  an  association  for  the  protection  of 
fish  in  the  River  Derwent,  the  late  Thos.  Wilson,  Esq., 
of  Shotley  Hall,  in  the  chair,  it  was  resolved  : 

I.  That  the  above  Association  be  formed  for  the  above 
object. 

II  That  it  be  governed  by  a  president  and  a  committee 
of  not  less  than  six  members,  with  secretary  and 
treasurer. 

III.  That  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Shotley  Hall,  be  president,  and 
that  the  provisional  committee  to  carry  out  the  resolutions 
of  meeting  should  be  composed  of  the  following  gentle- 
men, viz :  Mr.  John  Armandale,  Mr.  Thos.  Ramsay,  Mr. 
Geo.  Peile,  Mr.  Thos.  Richardson,  Mr.  (now  Dr.)  Renton, 
the   Rev.   W.    Cundill,   Mr.    Featherstonehaugh,   and   Mr. 
Thirlwell,  Mr.  A.  Town  (Hon.  Treasurer),  the  Rev.  F.  B. 
Thompson,  and  Mr.  Booth  (Hon.  Sec.). 

IV.  That  such  committee  be  authorised  to  communicate 
with  the  landed  proprietors  along  the  bank  of  the  river, 
asking  their  co-operation,  &c.,  and  report  to  future  meeting, 
together  with  proposed  rules  and  regulations  for  working 
of  the  association. 

V.  That  a  subscription  list  be  now   opened   and   sub- 
scriptions solicited  towards  funds  of  the  Association. 

At  a  public  meeting  held  on  Monday,  3<Dth  October,  1865, 
the  report  was  presented  and  rules  adopted,  while  it  was 
settled  that  fishing  should  commence  on  the  i6th  of  March, 
1866,  and  close  on  the  1st  of  October.  Tickets  los.  each. 
The  first  subscription  amounted  to  £32. 

Since  March  1879  the  tickets  to  new  members  have  been 
5^.,  to  old  members  2s.  6d. 

From  report  of  annual  meeting  held  in  February  last  I 
find  that  the  Society  commenced  earlier,  viz.,  on  March  1st 
instead  of  i6th.  Since  its  formation  6,000  fry  (fario  and 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  153 

levenensis)  have  been  introduced  in  the  river  and  tributaries. 
(Fishing-  in  the  latter  is  strictly  prohibited.) 

The  subject  of  introducing  grayling  is  postponed  for  the 
present. 

THE  EAST  ANGLIAN  PISCATORIAL  SOCIETY. 

This  Society  had  its  origin  in  the  City  of  Norwich,  and 
was  founded  by  Mr.  Alfred  Palmer,  the  then  proprietor  of 
the  Great  Eastern  Hotel.  It  was  first  started  in  the  year 
1879,  and  up  to  the  present  time  has  had  a  most  successful 
career.  The  society  consists  of,  and  is  limite'd  to  thirty 
members,  besides  several  honorary  members.  Prominent 
amongst  the  latter  is  the  name  of  Edward  Birkbeck,  Esq., 
M.P.,  as  also  the  names  of  W.  H.  Grenfel,  Esq.,  M.P. 
for  Salisbury,  and  Edward  Fanshaw  Holley,  Esq.,  of 
Gunyah  Lodge,  Norwich.  The  above  gentlemen  have 
taken  a  keen  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  Society. 

The  members  meet  once  a  month  for  the  transaction  of 
business,  special  meetings  for  readings,  and  "  Social  Board  " 
meetings  are  held  at  intervals.  The  society  has  done 
much  in  prohibiting  netting  and  other  unfair  fishing  both  in 
the  rivers  Yare  and  Bure. 

THE  EATON  FISHING  CLUB. 

\ 

The  club  preserves  about  three  miles  of  the  rivers  Lugg 
and  Arrow,  commencing  a  mile  below  the  town  of 
Leominster,  Herefordshire.  The  water  which  runs  through 
land  belonging  principally  to  the  Earl  of  Meath  is  well 
stocked  with  both  trout  and  grayling. 

This  society  was  originally  formed  some  thirty-five  years 
since,  and  is  limited  to  fourteen  members.  Since  then  it 
has  passed  through  various  changes  in  rules  and  con- 


i54    THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

stitution,  and  is  now  managed  by  a  committee  of  local 
gentlemen. 

THE  ESK  FISHERY  ASSOCIATION 

Was  founded  in  the  year  1866,  and  consists  of  the  land- 
owners consenting  to  the  preservation  of  their  portion  of 
the  stream  by  the  club,  and  persons  who  subscribe  to  the 
whole  of  the  club  waters.  This  Association  has  done  good 
and  important  work  in  breeding  salmon,  having  turned 
into  the  river  not  less  than  100,000  fish.  Last  season  more 
salmon  were  taken  with  the  rod  than  sea-trout  or  bull- 
trout 

THE  GRASSINGTON,  THRESHFIELD  AND  LINTON 
ANGLING  CLUB 

Was  commenced  in  1855,  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  a 
length  of  about  three  miles  of  the  river  Wharfe  near 
Grassington  and  between  the  Kilnsey  and  Burnsall  angling 
waters.  The  fishing  is  almost  entirely  for  trout  and 
grayling. 

The  present  subscription  is  IDS.  for  a  season  ticket,  and 
2s.  6d.  for  a  day  ticket.  The  Club  is  managed  by  a 
committee  consisting  of  a  president,  secretary,  and  three 
other  members  of  the  club.  Tickets  may  be  obtained 
from  the  secretary,  Mr.  William  Harker,  Grassington,  near 
Skipton,  Yorkshire. 

GREAT  GRIMSBY  ANGLING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  a  short  time  back  by  Mr. 
Hollingsworth,  "  Mason's  Arms  Hotel,"  Grimsby.  It  now 
numbers  100  members,  and  has  secured  by  rental  a  great 
part  of  the  "  South  Navigation  Canal."  The  society  rents 
several  fishing  streams.  The  river  Ancholme  is  within 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  155 

easy  reach  of  the  vicinity  of  Grimsby,  and  contains  numbers 
of  bream,  roach,  perch,  pike,  &c.  It  is  the  property  of  the 
"  Ancholme  Commissioners,"  who  issue  a  season  ticket  at 
the  moderate  charge  of  $s.  ;  it  is  strictly  preserved,  and 
affords  excellent  sport.  From  the  docks  a  stream  called 
the  "  Haven "  runs  for  miles  through  several  adjoining 
villages,  and  contains  plenty  of  trout  and  roach  ;  it  is 
preserved  in  some  parts  by  the  owners  of  the  land  through 
which  it  passes.  The  docks  abound  in  roach,  pike,  &c., 
and  the  fishing  is  free.  The  Association  is  managed  by  a 
president,  vice-president,  secretary,  treasurer,  and  a  com- 
mittee of  twelve  members,  and  is  in  a  very  flourishing 
condition.  Their  head-quarters  are  the  "Mason's  Arms 
Hotel,"  Grimsby. 

KING'S  LYNN  ANGLING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  society  was  started  in  December  1880 — the  origi- 
nator being  H.  Bradfield,  Esq.  It  preserves  the  Gaywood 
river,  and  hires  the  Middle  Level  Main  Drain,  the  Hundred 
Feet  river,  Roxham  Drain,  and  the  Drain — Downham  or 
St.  John's  Eau — the  Walks  rivulet,  Long  Pond,  and  Lake, 
the  latter  being  provided  for  the  fishing  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  borough  free  of  charge. 

The  Association  rears  large  numbers  of  trout  fry,  part  of 
which  are  procured  from  parent  fish  in  the  neighbourhood. 
The  greater  portion  of  the  ova  is  hatched  in  the  Lynn 
Museum — entrance  to  which  is  free — and  the  operation  is 
one  of  great  attraction  to  the  inhabitants.  The  young  fry  is 
afterwards  transferred  to  a  nursery  pond.  Last  year  1 5,000 
fry  were  hatched,  and  this  year  20,000. 

The  annual  subscription  is  $s.,  honorary  members  £i  is. 
and  los.  6d.  The  Hon.  Sec.  is  H.  Bradfield,  Esq.,  of  Gay- 
wood  Road,  Lynn. 


156      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

LIVERPOOL    ANGLING    ASSOCIATION.  —  Head-quarters, 
"  Strawberry  Hotel,"  West  Derby  Road,  Liverpool. 

Some  four  years  ago  a  number  of  anglers  who  were  in 
the  habit  of  meeting  at  the  above  hotel  conceived  the  idea 
of  forming  an  angling  association,  and  after  some  difficulty 
succeeded  in  their  endeavour.  The  number  of  members  at 
first  was  thirteen,  but  this  has  now  increased  to  100,  with 
about  twelve  hon.  members.  They  had  great  difficulty 
in  obtaining  or  renting  fishing  waters,  but  have  now  secured 
the  right  of  fishing  in  the  reservoir  of  the  Ruabon  Water 
Company,  which  is  well  stocked  with  trout  averaging 
half  a  pound  each.  About  2000  Lough  Neagh  trout  have 
been  placed  in  the  brook  leading  into  the  reservoir  as  a 
trial,  with  the  intention  of  placing  some  10,000  more  there 
if  this  attempt  is  successful.  They  have  also  got  permis- 
sion from  the  Parks  Commissioners  to  fish  in  the  Park 
lakes.  The  President  is  James  Wilkinson,  Esq.,  while  the 
Hon.  Sec.  is  Mr.  R.  Woolfall,  of  27  Troughton  Road. 

LOWER  MONNOW  FISHING  CLUB. 

This  Club  is  limited  to  twenty-five  members,  paying  an 
annual  subscription  of  £$  each,  and  has  the  fishing  for 
about  nine  miles  on  the  lower  Monnow.  The  trout  average 
three  to  the  pound ;  fish  of  three  and  four  pounds  are, 
however,  frequently  caught.  There  are  vacancies  for  more 
members.  The  Hon.  Secretary  is  R.  Wrightson,  Esq., 
Newport,  Monmouth. 

LOWER  TEIGN  FISHING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  in  February  1876,  after  a 
public  meeting  held  at  Newton  Abbot  on  the  24th  of  that 
month.  All  the  principal  landowners  on  the  Teign  and  its 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.   157 

tributary  the  Bovey  gave  up  their  fishing  rights  to  the 
Society.  Since  then  part  of  the  Bovey  has  been  withdrawn, 
and  the  Association  right  now  extends  for  about  nine  miles 
up  the  Teign,  and  about  two  miles  up  the  Bovey.  Tickets 
are  issued  to  the  public  at  ios.  6d.  for  the  season,  $s.  per 
month,  2 s.  6d.  per  week,  and  I s.  per  day  ;  a  trout  licence  of 
2s.  6d.,  and  a  salmon  licence  of  £1  is.,  is  also  imposed  by 
the  board  of  conservators. 

The  Secretary  is  the  Rev.  J.  Yarde,  of  Culver  House, 
Chudleigh,  while  the  Treasurer  is  Sidney  Hacker,  Esq.,  of 
Newton  Abbot. 

THE  MARKET  DEEPING  ANGLING  SOCIETY. 

The  right  of  fishery  in  the  river  Welland  at  Market 
Deeping  extends  from  a  point  at  the  end  of  Mr.  Thorpe's 
mill-stream  to  Kenulph's  Stone,  a  distance  of  six  miles, 
and  formerly  belonged  to  the  Crown  as  Lord  of  the  Manor 
of  East  and  West  Deeping.  It  was  let  until  1872  to  a 
fisherman  who  netted  it  at  all  times  and  seasons,  sparing 
nothing.  Mr.  S.  B.  Sharpe  represented  the  matter  to  Mr. 
Gore,  Commissioner  of  Her  Majesty's  Woods  and  Forests, 
who  accordingly  discharged  the  tenant  and  accepted  Mr. 
Sharpe,  in  company  with  Mr.  Holland  and  Mr.  Molecey,  of 
that  place,  as  tenants.  In  1875  the  manor  was  sold,  and  in 
1877  the  right  of  fishery  was  purchased  by  a  few  local 
noblemen  and  gentlemen,  consisting  of  the  following : — 
Lord  Kesteven,  Lord  Burghley,  William  Holland,  William 
Beadzler  Deacon,  George  Linnell,  John  Thorpe,  John  Mole- 
cey, Twigge  Molecey,  Edmund  Lawlett,  and  Samuel  Bates 
Sharpe,  Esqs.,  and  an  angling  society  formed  which  has  been 
eminently  successful.  The  Welland  is  a  very  good  breeding 
river,  running  over  a  gravel  bottom,  the  lower  parts  running 
through  low-lying  lands  which  in  winter  become  flooded, 


,58     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

and  form  what  is  called  Crowland  Wash,  a  few  miles  below 
Deeping,  and  there  the  fish,  especially  pike,  breed  in  great 
numbers.  The  dace  in  the  higher  waters  about  Deeping 
are  very  fine  and  rise  freely  to  the  fly ;  large  numbers  have 
been  caught  from  eight  to  fourteen  ounces.  Through  the 
efforts  of  the  proprietors,  aided  by  the  untiring  exertions  of 
the  Hon.  Sec.,  Mr.  S.  B.  Sharpe  (who  is  also  on  the  Council 
of  the  National  Fish  Culture  Association),  the  river  Welland 
at  this  portion  literally  teems  with  fish.  The  object  of  the 
Society  being  "the  preservation  of  fish  for  legitimate 
sport,"  and  that  alone,  the  rules  are  extremely  liberal  to 
anglers — the  annual  subscription  of  five  shillings,  for 
example,  including  the  head  of  a  family  and  his  young 
children. 

THE  MIDDLEHAM  ANGLING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Society  was  founded  in  1880,  and  preserves  the 
fishing  on  the  river  Cover  (a  tributary  stream  of  the  Yore). 
The  water  contains  trout  and  grayling,  and  is  rented  from 
the  lord  of  the  manor,  J.  Wood,  Esq.  The  members  at 
present  number  about  twenty,  and  pay  an  annual  subscrip- 
tion of;£i  is.  with  an  entrance  fee  of  a  like  amount. 

The  President  is  S.  T.  Scrope,  Esq.  of  Danby  Hall, 
Bedale;  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  J.  E.  Miller,  Esq., 
Middleham,  Bedale. 

THE  NENE  ANGLING  CLUB. 

This  Club  was  established  in  1856,  Dr.  Webster  being 
the  first  President  and  J.  Hensman,  Esq.,  Hon.  Secretary. 
They  preserve  from  twelve  to  fourteen  miles  of  the  river 
Nene.  The  water  contains  jack,  bream,  perch,  carp,  &c., 
and  large  bags  are  frequently  made.  A  bream  of  6  Ibs. 
and  a  carp  of  Q|  Ibs.  were  lately  taken  from  the  water. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  159 

The  annual  subscriptions  are  £3  $s.  for  the  whole  fishery 
extent ;  from  the  Paper-mills  to  Castle  Ashby,  £  I  I s. ;  and 
lOs.  6d.  for  the  third  fishery,  from  the  Paper  Mills  to  Billing; 
there  being  also  an  entrance  fee  of  los.  6d.  for  the  whole 
water,  and  5^.  for  the^i  is.  preserve. 

President,  the  Rev.  H.  Smyth,  Little  Houghton ;  Hon. 
Sec.,  H.  P.  Hensman,  Esq. 

NORWICH  PISCATORIAL  SOCIETY. 

This  Society  was  originated  by  Mr.  W.  Capon,  of  Norwich. 
It  numbers  50  fishing  and  a  large  number  of  honorary 
members.  The  annual  subscription  is  ios.,  hon.  members 
2os.  The  Club  gives  a  very  fine  Challenge  Cup,  to  be  won 
twice  before  becoming  the  property  of  any  member. 

Hon.  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  Mr.  W.  G.  Capon,  Mar- 
ket Street,  Norwich. 

THE  NORTHAMPTON  WORKING  MEN'S  ANGLING  CLUB 

Was  formed  May  22nd,  1876,  and  now  numbers  80 
members  ;  fishes  about  8  miles  of  private  water  in  the  Nene. 
Annual  subscription  8s.  6</.,  hon.  members  los.  6d.  The 
Society  has  several  prize  competitions  during  the  year. 
Its  head-quarters  are  at  the  '  Half  Moon '  Inn,  Bridge 
Street.  Hon.  Sec.,  Mr.  J.  James,  10  Pike  Lane. 

NEWARK  AND  MUSKHAM  FISHERY  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  1868,  it  has  about  4j  miles  of 
private  water  rented  from  Lord  Middleton  and  H.  Manners- 
Sutton,  Esq.  The  number  of  members  is  about  70,  paying 
a  subscription  of  15^.  per  annum  for  a  single  ticket,  and 
£l  is.  for  a  family  ticket.  The  limits  of  the  fishery  are 
defined  as  follows,  and  include  some  of  the  very  finest 


160     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

lengths  on  the  river  Trent.  The  "Muskham  Fishery" 
extends  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river  from  the  "Fir 
Trees  "  in  Kelham  Lane  to  the  fence  dividing  the  parishes 
of  North  and  South  Muskham,  two  fields  below  "  Toder's 
Holt ;  "  and  on  the  south  bank,  from  the  fence  dividing  the 
parishes  of  Kelham  and  South  Muskham,  nearly  opposite 
the  aforesaid  "  Fir  Trees,"  to  the  fence  dividing  the  same 
parishes  opposite  the  Bottom  Lock.  The  "Dead  Water" 
and  "  Muskham  Fleet "  are  also  included  in  the  Fishery. 

The  Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Association  is  J.  Neal,  Esq., 
of  Mount  Schools,  Newark-on-Trent. 

OTLEY  ANGLING  CLUB. 

The  Otley  Angling  Club  was  formed  in  1876,  principally 
through  the  kindness  of  Ayscough  Fawkes,  Esq.,  of 
Farnley  Hall,  who  gives  to  the  Club  about  six  miles  of 
fishing  on  one  side  of  the  river  Wharfe.  The  number 
of  members  is  limited  to  30,  paying  an  annual  subscription 
of  £3  and  an  entrance  fee  of  £2.  The  society  hatches 
about  26,000  trout  fry  annually  and  places  them  in  the 
river.  The  President  is  Ayscough  Fawkes,  Esq.,  while  the 
Hon.  Sec.  is  R.  M.  Pratt,  Esq.,  Otley. 

THE  REDDITCH  PISCATORIALS. 

The  Club  was  established  a  short  time  ago  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  working-men  anglers  (who  are  mostly 
engaged  in  the  Redditch  hook,  &c.,  manufactories).  So  far 
it  has  been  a  decided  success.  The  subscription  is  is.t 
with  id.  for  a  book  of  rules.  The  Club  has  been  greatly 
assisted  by  several  of  the  manufacturers  giving  prizes  to 
be  fished  for. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.   161 

President,  Mr.  George  Welch  ;  Secretary,  John  E.  Wilkes, 
31  Edward  Street,  Redditch. 

RYEDALE  ANGLING  CLUB. 

The  Ryedale  Angling  Club  was  formed  June  1st,  1846, 
and  consists  of  20  members  paying  an  annual  subscription 
of  £4  4s.  and  £2  2s.  entrance  fee.  They  rent  from  Lord 
Feversham  the  length  of  water  from  Helmsley  Bridge  to 
Newton,  a  distance  along  the  stream  of  about  4  miles  ; 
the  fishing  is  restricted  to  artificial  fly  and  dead  minnow. 
The  river  Rye  is  a  good  trout  and  grayling  stream,  and  is 
strictly  preserved  both  above  and  below  the  Club  water. 
The  Honorary  Secretary  is  Bryan  Ed.  Cookson,  Esq.,  of 
40  Holgate  Road,  York. 

SHREWSBURY  AND  SEVERN  ANGLING  SOCIETY. 

This  Angling  Society  was  started  in  March,  1882,  having 
then  70  members,  which  have  increased  to  no  at  the 
present  time.  The  honour  of  originating  it  belongs  chiefly 
to  T.  H.  Morgan,  Esq.  The  annual  subscription  is  2s.  6d., 
with  is.  entrance  fee ;  hon.  members  IDS.  6d.  The 
Society  has  promoted  an  Act  of  Parliament  to  do  away 
with  netting  in  the  part  of  the  Severn  within  the  limits  of 
the  borough. 

President,  James  Watson,  Esq.,  of  Berwick  Hall ;  Hon. 
Sec.  T.  H.  Morgan,  Esq.,  Shrewsbury. 

THE  SPALDING  ANGLING  CLUB. 

This  Club  was  formed  in  the  year   1864.     The  fishing 

exists  in  the  Drains  belonging  to  the  Deeping  Fen  Drainage 

Trustees  and  extends  over   some  25  miles  of  water,  the 

Society  also  has  a  reach  of  about  four  miles  of  the  River  Glen. 

VOL.  in. — H.  M 


162     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

Tickets  are  issued  to  subscribers  at  the  rate  of  £1  is.  for 
double  tickets  and  IDS.  6d.  for  single. 
The  Hon.  Secretary  is  J.  G.  Calthrop,  Esq.,  of  Spalding. 

THE  STOUR  FISHING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  in  January  1866,  in  the 
place  of  an  old  private  club  which  had  almost  become 
extinct.  They  preserve  part  of  the  River  Stour,  containing 
some  of  the  finest  trout  in  England,  and  also  breed 
artificially  with  success.  The  number  of  members  is  limited 
to  100,  paying  an  annual  subscription  of  £3  $s.  to  £5  $s. 
and  an  entrance  fee  of  £10  los. 

Hon.  Sec.,  Captain  Lambert,  Stanmore,  Canterbury; 
Assistant  Sec.,  Mr.  F.  G.  Haines,  9  Watling  Street, 
Canterbury. 

ST.  JOHN'S  AMATEUR  ANGLERS'  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  about  five  years  ago  by 
several  anglers  residing  at  St.  John's,  Worcester,  with  a 
view  to  securing  for  themselves  good  fishing  waters  and 
to  encourage  sportsmanlike  angling.  The  number  of 
members  is  limited  to  30,  paying  an  annual  subscription 
of  2s.  6d. 

Hon.  Sec.,  Arthur  Hill,  Fern  Villa,  St.  John's,  Worcester. 

UPPER  EXE  FISHING  ASSOCIATION. 

This  Association  was  formed  in  February,  1851,  by  the 
owners  and  occupiers  of  land  on  the  river  Exe,  and  was  then 
called  "  The  Occupier's  Exe  Fishing  Association,"  but  has 
since  been  altered  to  the  above  title.  Cards  for  the  season 
are  issued  at  £1  is.}  monthly,  IO.T.  ;  weekly,  $s. ;  day,  2s.  6d. 
The  extent  of  fishing  is  about  five  miles  up  the  river  Exe, 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  163 

from  Thorverton   Bridge   to   near  Beckleigh  Bridge,  and 
comprises  the  best  fishing  in  that  river. 

The  Hon.  Secretary  is  W.  C.  James,  Esq.,  Thorverton, 
Collumpton,  Devon. 

TRENT  FISHERY  BOARD  OF  CONSERVATORS. 

The  chief  honour  of  the  establishment  of  this  important 
Board  belongs  unquestionably  to  Thomas  Worthington, 
Esq.,  solicitor,  of  Derby,  who  in  1863,  by  means  of  a  series 
of  letters  addressed  to  the  Derby  Mercury,  called  public 
attention  to  the  fact  that  no  proper  steps  had  been  taken, 
under  the  Salmon  Fisheries  Act  of  1861,  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Trent.  At  a  public  meeting  which  followed, 
Mr.  Worthington  and  another  gentleman,  on  the  motion  of 
the  late  Sir  Oswald  Mosley,  Bart.,  were  appointed  the  first 
conservators  under  the  act.  The  movement  greatly  inte- 
rested the  then  Lord  Vernon  and  other  fishery  proprie- 
tors, amongst  whom  was  Mr.  Dennison,  the  then  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  In  June  1864  a  meeting  of 
fishery  proprietors  was  held  at  Mr.  Dennison's  residence, 
when  an  association  was  formed,  and  called  the  "  Trent 
Fishery  Association."  Mr,  Thomas  Worthington,  and 
Major  Scott,  of  Knaith  Hall,  near  Gainsborough,  were 
appointed  joint  honorary  secretaries. 

In  1865,  the  Salmon  Fisheries  Amendment  Act  having 
been  passed,  the  Trent  Fishery  Association  was  duly  formed 
into  the  "Trent  Fishery  Board,"  in  pursuance  of  the  act. 
Major  Scott  resigned  the  honorary  secretaryship,  and 
Colonel  G.  M.  Hutton,  of  Gate  Burton,  Gainsborough,  was 
appointed  in  his  place,  and  still  remains  hon.  secretary. 

In  December  1880  Mr.  Worthington,  in  consequence  of 
ill-health,  was  compelled  to  resign  the  hon.  secretaryship, 

M   2 


1 64      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

and  Mr.  C.  K.  Eddowes,  solicitor,  Derby,  was  appointed 
clerk  and  solicitor  in  his  place. 

TONBRIDGE  ANGLING  CLUB  AND  FISH  PRESERVATION 

SOCIETY. 

This  Society  was  established  at  Tonbridge  about  eight 
years  ago  to  preserve  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Medway,  and 
put  a  stop  to  the  continuous  poaching  and  netting  which  was 
then  going  on.  The  Society  received  great  assistance  from 
the  riparian  proprietors,  and  is  now  in  a  very  flourishing 
condition.  They  have  recently  acquired  "  The  Ballast  Pit," 
a  lake  of  about  six  acres,  which  it  is  the  intention  of  the 
association  to  stock  with  trout.  The  annual  subscription 
is  IDS.  6d.  for  the  whole  fishery,  and  $s.  for  part ;  day 
tickets,  is. 

President,  A.  T.  Beeching,  Esq.;  Hon.  Sec.,  Mr.  E. 
Hollomby,  Quarry  Hill,  Tonbridge. 

UNIVERSAL  ANGLING  SOCIETY. 

This  Society  was  formed  in  1872,  and  was  principally 
composed  of  the  former  members  of  the  "  Yorkshire  and 
Lincolnshire  Angling  Association,"  which  had  ceased  to 
exist  as  a  club  in  the  preceding  year.  The  association 
owes  a  great  deal  of  its  present  success  to  the  good 
services  and  management  of  Mr.  Thomas  Maplebeck,  who 
was  for  several  years  their  president.  The  number  of  mem- 
bers at  present  is  eighty,  paying  an  annual  subscription  of 
8s.  with  an  entrance  fee  of  is. 

Secretary,  Mr.  W.  H.  Barker,  High  Street,  Hull. 

THE  WATFORD  PISCATORS. 

This  Society  was  established  in  March  1882,  for  the 
purpose  of  putting  a  stop  to  the  poaching  which  was  going 
on  in  the  public  waters  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  to  rent 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  165 

fishing  for  the  exclusive  use  of  its  members.  In  May  the 
club  got  under  their  control  about  half  a  mile  of  the  river 
Colne  from  the  railway  arches  to  the  Leathersellers'  Arms, 
and  some  time  afterwards  secured  a  reach  of  the  canal  from 
Cassio  Bridge  to  Beasley's  Lock.  The  number  of  fishing 
members  is  limited  to  50,  with  numerous  hon.  members. 
The  annual  subscription  is  5-y. 

Hon.  Sec.,  Mr.  H.  A.  Vincent,  4  Carey  Place,  Watford. 


LONDON  ANGLING  CLUBS. 

I  now  come  to  an  entirely  distinct  consideration  of  the 
"  Angling  Clubs  "  of  London  pure  and  simple.  It  is  very 
likely  that  a  certain  class  of  unreflecting  people,  or  people 
who  don't  know  any  better,  may  imagine  that  the  sole  aim 
and  ambition  attendant  upon  the  formation  or  weekly 
gathering  together  of  the  members  of  an  angling  club  is 
centred  in  the  consumption  of  a  good  deal  of  fourpenny 
ale,  unlimited  grogs,  and  the  strongest  sort  of  tobacco. 

Now  and  again  it  is  possible,  but  they  are  very  isolated 
instances,  that  this  view  of  matters  represents  something 
like  the  facts  of  the  case.  More  frequently  such  an  un- 
generous reading  is  as  far  wide  of  the  mark  as  the  North 
Pole  is  to  California.  Then,  again,  it  may  be  asked  '  What 
good  do  angling  clubs  effect  ?  what  are  they  really  doing 
that  is  worth  doing  ?  and  what  might  they  not  do  ?  Truly 
three  such  queries  open  up  a  terrible  vista  of  argument, 
and  although  the  first  question  may  be,  and  is,  easy  enough 
to  answer,  the  two  following  must  inevitably  place  the  ma- 
jority of  the  angling  clubs,  to  speak  simple  truth,  in  a  by 
no  means  complimentary  or  particularly  enviable  position. 

What  good  do  angling  clubs  effect  ?     Well,  by  way  of 


166      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

answering  that   question    I  will   endeavour   to   show  the 
difference  between  angling  clubs  past  and  present. 

At  a  date  by  no  means  very  far  antecedent  there  were, 
comparatively  speaking,  only  a  very  few  angling  clubs  in 
existence.  Such  as  they  were,  they  embraced  all  the  best 
and  longest-lived  societies  then  in  being,  with  some  few  of 
the  now  rapidly  springing  body  of  piscators,  constantly 
resolving  themselves  into  some  new  club,  and  which  might, 
under  proper  skilled  management,  become  in  time  a  mighty 
host,  powerful  to  do  good. 

Such  angling  societies  as  existed  then,  or  many  of  the 
members  at  any  rate,  were  anglers  only  in  name.  They  re- 
cognised, save  with  rare  exceptions,  no  fence  seasons  at  all, 
and  as  to  size,  bagged  every  living  thing  in  the  shape  of  a 
fish  that  they  could  entice  with  either  worm  or  gentle.  It 
was  no  disgrace  then  for  an  angler  proudly  to  display  in 
the  club  room,  as  the  result  of  his  day's  sport,  such  a  col- 
lection of  fish  as  nowadays  he  dare  not  even  bring  home. 
It  was  literally  shocking  in  those  degenerate  days  to  see 
what  baby  fish  were  slaughtered.  It  was  sad  to  think 
that  men  were  amongst  us  calling  themselves  sportsmen — 
Heaven  save  the  mark  ! — who  were  content  to  base  their 
claim  to  the  title  upon  the  wretched  laurels  they  might 
win  by  the  production  of  such  a  tray  of  fish  as  would  have 
almost  disgraced  the  doughty  deeds  done  in  the  days 
when  the  embryo  angler  sallied  forth  armed  with  a  pea- 
stick,  bent  pin,  some  stolen  cotton,  and  a  borrowed  pickle 
bottle.  However,  such  were  the  facts,  and  I  turn  gladly  to 
a  contemplation  of  the  picture  in  our  own  day. 

That  resolves  itself  into  a  totally  different  one.  Anglers 
nowadays  are,  in  the  first  place,  restricted  by  most 
wholesome  rules,  which  bar  them  from  showing  anything 
but  fairly  good  sample  fish,  and  in  the  second,  I  fully 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  167 

believe  that  their  latent  sportsmanlike  feeling  has  been  so 
thoroughly  developed  by  good  example,  that  in  many 
cases  they  would  not  exhibit  poor  specimens  even  if  they 
had  the  chance.  A  very  strong  feeling,  emanating  it  is  only 
right  to  say  with  the  "  Gresham  Angling  Society,"  has 
sprung  up  of  late  years  against  the  promulgation  of  "  gross 
weight  competitions,"  and  in  favour  rather  of  specimen  fish. 
The  scale  of  weights  has  been  fixed  in  all  cases  at  a  fair  size, 
and  in  many  instances  some  of  the  clubs — and  notably 
those  old  Societies,  "  The  Piscatorial  Society "  and  "  The 
Friendly  Anglers  " — fix  their  weight  at  a  very  high  standard 
indeed.  How  different  from  the  old  days,  when  everything 
in  the  shape  of  a  fish  was  bagged,  and  the  waters  north, 
south,  east,  and  west  of  the  compass,  were  slowly,  it  is  true, 
but  not  the  less  surely,  depleted  and  gradually  fished  out. 

I  may  ask  now,  What  are  the  London  Anglers  doing 
for  the  common  good  of  their  brethren  ?  and  the  answer, 
without  giving  offence,  which  I  should  be  sorry  enough  to 
do,  is  one  especially  difficult  to  shape  nicely. 

In  the  first  place  they  have  established  by  joint  effort, 
spread  over  certain  districts,  three  institutions  by  means  of 
which  cheap  railway  facilities  have  been  obtained  from  all 
those  companies  whose  permanent  way  leads  to  well-known 
angling  resorts.  These  are  the  West  Central  Association 
of  London  and  Provincial  Angling  Societies,  The  United 
London  Anglers'  Central  Committee,  and  the  Central 
Association. 

In  the  next  place,  they  have  founded  what  should  be 
known  as  the  best  and  most  important  work  that  the 
London  anglers,  as  a  body  of  sportsmen,  have  ever  at- 
tempted to  give  root  and  birth  to,  in  the  shape  of  "  The 
Anglers'  Benevolent  Association."  This  has  for  its  main 
object  the  assistance  of  anglers  who  through  declining 


168      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

years,  or  the  working  of  that  strange  unwritten  law  which 
would  seem  to  hamper  some  unfortunates  with  the  unvari- 
able  and  accursed  sting  of  poverty,  sink  gradually  into  a 
pitiable  state.  Before  its  institution,  and  when  a  properly 
accredited  member  of  an  angling  club  fell  into  distress, 
there  was  nothing  by  way  of  relief  save  the  "  whip  round  " 
with  its  open  declaration  of  distress,  sometimes  especially 
hurtful  to  a  man's  feelings,  but  which,  to  the  credit  of  his 
comrades,  they  were  never  disposed  to  shirk.  Now  a  dis- 
tressed angler  simply  makes  his  case  known  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  that  institution,  and  he  is  instantly  relieved  to 
the  best  of  its  ability. 

But  is  this  institution,  which  should  be  one  of  the  first 
and  most  important,  properly  supported  ?  No,  I  answer — 
emphatically  no  ;  yet  the  very  men  probably  who  hesitate 
in  the  time  of  prosperity  to  put  their  shilling  into  its  funds 
are  the  very  men  who  would  think  they  were  hardly  dealt 
by  if,  in  the  hour  of  need,  they  were  not  offered  pounds. 

My  friend  Mr.  Geen,  the  hard-working  practical  "  anglers' 
friend,"  if  ever  man  deserved  the  title  yet,  has  lately  written 
a  paper,  which  has  been  read  before  various  Angling 
Societies,  upon  "The  better  Organisation  of  the  London 
Anglers."  I  had  not  intended  to  trench  upon  the  ground 
he,  in  that  admirable  and  sensible  essay,  has  taken  up,  but 
he  speaks  so  much  more  powerfully  than  my  feeble  pen  is 
capable  of  expressing,  that  I  shall  not  hesitate,  with  many 
apologies  for  so  doing,  to  quote  here  and  there  his  opinions, 
mainly  as  a  means  of  strengthening  my  own. 

Hear  what  he  says,  ye  London  Anglers,  concerning  this 
same  "  Anglers'  Benevolent,"  and  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly 
digest  the  wisdom  of  his  repeated  warnings. 

"  Another  fault,  and  not  a  small  one,  is  the  difficulty  of 
getting  members  to  join.  One  of  the  chief  reasons  which 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  169 

caused  me  to  work  for  the  society  was  the  hope  that 
begging  would  be  done  away  with.  I  feel  certain  that 
there  have  been  more  journeys  undertaken,  and  more 
earnest  pleading,  and  eloquent  speeches  made  to  get 
members  to  join  the  Anglers'  Benevolent  than  was  ever 
made  for  the  needy  angler  under  the  old  system. 

"  And  what  does  all  this  begging  for  members  produce  ? 
£37  %s-  7^- — actually  a  smaller  sum  than  they  took  out  of 
it.  No  one  could  possibly  take  exception  to  a  single  item 
of  tjie  expenses,  yet  they  amount  to  £$  I  3 s.  4d.,  which  is 
only  £5  1 5 s.  less  than  the  members'  subscriptions." 

The  last  good  working  of  the  London  anglers,  or  at 
any  rate  its  outcome,  is  the  establishment  of  the  "  United 
London  Fisheries  Association,"  having  for  its  object  the 
renting  and  stocking  of  various  waters  for  the  use  and 
pleasurable  enjoyment  of  its  members. 

Now  the  business  working  of  these  five  associations 
means  simply  and  totally,  apart  from  their  admirable 
objects,  a  sheer  waste  of  both  time,  labour,  and  money. 
Mr.  Geen's  great  idea,  and  in  this  I  fully  and  entirely  join 
issue,  is  that  all  might  be  comprised  under  one  general 
head,  and  that  in  lieu  of  five  sets  of  officers,  embracing 
three  presidents,  two  vice-presidents,  five  chairmen,  five 
treasurers,  fifteen  trustees,  five  committees  of  twelve  each, 
and  five  secretaries,  all  might  be  well  and  efficiently  done 
by  one  set  of  officers  alone,  and  that  in  opposition  to  the 
ridiculous  issue  of  three  sets  of  privilege  tickets  for  rail- 
way purposes,  all  might  be  easily  comprised  in  one,  saving 
trouble,  expense,  and  a  lot  of  entirely  unnecessary  round- 
about business. 

What  would  be  the  result?  There  would  be  more 
money  at  command  to  help  the  various  Preservation 
Societies,  at  present  greatly  neglected  ;  there  would  be  still 


170      THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

more  to  help  to  stock  the  waters,  at  present  absolutely  in 
the  London  anglers'  hands,  and  get  them  more  efficiently 
protected  and  watched,  and  there  would  be  still  more 
left  vested,  and  ready  when  needful,  to  help  and  assist  the 
sacred  cause  of  charity. 

I  quote  Mr.  Geen  again,  because  no  language  of  my  own 
could  make  the  question  of  how  is  this  desirable  result  to 
be  obtained  more  clear  than  he  does. 

He  first  of  all  tells  us  that  there  are  4117  enrolled 
members  of  one  or  other  of  these  split-up  associations. 
Some  belonging  to  one,  some  to  another,  but  few  to  all 
three  combined.  Upon  the  question  of  ways  and  means 
he  says  : — 

"  I  have  left  the  important  matter  of  ways  and  means 
until  the  last,  as  I  thought  it  best  you  should  first  be 
informed  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  my  other  sug- 
gestions. 

"  At  present  we  pay  is.  to  the  association  of  whom  we 
get  a  privilege  ticket,  and  is.  to  the  Fisheries  Society;  so 
that  the  yearage  is  now  2s.  Then  the  Benevolent  steps  in 
and  asks  us  to  voluntarily  pay  them  is.  Six  hundred  and 
ninety-one  out  of  the  4117  responded  to  that  appeal,  and 
paid  over  £37  8s.  yd.  How  much  easier,  how  much  fairer 
and  more  satisfactory  that  we  should  all  pay  3^. !  I  hope 
no  one  will  accuse  me  of  being  unmindful  of  my  poorer 
brother  anglers.  I  would  not  be  a  party  to  taking  a  single 
penny  unnecessarily  from  their  pockets,  and  before  I  could 
bring  myself  to  consent  to  make  this  suggestion,  I  had 
ascertained  that  it  is  the  poor  angler  that  is  paying 
the  is.  now.  I  have  also  asked  myself  the  question, 
'  What  do  I  offer  in  return  ? '  The  answer  is,  your  railway 
concessions  shall  be  guarded,  and,  if  possible,  extended ; 
your  free  rivers  shall  be  protected,  and  private  waters  shall 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  171 

be  rented  for  you ;  the  needy  and  distressed  among  you 
shall  be  relieved. 

"  Three  shillings  per  year  means  a  trifle  more  than  one 
halfpenny  a  week.  Many  of  you  must  have  been  struck 
with  the  wonderful  penny's-worth  offered.  Cheap  tra- 
velling, good  sport,  pleasure  and  charity  for  one  half-penny 
per  week.  Small  as  this  sum  is,  it  would  produce  £617  us. 
The  donations  and  annual  subscriptions  to  the  Benevolent 
amount  to  £6$  i?s.  8d.,  making  our  gross  income  £683  Ss.  %d. 
Out  of  this  sum  we  must  pay  our  secretary  and  bailiff,  vote 
a  sum  to  the  Benevolent  committee,  and  provide  for  printing, 
stationery,  stamps,  and  general  expenses. 

"  Much  will  depend  on  our  getting  a  good 

practical  secretary,  whose  salary  I  fix  at 

^"150  per  annum,  payable  monthly,  not 

yearly £150  o  o 

Head  bailiff,  30^.  per  week  . .  . .  78  o  o 

Benevolent  vote  (the  amount  expended 

last  year)  50  o  o 

Present  amount  paid  for  printing,  station- 
ery and  stamps,  £133  15^.  $d. ;  proposed 

amount,    £33     15^.     $d.      (This    sum 

would  be  found  ample,  if  not  more  than 

sufficient,    when     augmented    by    the 

numerous  advertisements  which  a  fully 

paid  secretary  could  get)  . .  . .  33  IS  5 

Incidental  expenses  20  o  o 


Total        ..      £331   15     5 
Which  leaves  us  an  available  balance  of     £351   13     3 

"  What  are  we  going  to  do  with  this  handsome  sum  of 
money  ?      Why,  give  it  to  the   Preservation    Committee, 


172     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

who,  with  the  active  assistance  of  our  secretary  and  bailiff, 
and  with  our  support  and  encouragement,  will  remove 
those  cruel  evils  in  our  present  system  of  preservation." 

The  following  short  particulars  give  some  idea  of  the 
formation  and  history  of  such  few  of  the  London  Angling 
Societies  as  responded  to  my  application  for  them.  I 
regret  personally  that  they  are  so  few,  in  opposition  to  the 
lengthy  list  of  provincial  societies.  The  regret,  however 
keenly  felt,  will  not  unfortunately  supply  the  deficiency. 

THE  PISCATORIAL  SOCIETY. 

In  the  year  1836  a  few  friends,  who  were  in  the  habit  of 
meeting  at  the  "  Granby  Tavern/'  South  Audley  Street, 
Grosvenor  Square,  who  were  devoted  to  angling,  and 
frequently  made  parties  for  competing  in  a  friendly 
manner,  resolved  to  form  an  association  to  take  the  name 
of  "  The  Piscatorial  Society." 

This  was  done  in  October  of  the  same  year,  the  object 
of  the  Society  being  to  meet  their  friends  and  associates  in 
social  conversation  and  harmony  (religion  and  politics 
being  excluded),  to  encourage  fair  angling ;  while  a  portion 
of  the  funds  was  to  be  appropriated  to  prizes,  and  forming 
a  museum  and  collecting  works  on  angling,  &c.  Rules 
were  formed,  and  under  their  Secretary,  the  late  Mr. 
Cotterill,  the  Society  was  launched  and  has  sailed  on 
progressively  to  the  present  time. 

In  the  course  of  the  past  47  years  they  have  had  a  great 
many  good  anglers,  who  have  contributed  largely  to  the 
museum  and  library.  The  late  Frank  Buckland,  Esq.,  an 
old  member,  was  especially  devoted  to  their  welfare,  and 
frequently  gave  a  lecture  on  the  Natural  History  of  Fishes. 
He  presented,  in  conjunction  with  the  late  H.  L.  Rolfe,  Esq., 
a  cast  of  pike,  which  was  painted  in  his  usual  excellent 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  173 

manner,  forming  a  noble  and  valuable  angling  trophy. 
The  late  Mr.  Chapman,  who  was  Hon.  Secretary  for  several 
years,  contributed  largely  to  the  museum  and  library,  and 
his  celebrated  composition  of  the  "  Fine  Old  Jolly  Angler  " 
was  also  presented  to  the  Society.  A  valuable  album  of 
original  sketches  was  presented  by  T.  H.  Parker,  Esq., 
and  another,  containing  comic  sketches  of  the  members  of 
the  Piscatorial  Society,  by  B.  Perelli  Rocco,  Esq.  The 
library  now  consists  of  over  150  volumes,  with  many 
valuable  paintings  and  portraits. 

In  1838  the  Society  exerted  themselves  in  giving 
assistance  to  the  formation  of  the  Thames  Angling 
Preservation  Society,  and  one  of  the  members,  the  late 
H.  Dean,  was  for  several  years  secretary.  The  Piscatorial 
Society  have  subscribed  three  guineas  annually  to  that 
association,  independently  of  the  subscriptions  of  the 
individual  members. 

The  museum  consists  of  a  large  number  of  cases,  and 
have  been  exhibited  at  the  Westminster  Aquarium,  for 
which  a  silver  medal  was  awarded  ;  also  at  the  Fisheries 
Exhibition,  Norwich  (silver  medal  and  £1$)  ;  at  the  Fisheries 
Exhibition,  Edinburgh  (a  gold  medal)  ;  and  now  exhibiting 
at  the  International  Fisheries  Exhibition,  Kensington. 

The  Society  now  holds  its  meetings  at  "  Ashley's  Hotel," 
Henrietta  Street,  Covent  Garden,  on  Monday  evenings  at 
8  o'clock. 

The  members  number  150. 

THE  TRUE  WALTONIANS 

Was  established  in  1830,  and  the  number  of  its  members 
is  limited  to  40.  It  seeks  rather  to  avoid  than  to  court 
publicity,  and  the  feeling  of  the  society  is  strongly  opposed 
to  prize  fishing. 


174     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

Quoting  from  its  memoirs,  I  find  that  "  This  society  was 
established  in  the  year  1830  to  encourage  periodical 
meetings  of  its  members  whereat  they  might  reason, 
converse  or  instruct  with  sober  pleasantry  and  unlicentious 
hilarity;  to  promote  the  principles  of  fair  angling,  to 
vigorously  oppose  every  description  of  poaching,  and  to 
cultivate  and  advance  brotherly  and  true  Waltonian  feeling 
among  the  members  of  the  society  and  anglers  generally. 

It  also  provides  for  the  renting  and  preserving,  for  the 
purposes  of  angling,  such  water  or  waters  as  may  be 
decided  upon  from  time  to  time." 

THE  WALTONIAN  ANGLING  SOCIETY. 

After  many  removals  from  place  to  place  in  search  of 
suitable  head-quarters  this  Society  settled  down  at  last 
at  the  "Jew's  Harp,"  Redhill  Street,  Regent's  Park,  where 
they  now  number  58  members,  and  under  the  secretary- 
ship of  Mr.  J.  Packman  are  in  an  extremely  flourishing 
condition. 

THE  SPORTSMEN'S  ANGLING  CLUB 

Is  one  numbering  amongst  its  members  many  who  devote 
themselves  to  other  pursuits  than  .a  study  of  the  gentle 
art.  One  of  them  is  now  lion-hunting  in  Africa,  while 
several  other  members  are  fishing  on  far  off  continental 
waters.  Its  head-quarters  are  at  the  "  Lady  Owen's  Arms," 
Goswell  Road,  and  its  Secretary  Mr.  Benjamin  Denny. 

THE  EALING  DEAN  CONVIVIAL  ANGLING  SOCIETY 
Was  started   in  October  only  of  last   year,  yet   already 
numbers   54  members.     They  fish  for  no  prizes  and  have 
no  subscriptions,  are  very  rigorous  as  to  the  size  of  fish 
shown,   and    support    the   Thames   Angling   Preservation 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  175 

Society.     I  care  not  to  say  more,  for  if  their  rules  are  novel 
they  are  at  least  good. 

WESTBOURNE  PARK  PISCATORIAL  SOCIETY. 

This  Society,  started  in  1876,  has  gradually  increased 
until  it  stands  now  with  a  list  of  nearly  seventy  names. 
Although  in  existence  but  seven  years  the  walls  of  the 
club-room  boast  of  twenty-three  cases  of  preserved  speci- 
men fish  (thirteen  of  the  cases  are  now  being  exhibited  at 
the  Fisheries  Exhibition).  Amongst  this  number  may  be 
mentioned  the  following  :  Jack  weighing  26  J  Ibs.,  a  Thames 
Trout  6  Ibs.,  2  Roach  4  Ibs.,  I  Dace  16^  ounces,  and  also  a 
very  pretty  Jack  of  16  Ibs.  taken  from  the  Regent's  Canal 
by  the  late  Mr.  Severn  (in  which  water  he  recently  lost  his 
life),  I  Bream  weighing  6Jlbs.,  I  pair  Tench  Qlbs.,  and  also 
a  pair  of  Carp  weighing  i61bs. 

I  may  mention  that  "  gross  weight "  competitions  have 
been  entirely  abolished  in  the  Society,  and  none  but  speci- 
men fish  of  the  following  weights  are  now  recognised : 
Jack  5  Ibs.,  Bream  3  Ibs.,  Trout  2  Ibs.,  Barbel  2  Ibs.,  Chub 
2  Ibs.,  Carp  2  Ibs.,  Tench  l£  Ibs.,  Roach  I  lb.,  Rudd  I  Ib. 
Perch  I  lb.,  and  Dace  \  lb. 

WEST  LONDON  ANGLING  CLUB. 

This  Society  was  formed  March  31,  1880,  at  a  meeting 
held  at  the  "White  Bear,"  King  Street,  Hammersmith. 
It  holds  its  meetings  now  at  the  "  Windsor  Castle,"  and 
under  the  secretaryship  of  Mr.  G.  S.  Benham  the  Society 
is  in  a  thoroughly  sound  condition. 

THE  HAMMERSMITH  UNITED  ANGLING  SOCIETY 
Is   another   excellent   association  of  anglers  possessing  a 
splendid  museum,  upwards  of  sixty  members,  and  under 


i?6     THE  ANGLING  CLUBS  AND  PRESERVATION 

the  presidency  of  Mr.  P.  Geen  and  the  secretaryship  of 
Mr.  J.  Hoole  is  as  flourishing  as  need  be. 

THE  WOOLWICH  BROTHERS  ANGLING   SOCIETY,  AND 
WOOLWICH  PISCATORIALS. 

These  are  two  capital  clubs,  numbering  a  fair  average 
number  of  members,  established  in  the  town  of  Woolwich. 

THE  ACTON  PISCATORIAL  SOCIETY. 

This  excellent  Society,  small  in  number  yet  high  of 
purpose,  at  its  start  in  1881  had  very  few  members,  yet  it 
now  musters  forty  to  fifty.  Gross  weight  is  barred,  and 
specimen  fish  are  entirely  sought  after.  Its  secretary  is 
Mr.  C.  Simpson,  and  its  head-quarters  the  "George  and 
Dragon,"  High  Street,  Acton. 

GOLDEN  BARBEL  ANGLING  SOCIETY. 

The  above  Society  was  established  in  the  year  1872  at 
the  "  Bear  and  Runner,"  Wells  Street,  Mortimer  Street,  by 
Mr.  Fullerton,  then  a  fishing-tackle  maker  of  Wells  Street, 
W.  Dixe,  the  late  secretary,  and  six  or  seven  other  gentle- 
men. 

After  some  two  years  or  so  the  Society  was  removed  to 
the  "York  Minster,"  Foley  Street,  Portland  Street,  W., 
where  it  still  remains.  The  Society  is  enrolled  on  the 
"West  Central  Association  of  London  and  Provincial 
Angling  Societies,"  at  whose  meetings  the  Society  send 
two  delegates  to  represent  it 

The  objects  of  the  Society  are  to  promote  the  interests  of 
its  members,  so  far  as  regards  angling,  to  assist  its  members 
to  preserve  specimen  fish.  The  Society  gives  prizes  for 
every  species  of  fresh-water  fish,  and  prizes  for  the  three 
first  gross  weights,  and  one  for  the  gross  weight  of  pike. 


SOCIETIES  OF  LONDON  AND  THE  PROVINCES.  177 

THE  BUCKLAND  ANGLING  SOCIETY 

Was  formed  in  September,  1 88 1,  and  its  title  taken,  as 
may  be  surmised,  from  the  name  of  the  late  Mr.  F. 
Buckland.  Its  head-quarters  are  at  the  "Middlesex 
Arms,"  Clerkenwell  Green,  and  its  secretary  is  Mr.  L.  V. 
Delean. 

THE  ALLIANCE  ANGLING  SOCIETY 

Holds  its  meeting  at  the  "  Clerkenwell  Tavern,"  Farring- 
don  Road.  It  possesses  a  good  museum  of  preserved 
trophies,  and  under  the  secretaryship  of  Mr.  T.  J.  Cundell 
flourishes  exceedingly. 

CLERKENWELL  PISCATORIAL  SOCIETY. 

The  above  Society  was  founded  in  August  1879  by  the 
united  efforts  of  Messrs.  Stebbings,  Trott  and  Cooper.  Its 
head-quarters  were  fixed  at  the  "  White  Hart,"  Aylesbury 
Street  in  Clerkenwell,  and  at  the  present  time  it  has  about 
forty  members.  The  contribution  is  12s.  per  annum,  which 
sum  clears  all  expenses.  The  members  fish  free  waters 
only. 

THE  GRANGE  ANGLING  SOCIETY. 

This  Society  was  formed  in  1882,  and  although  only  in 
existence  for  little  more  than  twelve  months,  is  in  a  highly 
efficient  state,  being  both  well  officered  and  well  supported. 
Their  head-quarters  are  at  the  "  Earl  of  Derby,"  Grange 
Road,  the  Society  having  for  president  W.  Hosken,  Esq., 
while  its  hon.  secretary  is  Mr.  William  Kayes. 

This  ends  the  list  of  the  "Angling  Clubs  of  London." 
If  it  is  "cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined,"  it  is  not  the 
fault  of  J.  P.  W. 

VOL.    III. — H.  N 


A   MERMAID. 
From  a  Picture  by  Otto  Sinding. 


SEA    FABLES    EXPLAINED. 


BY 

HENRY  LEE,  F.L.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.Z.S., 

SOMETIME   NATURALIST  OF  THE   BRIGHTON   AQUARIUM,    AND  AUTHOR   OF  THE 

'OCTOPUS,    OR   THE   DEVIL-FISH   OF   FICTION  AND   FACT;' 

'SEA  MONSTERS   UNMASKED,'   ETC. 

ILLUSTRATED. 


VOL.   III. — H  N   2 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE .         .         .   181 

THE  MERMAID •        •        •        •  l85 

THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA   . .236 

SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS 247 

THE  "SPOUTING"  OF  WHALES 250 

THE  "SAILING"  OF  THE  NAUTILUS        .        .        ,        .        .        •  264 
BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES 286 


PREFACE. 


THE  little  book  'Sea  Monsters  Unmasked/  recently 
issued  as  one  of  the  Handbooks  in  connection  with  the 
Great  International  Fisheries  Exhibition,  has  met  with  so 
favourable  a  reception,  that  I  have  been  honoured  by  the 
request  to  continue  the  subject,  and  to  treat  also  of  some 
of  the  Fables  of  the  Sea,  which  once  were  universally 
believed,  and  even  now  are  not  utterly  extinct. 

The  topic  is  not  here  exhausted.  Other  sea  fables  and 
fallacies  might  be  mentioned  and  explained ;  but  the 
amount  of  letter-press,  and  the  number  of  illustrations  that 
can  be  printed  without  loss  for  the  small  sum  of  one 
shilling — the  price  at  which  these  Handbooks  are  uniformly 
published — is  necessarily  limited.  I  have,  therefore,  thought 
it  better  to  endeavour  to  make  each  chapter  as  complete 
as  possible  than  to  crowd  into  the  space  allotted  to  me  a 
greater  variety  of  subjects  less  fully  and  carefully  discussed. 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  acknowledging  the  kind  assist- 
ance I  have  again  received  in  the  matter  .of  illustrations. 
I  gratefully  appreciate  Mr.  Murray's  permission  to  use 
the  woodcut  of  Hercules  slaying  the  Hydra,  taken  from 
Smith's  'Classical  Dictionary/  and  those  of  the  golden 
ornaments  found  by  Dr.  Schliemann  at  Mycenae,  and 


1 82  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

figured  in  the  very  interesting  book  in  which  his  excava- 
tions there  are  described.  I  have  also  to  thank  the 
proprietors  of  the  Illustrated  London  News,  the  Leisure 
Hour,  and  Land  and  Water,  for  the  use  of  illustrations 
especially  mentioned  in  the  text. 

Some  of  the  illustrations  in  the  first  edition  of  this  book, 
and  of  '  Sea  Monsters  Unmasked/  having  met  with  much 
commendation,  I  only  do  justice  in  mentioning  that  almost 
all  those  copied  in  fac-simile  from  old  books,  and  in  reduced 
size  from  periodicals,  are  the  work  of  the  Typographic 
Etching  Company. 

HENRY  LEE. 
SAVAGE  CLUB; 
Sept.  tfh,  1883, 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FIG.  PAGE 

A  MERMAID.     From  a  picture  by  Otto  Sinding         .  .         .178 

1.  NOAH,  His  WIFE  AND  THREE  SONS,  AS  FISH-TAILED  DEITIES. 

From  a  gem  in  the  Florentine  Gallery.     After  Calmet  •     .  1 86 

2.  HEA,  OR  NOAH,  THE  GOD  OF  THE  FLOOD.     Khorsabad  .         .     187 

3.  DAGON.     From  a  bas-relief.     Nimroud         .          .         .          .         .191 

4.  DAGON  :    HALF   MAN,    HALF   FISH.     From  Lamy's  '  Apparatus 

Biblicus* 192 

5.  DAGON.     From  an  agate  signet.     Nineveh      .          .          ...          .  192 

6.  FISH  AVATAR  OF  VISHNU.     After  Calmet  and  Maurice       .         .  193 

7.  NOAH  AND  HIS  WIFE  AS  FISH-TAILED  DEITIES   ....  194 

8.  ATERGATIS,  THE  GODDESS  OF  THE  SYRIANS.    From  a  Phoenician 

Coin 195 

9.  VENUS    RISING    FROM    THE    SEA,    SUPPORTED    BY    TRITONS. 

After  Calmet 196 

10.  VENUS    DRAWN    IN    HER    CHARIOT    BY    TRITONS.     From   two 

Corinthian  Coins         .          .         .         .          .          .          .  197 

11.  DITTO 197 

12.  SEAL,  DRAWN  AS  A  FISH.    From  the  Catacombs  at  Rome    .         .  198 

13.  MERMAID  AND  FISHES  OF  AMBOYNA.    After  Valentyn       .         .  200 

14.  A  JAPANESE  ARTIFICIAL  MERMAID         .         .         .         .         .216 

15.  AN  ARTIFICIAL  MERMAID.     Probably  Japanese  ....  216 

16.  PORTRAIT  OF  A  MERMAID  SAID  TO  HAVE  BEEN  CAPTURED  IN 

JAPAN       .  .217 

17.  THE  DUGONG.     From  Sir  J.  Emerson  Tennenfs  '  Ceylon '    .          .231 

18.  THE  MANATEE .233 

19.  FIGURE  OF  A  CALAMARY,    FROM   THE  TEMPLE  OF   BAYR-EL- 

BAHREE •        .238 

20.  FIGURE  OF  AN  OCTOPUS  ON  A  GOLD  ORNAMENT  FOUND  BY 

DR.    SCHLIEMANN   AT   MYCEN/E  .  .  .  .      239 

21.  DITTO.     ......•••••     24° 

22.  DITTO.     .         .         .         .         .  ' 24J 

23.  DITTO.     ...  24i 


184  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

FIG.  PAGE 

24.  HERCULES  SLAYING  THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA     .         .         .        .  245 

25.  THE  PHYSETER  INUNDATING  A  SHIP.    After  Olaus  Magnus       .  252 

26.  A  WHALE  POURING  WATER  INTO  A  SHIP  FROM   ITS   BLOW- 

HOLE.   After  Olaus  Magnus        .         .         .         ...         .  252 

27.  SPERM  WHALES,  ERRONEOUSLY  REPRESENTED  AS  "SPOUTING"  253 

28.  THE  PAPER  NAUTILUS  (Argonauta  argo)  SAILING       .         .         .  264 

29.  DITTO.  RETRACTED  WITHIN  ITS  SHELL 269 

30.  DITTO.  CRAWLING  .                274 

31.  DITTO.  SWIMMING  .        .        .        .        .         .        .        .         .  275 

32.  SHELL  OF  THE  PAPER  NAUTILUS  (Argonauta  argo)    .         .         .  276 

33.  SHELL  OF  THE  PEARLY  NAUTILUS  (Nautilus  pompilitis}     .         .277 

34.  THE  PEARLY  NAUTILUS  (Nautilus  pompilius}  AND  SECTION  OF 

ITS  SHELL .  278 

35.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  GEESE  FROM  ROTTEN  WOOD.    After  Claude 

Duret. 294 

36.  THE  TREE  WHOSE  LEAVES  ARE   CHANGED   INTO  BIRDS   WHEN 

THEY  FALL  ON  THE  LAND,  AND  INTO  FlSHES  WHEN  THEY 

FALL  INTO  WATER.    After  Claude  Duret     ....  295 

37.  THE  GOOSE-TREE.    From  Gerard's  'HerbalP                                  .  300 

38.  DITTO.  Fac-simile  from  Aldrovandus  ......  302 

39.  DEVELOPM'ENT  OF   BARNACLES   INTO   GEESE.    Fac-simile  from 

Aldrovandus       .........  303 

40.  SECTION  OF  A  SESSILE  BARNACLE.    Balanus  tintinnabuhim        .  307 

41.  PEDUNCULATED  BARNACLE.    Lepas  anatifera     ....  309 

42.  A  SHIP'S  FIGURE-HEAD  PARTLY  COVERED  WITH  BARNACLES  .  310 

43.  WHALE  BARNACLE.     Coronula  diadema 31! 

44  A  YOUNG  BARNACLF-     Larva  of  Chthamalus  stellatus  .         .         >  312 


SEA   FABLES   EXPLAINED. 


THE  MERMAID. 

NEXT  to  the  pleasure  which  the  earnest  zoologist  derives 
from  study  of  the  habits  and  structure  of  living  animals, 
and  his  intelligent  appreciation  of  their  perfect  adaptation 
to  their  modes  of  life,  and  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
are  placed,  is  the  interest  he  feels  in  eliminating  fiction 
from  truth,  whilst  comparing  the  fancies  of  the  past  with  the 
facts  of  the  present.  As  his  knowledge  increases,  he  learns 
that  the  descriptions  by  ancient  writers  of  so-called  "  fabu- 
lous creatures  "  are  rather  distorted  portraits  than  invented 
falsehoods,  and  that  there  is  hardly  one  of  the  monsters  of  old 
which  has  not  its  prototype  in  Nature  at  the  present  day. 
The  idea  of  the  Lernean  Hydra,  whose  heads  grew  again 
when  cut  off  by  Hercules,  originated,  as  I  have  shown  in 
another  chapter,  in  a  knowledge  of  the  octopus ;  and  in 
the  form  and  movements  of  other  animals  with  which  we 
are  now  familiar  we  may,  in  like  manner,  recognise  the 
similitude  and  archetype  of  the  mermaid. 

But  we  must  search  deeply  into  the  history  of  mankind 
to  discover  the  real  source  of  a  belief  that  has  prevailed  in 
almost  all  ages,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  the 
existence  of  a  race  of  beings  uniting  the  form  of  man  with 
that  of  the  fish.  A  rude  resemblance  between  these 


1 86 


SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


creatures  of  imagination  and  tradition  and  certain  aquatic 
animals  is  not  sufficient  to  account  for  that  belief.  It 
probably  had  its  origin  in  ancient  mythologies;  and  in  the 
sculptures  and  pictures  connected  with  them,  which  were 
designed  to  represent  certain  attributes  of  the  deities  of 
various  nations.  In  the  course  of  time  the  meaning  of 
these  was  lost ;  and  subsequent  generations  regarded  as 


FIG.    I.— NOAH,     HIS    WIFE,    AND    THREE    SONS,     AS    FISH-TAILED    DEITIES. 
From  a  Gem  in  the  Florentine  Gallery.     After  Calmet. 

the  portraits  of  existing  beings  effigies  which  were  at  first 
intended  to  be  merely  emblematic  and  symbolical. 

Early  idolatry  consisted,  first,  in  separating  the  idea  of 
the  One  Divinity  into  that  of  his  vari9us  attributes,  and  of 
inventing  symbols  and  making  images  of  each  separately  ; 
secondly,  in  the  worship  of  the  sun,  moon,  stars,  and 
planets,  as  living  existences  ;  thirdly,  in  the  deification  of 
ancestors  and  early  kings  ;  and  these  three  forms  were 
often  mingled  together  in  strange  and  tangled  confusion. 


THE   MERMAID.  187 

Amongst  the  famous  personages  with  whose  history  men 
were  made  acquainted  by  oral  tradition  was  Noah.  He 
was  known  as  the  second  father  of  the  human  race,  and 
the  preserver  and  teacher  of  the  arts  and  sciences  as  they 
existed  before  the  Great  Deluge,  of  which  so  many  separate 
traditions  exist  among  the  various  races  of  mankind.  Con- 
sequently, he  was  an  object  of  worship  in  many  countries 
and  under  many  names  ;  and  his  wife  and  sons,  as  his 
assistants  in  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  were  sometimes 
associated  with  him. 

According  to  Berosus,  of  Babylon, — the  Chaldean  priest 
and  astronomer,  who  extracted  from  the  sacred  books  of 
"  that  great  city  "  much  interesting  ancient  lore,  which  he  in- 
troduced into  his  '  History  of  Syria,'  written,  about  B.C.  260, 
for  the  use  of  the  Greeks, — at  a  time  when  men  were  sunk 
in  barbarism,  there  came  up  from  the  Erythrean  Sea  (the 
Persian  Gulf),  and  landed  on  the  Babylonian  shore,  a  creature 
named  Cannes,  which  had  the  body  and  head  of  a  fish.  But 
above  the  fish's  head  was  the  head  of  a  man,  and  below  the 
tail  of  the  fish  were  human  feet.  It  had  also  human  arms,  a 
human  voice,  and  human  language.  This  strange  monster 
sojourned  among  the  rude  people  during 
the  day,  taking  no  food,  but  retiring  to 
the  sea  at  night ;  and  it  continued  for 
some  time  thus  to  visit  them,  teaching 
them  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  and  in- 
structing them  in  science  and  religion.* 

In  this  tale  we  have  a  distorted  ac- 
ne.    2.  —  HEA,      OR 

count  of  the  life  and  occupation  of  Noah        NOAH,    THE    GOD 
after  his  escape  from  the  deluge  which       °f     TH*     FLOOD' 

A  fiorsaoaa 

destroyed   his   home   and   drowned   his 
neighbours.      Cannes  was  one  of  the  names  under  which 
*  Berosus,  lib.  i.  p.  48. 


1 88  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

he  was  worshipped  in  Chaldea,  at  Erech  ("  the  place  of  the 
ark"),  as  the  sacred  and  intelligent  fish-god,  the  teacher 
of  mankind,  the  god  of  science  and  knowledge.  There  he 
was  also  called  Oes,  Hoa,  Ea,  Ana,  Ann,  Aun,  and  Oan. 
Noah  was  worshipped,  also,  in  Syria  and  Mesopotamia, 
and  in  Egypt,  at  "populous  No,"*  or  Thebes— so  named 
from  "Theba,""  the  ark." 

The  history  of  the  coffin  of  Osiris  is  another  version  of 
Noah's  ark,  and  the  period  during  which  that  Egyptian 
divinity  is  said  to  have  been  shut  up  in  it,  after  it  was  set 
afloat  upon  the  waters,  was  precisely  the  same  as  that 
during  which  Noah  remained  in  the  ark. 

The  Mexican  "  Coxcox,"  who  was  entitled  Huehueton- 
acateo-cateo-cipatli,  or  "  Fish-god  of  our  flesh,"  also  resembled 
Noah ;  for  the  Mexican  tradition  related  that  in  a  great 
time  of  flood,  when  the  earth  was  covered  with  water,  he 
preserved  himself  and  his  wife  Xochiquetzal  in  a  boat  made 
out  of  the  trunk  of  a  cypress  tree — some  say  on  a  raft  of 
cypress  wood — and  peopled  the  world  with  wise  and  in- 
telligent beings.  Paintings  representing  the  deluge  of 
Coxcox  have  been  discovered  amongst  the  Aztecs  and 
other  nations. 

In  the  Aztec  legend  of  the  flood,  as  translated  by  the 
Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  from  the  Codex  Chimal- 
popoca,  Nata  and  his  wife  Nena  were  the  persons  saved, 
and  the  deluge  took  place  on  the  day  Nahui-atl.  We  find 
in  this  word  and  in  the  $ame  of  this  central-American 
Noah/  Nata,  the  root  Na,  to  which,  in  all  the  Aryan 
language,  is  attached  the  meaning  of  water,  and  which, 
pronounced  with  the  broad  sound  of  the  a,  is  very  like 
Noah,  or  Noe. 

The  ancient  Peruvians  also  had  their  semi-fish  gods, 
*  Nahum  iii.  8. 


THE  -MERMAID.  iSg 

but  the  legends  connected  with  them  have  not  been  pre- 
served. 

The  North- American  Indians  relate  that  they  were 
conducted  from  Northern  Asia  by  a  man-fish.  Once  upon 
a  time,  according  to  the  legend,  in  the  season  of  opening 
buds,  the  people  of  their  nation  were  terrified  by  seeing  a 
strange  creature  like  a  man  riding  upon  the  waves.  He 
had  upon  his  head  long  green  hair,  resembling  the  coarse 
weeds  which  mighty  storms  scatter  along  the  margin  of 
the  strand.  Upon  his  face,  which  was  like  that  of  a 
porpoise,  he  had  a  beard  of  the  same  colour,  and  they  saw 
that  from  his  breast  down  he  was  a  fish,  or  rather  two 
fishes,  for  each  of  his  legs  was  a  whole  and  distinct  fish. 
He  would  sit  for  hours  singing  to  the  wondering  Indians 
of  the  beautiful  things  he  saw  in  the  depths  of  the  ocean, 
always  closing  his  strange  descriptions  with  the  words : 
"  Follow  me,  and  see  what  I  shall  show  you."  For  many 
suns  they  dared  not  venture  upon  the  water,  but  when  they 
became  hungry  they  at  last  put  to  sea,  and,  following  the 
man-fish,  who  kept  close  to  their  boat,  reached  the  coast  of 
America.* 

Amongst  the  Mandans,  the  landing  of  Noah  from  the 
ark  and  the  events  of  the  deluge  are  commemorated  with 
religious  ceremonies  even  at  the  present  day,  and  a  rude 
image  of  the  ark,  which  has  been  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation,  is  still  preserved  amongst 
them.f 

*  '  Traditions  of  the  North  American  Indians/  J.  A.  Jones,  1830, 
p.  47. 

t  George  Catlin,  in  his  '  North  American  Indians,'  vol.  i.  p.  88, 
says . — «  in  the  centre  of  the  village  is  an  open  space,  or  public  square, 
1 50  feet  in  diameter,  and  circular  in  form,  which  is  used  for  all  public 
games  and  festivals,  shows  and  exhibitions.  The  lodges  around  this 


190  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

Amongst  the  historical  chants  of  the  Lenni-Lenape,  or 
Delaware  Indians,  is  one  entitled  the  "Song  of  the  Flood," 


open  space  front  in,  with  their  doors  toward  the  centre ;  and  in  the 
middle  of  this  stands  an  object  of  great  religious  veneration,  on 
account  of  the  importance  it  has  in  connection  with  the  annual 
religious  ceremonies.  This  object  is  in  the  form  of  a  large  hogshead, 
some  8  or  10  feet  high,  made  of  planks  and  hoops,  containing  within 
it  some  of  their  choicest  mysteries  or  medicines.  They  call  it  the 
'  Big  Canoe.' " 

This  is  a  representation  of  the  ark,  and  further  on,  in  the  same 
volume  (p.  158),  Mr.  Catlin  describes  the  great  annual  rites  and  cere- 
monials of  which  it  is  the  centre.  He  says  : — 

"  On  the  day  set  apart  for  the  commencement  of  the  ceremonies,  a 
solitary  figure  is  seen  approaching  the  village.  During  the  deafening 
din  and  confusion  within  the  pickets  of  the  village,  the  figure  dis- 
covered on  the  prairie  continued  to  approach  with  a  dignified  step, 
and  in  a  right  line  towards  the  village.  All  eyes  were  upon  him,  and 
he  at  length  made  his  appearance  within  the  pickets,  and  proceeded 
towards  the  centre  of  the  village,  where  all  the  chiefs  and  braves  stood 
ready  to  receive  him,  which  they  did  in  a  cordial  manner  by  shaking 
hands,  recognizing  him  as  an  old  acquaintance,  and  pronouncing  his 
name  Nu-mokh-muck-a-nah — the  first  or  only  man.  The  body  of 
this  strange  personage,  which  was  chiefly  naked,  was  painted  with 
white  clay,  so  as  to  resemble  at  a  distance  a  white  man.  He  enters 
the  medicine  lodge,  and  goes  through  certain  mysterious  ceremonies. 
During  the  whole  of  this  day  Nu-mokh-muck-a-nah  travelled  through 
the  village,  stopping  in  front  of  each  man's  lodge,  and  crying  until  the 
owner  of  the  lodge  came  out  and  asked  who  he  was,  and  what  was 
the  matter.  To  which  he  replied  by  relating  the  sad  catastrophe 
which  had  happened  on  the  earth's  surface  by  the  overflowing  of  the 
waters,  and  saying  that  he  was  the  only  person  saved  from  the 
universal  calamity  ;  that  he  landed  his  big  canoe  on  a  high  mountain 
in  the  west,  where  he  now  resides  ;  that  he  has  come  to  open  the 
medicine  lodge,  which  must  needs  receive  a  present  of  an  edged  tool 
from  the  owner  of  every  wigwam,  that  it  may  be  sacrificed  to  the 
water,  for  if  this  is  not  done  there  will  be  another  flood,  and  no  one 
will  be  saved,  as  it  was  with  such  tools  that  the  big  canoe  was  made. 
Having  visited  every  lodge  in  the  village  during  the  day,  and  having 
received  such  a  present  from  each  as  a  hatchet,  a  knife,  &c.  (which  is 
undoubtedly  always  prepared  ready  for  the  occasion),  he  places  them 
in  the  medicine  lodge,  and  on  the  last  day  of  the  ceremony  they  are 
thrown  into  a  deep  place  in  the  river— sacrificed  to  the  Spirit  of  the 
Waters." 


THE  MERMAID. 


191 


in  which  the  ancestor  of  the  new  race  of  men  is  called 
Nana-Bus/i* 

The  Chinese,  in  their  early  legends,  connected  their  origin 
with  a  people  who  were  destroyed  by  water  in  a  tremendous 
convulsion  of  the  earth.  Associated  with  this  event  was 
a  divine  personage  called  Nin-va.  In  another  account 
the  name  of  Nai  Hoang-ti,  or 
Nai  Kortiy  is  given  to  the 
founder  of  Chinese  civilization. 
In  all  these  instances  there  is 
a  remarkable  resemblance  be- 
tween the  names  therein  of 
the  hero  of  the  deluge  and  the 
Hebrew  Noah. 

Dagon,  also  —  sometimes 
called  Odacon — the  great  fish- 
god  of  the  Philistines  and 
Babylonians,  was  another 
phase  of  Oannes.  "  Dag,"  in 
Hebrew,  signifies  "a  male 
fish,"  and  "  Aun  "  and  "  Oan  " 
were  two  of  the  names  of 
Noah.  "  Dag-aun  "  or  "  Dag- 
oan"  therefore  means  "the 
fish  Noah."  He  was  por- 
trayed in  two  ways.  The 
more  ancient  image  of  him 
was  that  of  a  man  issuing 

from  a  fish,  as  described  of  Oannes  by  Berosus ;  but 
in  later  times  it  was  varied  to  that  of  a  man  whose 
upper  half  was  human,  and  the  lower  parts  those  of 


FIG.    3. — DAGON.      From   a    bas- 
relief.     Nimroud. 


The  American  Nations.'     C.  S.  Rafmesque,  Philadelphia,  1836. 


192  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

a  fish.  The  image  of  Dagon  which  fell  upon  its  face  to 
the  ground  before  "the  ark  of  the  God  of  Israel,"  was 
probably  of  this  latter  form,  for  we  read  *  that  in  its  fall, 
"the  head  of  Dagon  and 
both  the  palms  of  his  hands 
were  cut  off  upon  the  thres- 
hold :  only  the  stump  (in  the 
margin,  '  the  fishy  part ')  of 
Dagon  was  left  to  him."  This 
was  evidently  Milton's  con- 
ception of  him : 

"  Dagon  his  name  ;  sea-monster, 

upward  man 
And  downward  fish."  f 

In   some   of  the  Nineveh 

sculptures    of   the    fish-god 

.  the   head    of 

the  fish  forms 

a     kind      of 

mitre  on  the 

head   of  the 

man,     whilst 

the   body  of 

the  fish    ap* 

pears  as  a 
FIG.  S.-DAGON.  cloak  or  cape 

From  an  Agate 

Signet.  Nineveh.     O  V  e  r        his 

shoulders  and 


FIG.  4. — DAGON.    From  Lamy's 
Apparatus  Biblicus. 


back.  The  fish  varies  in  length;  in  some  cases  the  tail 
almost  touches  the  ground ;  in  others  it  reaches  but  little 
below  the  man's  waist. 


i  Samuel  v.  4. 


f  '  Paradise  Lost,'  Book  i.  1.  462. 


THE  MERMAID. 


193 


In  one  of  his  "  avatars,"  or  incarnations,  the  god  Vishnu, 
"  the  Preserver,"  is  represented  as  issuing  from  the  mouth  ot 
a  fish.  He  is  celebrated 
as  having  miraculously 
preserved  one  righteous 
family,  and,  also,  the 
Vedas,  the  sacred  re- 
cords, when  the  world 
was  drowned.  Notonly 
is  this  legend  of  the 
Indian  god  wrought  up 
with  the  history  of 
Noah,  but  Vishnu  and 
Noah  bear  the  same 
name  —  Vishnu  being 
the  Sanscrit  form  of 
"Ish-nuh,"  "the  man 
Noah."  The  word 
"  avatar "  also  means 
"  out  of  the  boat."  In 
fact  the  whole  myth- 
ology of  Greece  and 
Rome,  as  well  as  of 
Asia,  is  full  of  the  his- 
tory and  deeds  of  Noah, 
which  it  is  impossible 
to  misunderstand.  In 
all  the  representations 
of  a  deity  having  a 
combined  human  and 
piscine  form,  the 
original  idea  was  that 
of  a  person  coming  out  of  a  fish  —  not  being  part  of 

VOL.  III. — H.  O 


FIG.   6. — FISH   AVATAR   OF   VISHNU. 
After  Calmet  and  Maurice. 


,94  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

one,  but  issuing  from  it,  as  Noah  issued  from  the  ark.     In 
all  of  them  the  fish  denoted  "preservation,"  "fecundity," 
"  plenty,"   and  "  diffusion  of  know- 
ledge." *     As  the  image  was  not  the 
effigy   of  a    divine    personage,    but 
symbolized     certain     attributes     of 
Divinity,  its  sex  was  comparatively 
unimportant ;  although  it  is  possible 
that,  combined  with  the  fecundity  of 
the  fish,  the  idea  of  Noah's  wife,  as 

FIG.  7.— NOAH  AND  HIS  WIFE 

AS  FISH-TAILED  DEITIES,  the  second  mother  of  all  subsequent 
On   a  Babylonian    Seal,  generations,  according  to  the  widely- 
spread  and  accepted  traditions  of  the 
Deluge,  may  have  influenced  the  impersonation. 

Atergatis,  the  far-famed  goddess  of  the  Syrians,  was  also 
a  fish-divinity.  Her  image,  like  that  of  Dagon,  had  at 
first  a  fish's  body  with  human  extremities  protruding 
from  it ;  but  in  the  course  of  centuries  it  was  gradually 
altered  to  that  of  a  being  the  upper  portion  of  whose 
body  was  that  of  a  woman  and  the  lower  half  that  of 
a  fish.  Gatis  was  a  powerful  queen  of  Sidon,  and  mother 
of  Semiramis.  She  received  the  title  of  "  Ater,"  or  "  Ader," 
"  the  Great,"  for  the  benefits  she  conferred  on  her  people  ; 
one  of  these  benefits  being  a  strict  conservation  of  their 
fisheries,  both  from  their  own  imprudent  use,  and  from  foreign 

*  Some  writers  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  legend  of  Cannes  con- 
tains an  allusion  to  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  and  that  his. 
semi-piscine  form  was  the  expression  of  the  idea  that  half  his  time  was 
spent  above  ground,  and  half  below  the  waves.  The  same  commen- 
tators also  regard  all  the  "  civilizing  "  gods  and  goddesses  as,  respec- 
tively, solar  and  lunar  deities.  A  double  character  in  one  impersonation 
is  so  common  in  ancient  mythology,  and  the  attributes  symbolized  in 
the  worship  of  Noah  and  the  sun  are  so  nearly  alike,  that  the  two 
interpretations  are  not  incompatible. 

t  From  an  electrotype  kindly  presented  to  me  by  Messrs.  W.  and 
R.  Chambers,  Edinburgh. 


THE  MERMAID.  I95 

interference.      She  issued  an  edict  that  no  fish  should  be 
eaten  without  her  consent,  and  that  no  one  should  take  fish 
in  the  neighbouring  sea  without  a  licence  from  herself.     It 
is  not  improbable  that  she  and  her  celebrated  daughter,  who 
is  said  by  Ovid  and  others  to  have  been  the  builder  of  the 
walls   of    Babylon,  were  worshipped    together ;    for    that 
Atergatis  was  the  same  as  the  fish-goddess  Ashteroth,  or 
Ashtoreth,  "  the  builder  of  the  encompassing  wall,"  we  have, 
amongst  other  proofs,  a  remarkable  one  in  Biblical  history. 
In  the  first  book  of  Maccabees  v.  43,  44,  we  read  that  "  all 
the  heathen  being  discomfited  before  him  (Judas  Maccabeus) 
cast  away  their  weapons,  and  fled  unto  the  temple  that  was 
at  Carnaim.    But  they  took  the  city,  arid  burned  the  temple 
with  all  that  were  therein.     Thus  was   Carnaim  subdued, 
neither  could  they  stand  any  longer  before  Judas."     In  the 
second  book  of  Maccabees  xii.  26,  we  are  told  that  "  Macca- 
beus marched  forth  to  Camion,  and  to  the  temple  of  Atar- 
gatis,  and  there  he  slew  five  and  twenty  thousand  persons." 
In  Genesis  xiv.  5,  this  city  and  temple  are  referred  to  as 
"  Ashteroth  Karnaim" 

Fig.  8  is  a  representation  of  Ater- 
gatis on  a  medal  coined  at  Marseilles. 
It  shows  that  when  the  Phoenician 
colony  from  Syria,  by  whom  that  city 
was  Founded,  settled  there,  they 
brought  with  them  the  worship  of 
the  gods  of  their  country. 

Atergatis  was    worshipped  by  the      /IG'  ATERGATIS. 

Front  a  Phoenician  coin. 

Greeks     as     Derceto    and    Astarte. 

Lucian  writes*  : — "  In  Phoenicia  I  saw  the  image  of  Der- 
ceto, a  strange  sight,  truly  !  For  she  had  the  half  of 
a  woman,  and  from  the  thighs  downwards  a  fish's  tail." 

*  '  Opera  Omnia]  torn.  ii.  p.  884,  edit.  Bened.  de  Dcd  Syr. 

O    2 


196 


SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


Diodorus  Siculus  describes  (lib.  ii.)  the  same  deity,  as 
represented  at  Ascalbn,  as  "  having  the  face  of  a  woman, 
but  all  the  rest  of  the  body  a  fish's."  And  this  very  same 
image  at  Ascalon,  which  Diodorus  calls  Derceto,  or 
Atergatis,  is  denominated  by  Herodotus*  "the  celestial 
Aphrodite,"  who  was  identical  with  the  Cyprian  and  Roman 


FIG.   9. — VENUS   RISING  FROM   THE  SEA,    SUPPORTED  BY  TRITONS. 

After  Calmet. 

Venus.  Of  all  the  sacred  buildings  erected  to  the  goddess, 
this  temple  was  by  far  the  most  ancient ;  and  the  Cyprians 
themselves  acknowledged  that  their  temple  was  built  after 
the  model  of  it  by  certain  Phoenicians  who  came  from 
that  part  of  Syria. 

Thus  the  worship  of  Noah,  as  the  second  father  of  man- 

(<rv\r)aav  TTJS  Ovpavirjs  'A<£/Jo8iY»;?  TO  Ipov. — Lib.  i.  cap.  CV. 


THE  MERMAID.  197 

kind,  the  repopulator  of  the  earth,  passed  through  various 
phases  and  transformations  till  it  merged  in  that  of  Venus, 
who  rose  from  the  sea,  and  was  regarded  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  reproductive  power  of  Nature — the  goddess  whom 
Lucretius  thus  addressed  : 

"  Blest  Venus  !     Thou  the  sea  and  fruitful  earth 
Peoplest  amain  ;  to  thee  whatever  lives 
Its  being  owes,  and  that  it  sees  the  sun  : " 

and  to  whom  refers  the  passage  in  the  Orphic  hymn : 

"  From  thee  are  all  things — all  things  thou  producest 
Which  are  in  heaven,  or  in  the  fertile  earth, 
Or  in  the  sea,  or  in  the  great  abyss." 

Under  this  latter  phase — the  impersonation  of  Venus — 
the  fish  portion  of  the  body  was  discarded,  and  the  cast-off 
form  was  allotted  in  popular  credence  to  the  Tritons — minor 
deities,  who  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the  goddess, 
and  were  ready  to  render  her  homage  and  service  by  bearing 
her  in  their  arms,  drawing  her  chariot,  etc.,  but  who  still 
possessed  considerable  power  as  sea-gods,  and  could  calm 
the  waves  and  rule  the  storm,  at  pleasure. 

FIG.    IO. 


VENUS  DRAWN  IN  HER  CHARIOT  BY  TRITONS.     From  two  Corinthian  coins. 

Figs.  10  and  1 1  are  from  two  Corinthian  medals,  each 
shewing  Venus  in  a  car  or  chariot  drawn  by  Tritons,  one 
male,  the  other  female.  On  the  obverse  ot  Fig.  10  is  the 


i98  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

head  of  Nero,  and   on  that  of  Fig.    n  the   head  of  his 
grandmother  Agrippina.* 

From  the  very  earliest  period  of  history,  then,  the 
conjoined  human  and  fish  form  was  known  to  every 
generation  of  men.  It  was  presented  to  their  sight  in 
childhood  by  sculptures  and  pictures,  and  was  a  conspicuous 
object  in  their  religious  worship.  By  the  lapse  of  time  its 
original  import  was  lost  and  debased ;  and,  from  being 
an  emblem  and  symbol,  it  came  to  be  accepted  as  the 

*  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  fish  was  also* adopted  as  an  emblem 
by  the  early  Christians,  and  was  frequently  sculptured  on  their  tombs 
as  a  private  mark  or  sign  of  the  faith  in  which  the  person  there 
interred  had  died.  It  alluded  to  the  letters  which  composed  the 
Greek  word  lx#vs  ("a  fish")  forming  an  anagram,  the  initials 
of  words  which  conveyed  the  following  sentiment :  Irjaovs,  Jesus  ; 
Xpio-ros-,  Christ ;  Geov,  of  God  ;  Yfos,  Son  ;  Somjp,  Saviour.  But  it 
doubtless  bore,  also,  the  older  meaning  of  "  preservation  "  and  "  re- 
production," of  which  the  fish  was  the  symbol,  and  betokened  a  belief 
in  a  future  resurrection,  as  Noah  was  preserved  to  dwell  in,  and 
populate,  a  new  world.  In  *  Sea  Monsters  Unmasked,'  page  55 
[page  381  of  this  volume]  I  gave  a  figure,  copied  by  permission  from  the 
Illustrated  London  News,  of  a  rough  sculpture  in  the  Roman  catacombs, 
of  Jonah  being  disgorged  by  a  sea-monster.  Near  to  it  was  found,  on 
another  Christian  tomb,  one  of  these  designs  of  the  "  fish  ; "  and  it  is 
not  a  little  curious  that,  whereas  the  animal  depicted  as  casting  forth 
Jonah  is  not  a  whale,  but  a  sea-serpent,  or  dragon,  the  ichtheus  in  this 
instance  is  apparently  not  a  fish,  but  a  seal. 


FIG.  12.— CHRISTIAN  SYMBOL.     From  the  Catacombs  at  Rome. 

The  article  referred  to  appeared  in  the  Illustrated  London  News 
of  February  3rd,  1872,  and  the  woodcut  (Fig.  12),  an  electrotype  of 
which  was  most  kindly  presented  to  me  by  the  proprietors  of  that 
paper,  was  one  of  the  sketches  that  accompanied  it. 


THE  MERMAID.  199 

corporeal  shape  and  structure  of  actually-existent  sea- 
deities,  who  might  present  themselves  to  the  view  of  the 
mariner,  in  visible  and  tangible  form,  at  any  moment 
Thus  were  men  trained  and  prepared  to  believe  in  mermen 
and  mermaids,  to  expect  to  meet  with  them  at  sea,  and  to 
recognise  as  one  of  them  any  animal  the  appearance  and 
movements  of  which  could  possibly  be  brought  into  con- 
formity with  their  pre-conceived  ideas. 

Accordingly,  and  very  naturally,  we  find  that  from  north 
to  south  this  belief  has  been  entertained.  Megasthenes, 
who  was  a  contemporary  of  Aristotle,  but  his  junior,  and 
whose  geographical  work  was  probably  written  at  about 
the  period  of  the  great  philosopher's  death,  reported  that 
the  sea  which  surrounded  Taprobana,  the  ancient  Ceylon, 
was  inhabited  by  creatures  having  the  appearance  of 
women.  ^Elian  stated  that  there  were  "  whales,"  or  "  great 
fishes,"  having  the  form  of  satyrs.  The  early  Portuguese 
settlers  in  India  asserted  that  true  mermen  were  found  in 
the  Eastern  seas,  and  old  Norse  legends  tell  of  sub- 
marine beings  of  conjoined  human  and  piscine  form,  who 
dwell  in  a  wide  territory  far  below  the  region  of  the  fishes, 
over  which  the  sea,  like  the  cloudy  canopy  of  our  sky, 
loftily  rolls,  and  some  of  whom  have,  from  time  to  time, 
landed  on  Scandinavian  shores,  exchanged  their  fishy 
extremities  -for  human  limbs,  and  acquired  amphibious 
habits.  Not  only  have  poets  sung  of  the  wondrous  and 
seductive  beauty  of  the  maidens  of  these  aquatic  tribes, 
but  many  a  Jack  tar  has  come  home  from  sea  prepared  to 
affirm  on  oath  that  he  has  seen  a  mermaid.  To  the  best 
of  his  belief  he  has  told  the  truth.  He  has  seen  some 
living  being  which  looked  wonderfully  human,  and  his 
imagination,  aided  by  an  inherited  superstition,  has  sup- 
plied the  rest. 


200  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

Before  endeavouring  to  identify  the  object  of  his  de- 
lusion, it  may  be  well  to  mention  a  few  instances  of  the 
supposed  appearance  of  mermen  and  mermaidens  in  various 
localities. 

Pliny  writes :  * 

"  When  Tiberius  was  emperor,  an  embassy  was  sent  to  him  from 
Olysippo  (Lisbon)  expressly  to  inform  him  that  a  Triton,  which  was 
recognised  as  such  by  its  form,  had  shown  itself  in  a  certain  cave,  and 
had  been  heard  to  produce  loud  sounds  on  a  conch-shell.  The 
Nereid,  also,  is  not  imaginary  :  its  body  is  rough  and  covered  with 
scales,_but  it  has  the  appearance  of  a  human  being.  For  one  was 
seen  upon  the  same  coast ;  and  when  it  was  dying  those  dwelling  near 
at  hand  heard  it  moaning  sadly  for  a  long  time.  And  the  Governor 
of  Gaul  wrote  to  the  divine  Augustus  that  several  Nereids  had  been 
found  dead  upon  the  shore.  I  have  many  informants — illustrious 
persons  in  high  positions — who  have  assured  me  that  they  saw  in  the 
Sea  of  Cadiz  a  merman  whose  whole  body  was  exactly  like  that  of  a 
man,  that  these  mermen  mount  on  board  ships  by  night,  and  weigh 
down  that  end  of  the  vessel  on  which  they  rest,  and  that  if  they  are 
allowed  to  remain  there  long  they  will  sink  the  ship." 

^Elian  in  one  of  his  short,  jerky,  disconnected  chapters,  t 
which  rarely  exceed  a  page  in  length,  and  some  of  which 
only  contain  two  lines,  writes  : 

"It  is  reported  that  the  great  sea  which  surrounds  the  island  of 
Taprobana  (Ceylon)  contains  an  immense  multitude  of  fishes  and 
whales,  and  some  of  them  have  the  heads  of  lions,  panthers,  rams,  and 
other  animals  ;  and  (which  is  more  wonderful  still)  some  of  the  ceta- 
ceans have  the  form  of  satyrs.  There  are  others  which  have  the  face 
of  a  woman,  but  prickles  instead  of  hair.  In  addition  to  these,  it  is 
said  there  are  other  creatures  of  so  strange  and  monstrous  a  kind  that 
it  would  be  impossible  exactly  to  explain  their  appearance  without  the 
aid  of  a  skilfully  drawn  picture  :  these  have  elongated  and  coiled  tails, 
and,  for  feet,  have  clawsj  or  fins.  And  I  hear  that  in  the  same  sea 
there  are  great  amphibious  beasts  which  are  gregarious,  and  live  on 

*  Naturalis  Historia,  lib.  ix.  cap.  v. 
t  De  Naturd  Animalium,  lib.  xvi.  cap.  xviii. 

t  "  Forfices?  literally  "  shears,"  or  "  nippers,"  like  the  claws  of  a 
lobster. 


THE  MERMAID  201 

grain,  and  by  night  feed  on  the  corn  crops  and  grass,  and  are  also 
very  fond  of  the  ripe  fruit  of  the  palms.  To  obtain  these  they  encircle 
in  their  em-brace  the  trees  which  are  young  and  flexible,  and,  shaking 
them  violently,  enjoy  the  fruit  which  they  thus  cause  to  fall.  When 
morning  dawns  they  return  to  the  sea,  and  plunge  beneath  the  waves." 

^Elian  seems  to  have  derived  this  information  from 
Megasthenes,  already  referred  to ;  but  in  another  chapter,* 
he  writes  with  greater  certainty  concerning  these  semi- 
human  whales,  and  claims  divine  authority  for  his  belief  in 
the  existence  of  tritons. 

"  Although,"  he  says,  "  we  have  no  rational  explanation  nor  absolute 
proof  of  that  which  fishermen  are  said  to  be  able  to  affirm  concerning 
the  form  of  the  tritons,  we  have  the  sworn  testimony  of  many  persons 
that  there  are  in  the  sea  cetaceans  which  from  the  head  down  to  the 
middle  of  the  body  resemble  the  human  species.  Demostratus,  in  his 
works  on  fishing,  says  that  an  aged  triton  was  seen  near  the  town  of 
Tanagra,  in  Bceotia,  which  was  like  the  drawings  and  pictures  of 
tritons,  but  its  features  were  so  obscured  by  age,  and  it  disappeared  so 
quickly,  that  its  true  character  was  not  easily  perceptible.  But  on  the 
spot  where  it  had  rested  on  the  shore  were  found  some  rough  and  very 
hard  scales  which  had  become  detached  from  it.  A  certain  senator — 
one  of  those  selected  by  lot  to  carry  on  the  administration  of  Achaia 
and  the  duties  of  the  annual  magistracy  "  (the  mayor,  in  fact) — "  being 
anxious  to  investigate  the  nature  of  this  triton,  put  a  portion  of  its 
skin  on  the  fire.  It  gave  out  a  most  horrible  odour;  and  those 
standing  by  were  unable  to  decide  whether  it  belonged  to  a  terrestrial 
or  marine  animal.  But  the  magistrate's  curiosity  had  an  evil  ending, 
for  very  soon  afterwards,  whilst  crossing  a  narrow  creek  in  a  boat,  he 
fell  overboard  and  was  drowned ;  and  the  Tanagreans  all  regarded 
this  as  a  judgment  upon  him  for  his  crime  of  impiety  towards  the 
triton — an  interpretation  which  was  confirmed  when  his  decomposing 
body  was  cast  ashore,  for  it  emitted  exactly  the  same  odour  as  had 
the  burned  skin  of  the  triton.  The  Tanagreans  and  Demostratus 
explain  whence  the  triton  had  strayed,  and  how  it  was  stranded  in 
this  place.  I  believe  that  tritons  exist,  and  I  reverentially  produce 
as  my  witness  a  most  veracious  god — namely,  Apollo  Didymaeus, 
whom  no  man  in  his  senses  would  presume  to  regard  as  unworthy  of 


*  Lib.  xiii.  cap.  xxi. 


202  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

credit.     He  sings  thus  of  the  triton,  which  he  calls  the  sheep  of  the 
sea: 

1  Dum  vocale  marts  monstrum  natst  cequore  triton 
Neptuni  pecus,  in  funes  forte  incidit  extra 
Demissos  navim '/" 

which  I  venture  to  translate  as  follows  : 

A  triton,  vocal  monster  of  the  deep, 
One  of  a  flock  of  Neptune's  scaly  sheep, 
Was  caught,  as  o'er  the  wat'ry  plain  he  strayed, 
By  lines  which  fishers  from  their  boat  had  laid. 

"  Therefore,"  Lilian  concludes,  "  if  he,  the  omniscient  god,  pro- 
nounces that  there  are  tritons,  it  does  not  b  ehove  us  to  doubt  their 
existence." 

Sir  J.  Emmerson  Tennent,  in  his  'Natural  History  of 
Ceylon/  quoting  from  the  Histoire  de  la  Compagnie  de 
Jesus,  mentions  that  the  annalist  of  the  exploits  of  the 
Jesuits  in  India  gravely  records  that  seven  of  these 
monsters,  male  and  female,  were  captured  at  Manaar,  in 
1560,  and  carried  to  Goa,  where  they  were  dissected  by 
Demas  Bosquez,  physician  to  the  Viceroy,  "  and  their  in- 
ternal structure  found  to  be  in  all  respects  conformable  to 
the  human."  He  also  quotes  Francois  Valentijn,  one  of  the 
Dutch  colonial  chaplains,  who,  in  his  account  of  the 
Natural  History  of  Amboyna,*  embodied  in  his  great  work 
on  the  Netherlands'  possessions  in  India,  published  in  1727,! 
devoted  the  first  section  of  his  chapter  on  the  fishes  of  that 
island  to  a  minute  description  of  the  "  Zee-Menschen," 
"  Zee-Wyven,"  and  mermaids,  the  existence  of  which  he 
warmly  insists  on  as  being  beyond  cavil.  He  relates  that 
in  1 65  3,  when  a  lieutenant  in  the  Dutch  service  was  leading 
a  party  of  soldiers  along  the  sea-shore  in  Amboyna,  he  and 

*  One  of  the  Dutch  spice-islands  in  the  Banda  Sea,  between  Celebes 
and  Papua. 

t  Beschrijving  van  Oud  en  Nieuw  Oost-Indien,  etc.,  5  vols.  folio, 
Dordrecht  and  Amsterdam,  1727,  vol.  iii.  p.  330. 


THE  MERMAID.  203 

all  his  company  saw  two  mermen   swimming  at  a  short 
distance  from  the  beach. 

"  They  had  long  and  flowing  hair  of  a  colour  between  grey  and 
green,  and  from  their  swimming  side  by  side  it  was  presumed  that 
they  were  male  and  female.  Six  weeks  afterwards  the  creatures  were 
again  seen  by  him  and  more  than  fifty  witnesses,  at  the  same  place, 
by  clear  daylight.  If  any  narrative  in  the  world,"  adds  Valentijn, 
"  deserves  credit  it  is  this ;  since  not  only  one,  but  two  mermen 
together  were  seen  by  so  many  eye-witnesses.  Should  the  stubborn 
world,  however,  hesitate  to  believe  it,  it  matters  nothing,  ^s  there  are 
people  who  would  even  deny  that  such  cities  as  Rome,  Constantinople, 
or  Cairo,  exist,  merely  because  they  themselves  have  not  happened  to 
see  them.  But  what  are  such  incredulous  persons,"  he  continues,  "  to 
make  of  the  circumstance  recorded  by  Albrecht  Herport*  in  his 
account  of  India,  that  a  merman  was  seen  in  the  water  near  the 
church  of  Taquan  on  the  morning  of  the  2Qth  of  April,  1661,  and  a 
mermaid  at  the  same  spot  the  same  afternoon  ?  Or  what  do  they  say 
to  the  fact  that  in  17 14  a  mermaid  was  not  only  seen  but  captured 
near  the  island  of  Boero,  five  feet,  Rhineland  measure,  in  height  ; 
which  lived  four  days  and  seven  hours,  but,  refusing  all  food,  died 
without  leaving  any  intelligible  account  of  herself?"! 

This  last  example  is  said  to  have  been  taken  in  1712  by 
a  district  visitor  of  the  church,  who  presented  it  to  the 
Governor  Vander  Stell.  Of  this  "well-authenticated"  speci- 
men Valentijn  gives,  on  a  large  uncoloured  plate,  an 

*  Itinerarium  Indicum,  Berne,  1669. 

f  Valentijn's  arguments  are  as  amusingly  quaint  as  the  description 
given  by  Stow,  in  his  'Annals'  (p.  157),  from  the  'Chronicle'  of 
Radulphus  Coggeshale,  of  a  merman  taken  on  the  coast  of  Suffolk  in 
the  time  of  Henry  II.  "  Neare  unto  Orford  in  Suffolk,"  he  writes, 
"  certain  fishers  of  the  sea  tooke  in  their  nets  a  fish  having  the  shape 
of  a  man  in  all  points  ;  which  fish  was  kept  by  Bartholomew  de  Glaun- 
ville,  custos  of  the  castle  of  Orford,  in  the  same  castle  by  the  space 
of  six  moneths  and  more,  for  a  wonder.  He  spake  not  a  word.  All 
manner  of  meates  he  did  eate,  but,  most  greedily,  raw  fish,  after  he  had 
crushed  out  the  moisture.  Oftentimes  he  was  brought  to  the  church, 
where  he  shewed  no  signs  of  adoration.  At  length  he  stole  away  to 
sea,  and  never  after  appeared." 


204 


SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


elaborate  portrait  amongst  those  of  the  most  remarkable 
fishes  of  the  island* 

This  plate  and  the  others  in  the  third  volume  of  his  fine 
work,  in  which  the  fishes  of  the  Bornean  Archipelago  are 
depicted  in  gorgeous  hues,  are  copied  in  smaller  size  from 
a  series  of  drawings  from  nature  by  Samuel  Fallours, 
which  had  been  previously  published  in  1717  by  Louis 
Renard,  in  two  handsome  volumes,  dedicated  by  him  to 


FIG.    13. — MERMAID   AND   FISHES  OF   AMBOYNA.      After  Vdlmtijn. 

King  George  III.  of  England.  These  plates  are  tinted  by 
hand  in  such  resplendent  colours  that  the  editor  felt  it 
necessary  to  obtain  certificates  from  clergymen  and  others 
that  they  were  true  to  Nature,  and  that  the  brilliancy  of 
the  coloration  was  not  exaggerated.  Amongst  them  is  the 
picture  of  the  mermaid  reproduced  by  Valentijn,  and  the 
following  description  is  given  of  it. 


*  With  the  permission  and  assistance  of  Messrs.  Longman,  the. 
accompanying  wood-cut  of  this  picture,  and  that  of  the  Dugong,  on  page 
231,  are  copied  from  Sir  J.  Emerson  Tennent's  book  published  in  1861. 


THE   MERMAID.  205 

"  Zee-wyf.  A  monster  resembling  a  Siren  taken  on  the  coast  of  the 
Island  of  Borne'  or  Boeren,  in  the  department  of  Amboyna.  It  was 
fifty-nine  inches  long,  and  of  the  thickness  of  an  eel  of  proportionate 
size.  It  lived  on  land,  in  a  large  tub  full  of  water,  during  four  days 
and  seven  hours.  It  occasionally  uttered  little  cries,  like  those  of  a 
mouse.  It  would  not  take  food,  although  small  fishes,  mollusks,  crabs, 
crayfishes,  &c.,  were  placed  before  it.  After  its  death  some  excre- 
ments, like  those  of  a  cat,  were  found  in  its  tub."* 

The  Emperor  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia,  happening  to 
visit  Renard,  who  was  then  the  British  representative  at 
Amsterdam,  whilst  he  was  preparing  these  plates  for  pub- 
lication, saw  and  admired  them,  and  was  so  much  interested 
by  the  figure  of  the  mermaid  that  he  expressed  a  desire  to 
know  more  about  it,  and  to  have  some  confirmation  of  the 
description  given  of  it.  Renard  accordingly  wrote  at  once 
(on  the  i /th  of  December,  1716)  to  Valentijn,  who  had 
returned  from  the  Indies,  and  was  then  a  minister  of  the 
gospel  at  Dordrecht,  informing  him  that  he  was  instructed 
to  apply  to  him  by  the  Czar,  who  thought  it  possible  that 
the  mermaid  might  have  been  sent  to  him  from  Amboyna 
by  the  governor,  Vander  Stell.  Valentijn  replied  that  it 
was  not  impossible  that,  after  he  had  left  Amboyna,  the 
mermaid  might  have  been  seen  by  Fallours,  but  that,  up 
to  that  date,  he  had  neither  seen  nor  heard  of  the  original 
of  the  drawing  enclosed  in  Renard's  letter.  But  he  assured 
his  correspondent  that  there  are  such  monsters,  and,  in 
proof  thereof,  declared  that  in  addition  to  other  trustworthy 
evidence,  which  he  mentioned, 

"  He  could  himself  affirm  that,  during  his  voyage  home  from  the 
East,  he  saw  on  the  ist  of  May,  1714,  in  lat.  12°  18',  and  on  the 
meridian,  during  clear,  calm  weather,  and  at  a  distance  of  only  three 
or  four  ships'  lengths,  a  monster  which  was  apparently  a  sea-man.  It 


*  Poissons,  Ecrevisses,   et  Crabbes  des  hies  Moluques  et  Terres 
Australes.     L.  Renard.     Amsterdam. 


2o6  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

was  ot  a  '  sea-grey  *  colour,  stood  well  up  out  of  the  water,  and  seemed 
to  have  on  its  head  a  kind  of  fisherman's  cap  made  of  moss.  All  the 
ship's  crew  saw  it  also.  Although  its  back  was  towards  them,  it 
perceived  that  they  were  approaching  too  near,  and  dived  suddenly 
beneath  the  surface,  and  was  seen  no  more." 

To  complete  his  proofs  of  the  existence  of  mermen  and 
merwomen,  Valentijn,  in  his  subsequently  published  work, 
points  triumphantly  to  the  historical  fact  that  in  Holland, 
in  the  year  1404,  a  mermaid  was  driven,  during  a  tempest, 
through  a  breach  in  the  dyke  of  Edam,  in  West  Friesland, 
and  was  taken  alive  in  the  lake  of  Purmer.  Some  girls 
going  in  a  boat  to  milk  their  cows  observing  her  in  the 
shallow  water,  and  embarrassed  in  the  mud,  took  her  home, 
dressed  her  in  female  attire,  and  taught  her  to  spin.* 
Thence  she  was  taken  to  Haarlem,  where  she  lived  for 
several  years,  always  showing  a  strong  inclination  for 
water,  and  where,  several  years  after,  she  died  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith  ; — "  but  this,"  says  the  pious  Calvin- 
istic  chaplain,  "  in  no  way  militates  against  the  truth  of  her 
story."  The  worthy  minister  citing  the  authority  of 
various  writers  as  proof  that  mermaids  had  in  all  ages  been 
known  in  Gaul,  Naples,  Epirus  and  the  Morea,  comes  to 
the  conclusion  that  as  there  are  "  sea-cows,"  "  sea-horses," 
"  sea-dogs,"  as  well  as  "  sea-trees,"  and  "  sea-flowers,"  which  he 
himself  had  seen,  there  are  no  reasonable  grounds  for  doubt 
that  there  may  also  be  "  sea-maidens  "  and  "  sea-men." 

In  an  early  account  of  Newfoundland,!  Whitbourne 
describes  a  "maremaid  or  marernan,"  which  he  had  seen 
"  within  the  length  of  a  pike,"  and  which  "  came  swimming 
swiftly  towards  him,  looking  cheerfully  on  his  face,  as  it  had 
been  a  woman.  By  the  face,  eyes,  nose,  mouth,  chin,  ears, 
neck  and  forehead,  it  appeared  to  be  so  beautiful,  and  in 

*  Panval's  Delices  de  Hollande. 

f  Whitbourne's  '  Discourse  of  Newfoundland.' 


THE  MERMAID.  207 

those  parts  so  well  proportioned,  having  round  about  the 
head  many  blue  streaks  resembling  hair,  but  certainly  it 
was  no  hair.  The  shoulders  and  back  down  to  the  middle 
were  square,  white,  and  smooth  as  the  back  of  a  man,  and 
from  the  middle  to  the  end  it  tapered  like  a  broad-hooked 
arrow."  The  animal  put  both  its  paws  on  the  side  of  the 
boat  wherein  its  observer  sat,  and  strove  much  to  get  in, 
but  was  repelled  by  a  blow. 

In  1676,  a  description  was  given  by  an  English  surgeon 
named  Glover,  of  an  animal  of  this  kind.  The  author  did 
not  designate  it  by  any  name,  but  his  account  of  it  was 
communicated  to  the  Royal  Society,  and  was  duly  recorded 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions* 

"  About  three  leagues  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  Rappahannock, 
in  America,  while  alone  in  a  vessel,  I  observed,  at  the  distance  of  about 
half  a  stone-throw,"  he  says,  "a  most  prodigious  creature,  much 
resembling  a  man,  only  somewhat  larger,  standing  right  up  in  the 
water,  with  his  head,  neck,  shoulders,  breast  and  waist,  to  the  cubits 
of  his  arms,  above  water,  and  his  skin  was  tawny,  much  like  that  of 
an  Indian  ;  the  figure  of  his  head  was  pyramidal  and  sleek,  without 
hair ;  his  eyes  large  and  black,  and  so  were  his  eyebrows  ;  his  mouth 
very  wide,  with  a  broad  black  streak  on  the  upper  lip,  which  turned 
upwards  at  each  end  like  mustachios.  His  countenance  was  grim  and 
terrible.  His  neck,  shoulders,  arms,  breast  and  waist,  were  like  unto 
the  neck,  arms,  shoulders,  breast  and  waist  of  a  man.  His  hands,  if 
he  had  any,  were  under  water.  He  seemed  to  stand  with  his  eyes 
fixed  on  me  for  some  time,  and  afterwards  dived  down,  and,  a  little 
after,  rose  at  somewhat  a  greater  distance,  and  turned  his  head 
towards  me  again,  and  then  immediately  fell  a  little  under  water,  that 
I  could  discern  him  throw  out  his  arms  and  gather  them  in  as  a  man 
does  when  he  swims.  At  last,  he  shot  with  his  head  downwards,  by 
which  means  he  cast  his  tail  above  the  water,  which  exactly  re- 
sembled the  tail  of  a  fish,  with  a  broad  fane  at  the  end  of  it." 

Dr.  John  Hill  tells  us  t  that  soon  after  the  publication  of 

*  Glover's  *  Account  of  Virginia,'  ap.  Phil.  Trans,  vol.  xi.  p.  625. 
f  'A  Review  of  the  Works  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,'  1751, 
p.  96. 


2o8  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

this  "transaction"  it  was  ascertained  that  "the  creature 
was  no  other  than  an  Indian  of  the  country  diverting 
himself  with  swimming,  and  having  a  high  cap  upon  his 
head  made  of  split  wood,  in  the  manner  of  our  basket-work, 
to  keep  up  his  hair." 

Thormodus  Torfseus  *  maintains  that  mermaids  are 
found  on  the  south  coast  of  Iceland,  and,  according  to 
Olafsen,f  two  have  been  taken  in  the  surrounding  seas, 
the  first  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  history  of  that  island,  and 
the  second  in  1733.  The  latter  was  found  in  the  stomach 
of  a  shark.  Its  lower  parts  were  consumed,  but  the  upper 
were  entire.  They  were  as  large  as  those  of  a  boy  eight  or 
nine  years  old.  Both  the  cutting  teeth  and  grinders  were 
long  and  shaped  like  pins,  and  the  fingers  were  connected 
by  a  large  web.  Olafsen  was  inclined  to  believe  that  these 
were  human  remains,  but  the  islanders  all  firmly  main- 
tained that  they  were  part  of  a  "  marmennill,"  by  which 
name  the  mermaid  is  known  among  them. 

Of  course  the  worthy  bishop  of  Bergen,  Pontoppidan, 
has  something  to  tell  us  about  mermaids  in  his  part  of  the 
world. 

"Amongst  the  sea  monsters,"  he  say s,$" which  are  in  the  North 
Sea,  and  are  often  seen,  I  shall  give  the  first  place  to  the  Hav-manden, 
or  merman,  whose  mate  is  called  Hav-fruen,  or  mermaid.  The 
existence  of  this  creature  is  questioned  by  many,  nor  is  it  at  all  to  be 
wondered  at,  because  most  of  the  accounts  we  have  had  of  it  are 
mixed  with  mere  fables,  an£  may  be  looked  upon  as  idle  tales." 

As  such  he  regards  the  story  told  by  Jonas  Ramus  in 
his  '  History  of  Norway,'  of  a  mermaid  taken  by  fishermen 
at  Hordeland,  near  Bergen,  and  which  is  said  to  have  sung 
an  unmusical  song  to  King  Hiorlief.  In  the  same  category 

*  Historia  rerum  Norvegicarum. 

t   Voyage  en  Islands,  torn.  iii.  p.  223. 

t  *  Natural  History  of  Norway,'  vol.  ii.  p.  190. 


THE  MERMAID.  209 

he  places  an  account  given  by  Besenius  in  his  life  of 
Frederic  II.  (1577),  of  a  mermaid  that  called  herself 
Isbrandt,  and  held  several  conversations  with  a  peasant 
at  Samsoe,  in  which  she  foretold  the  birth  of  King 
Christian  IV.,  "and  made  the  peasant  preach  repentance 
to  the  courtiers,  who  were  very  much  given  to  drunken- 
ness." Equally  "  idle "  with  the  above  stories  is,  in  his 
opinion,  another,  extracted  from  an  old  manuscript  still 
to  be  seen  in  the  University  Library  at  Copenhagen,  and 
quoted  by  Andrew  Bussaeus  (1619),  of  a  merman  caught 
by  the  two  senators,  Ulf  Rosensparre  and  Christian  Holch, 
whilst  on  their  voyage  home  to  Denmark  from  Norway. 
This  sea-man  frightened  the  two  worshipful  gentlemen  so 
terribly  that  they  were  glad  to  let  him  go  again  ;  for 
as  he  lay  upon  the  deck  he  spoke  Danish  to  them,  and 
threatened  that  if  they  did  not  give  him  his  liberty  "  the 
ship  should  be  cast  away,  and  every  soul  of  the  crew 
should  perish."  » 

"  When  such  fictions  as  these,"  says  Pontoppidan,  "  are 
mixed  with  the  history  of  the  merman,  and  when  that 
creature  is  represented  as  a  prophet  and  an  orator ;  when 
they  give  the  mermaid  a  melodious  voice,  and  tell  us  that 
she  is  a  fine  singer,  we  need  not  wonder  that  so  few  people 
of  sense  will  give  credit  to  such  absurdities,  or  that  they 
even  doubt  the  existence  of  such  a  creature."  The  good 
prelate,  however,  goes  on  to  say  that  "  whilst  we  have  no 
ground  to  believe  all  these  fables,  yet,  as  to  the  existence 
of  the  creature  we  may  safely  give  our  assent  to  it,"  and, 
"  if  this  be  called  in  question,  it  must  proceed  entirely  from 
the  fatulous  stories  usually  mixed  with  the  truth."  Like 
Valentijn,  he  argues  that  as  there  are  "  sea-horses,"  "  sea- 
cows,"  "  sea-wolves,"  "  sea-dogs,"  "  sea-hogs,"  &c.,  it  is  pro- 
bable, from  analogy,  that  "  we  should  find  in  the  ocean  a 

VOL.  ill. — H.  P 


210  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

fish  or  creature  which  resembles  the  human  species  more 
than  any  other."  As  for  the  objection  "  founded  on  self- 
love  and  respect  to  our  own  species  which  is  honoured  with 
the  image  of  God,  who  made  man  lord  of  all  creatures,  and 
that,  consequently,  we  may  suppose  he  is  entitled  to  a 
noble  and  heavenly  form  which  other  creatures  must  not 
partake  of,"  he  thinks  "  its  force  vanishes  when  we  consider 
the  form  of  apes,  and  especially  of  another  African  creature 
called  'Quoyas  Morrov'  described  by  Odoard  Dapper  in 
his  work  on  Africa,"  and  which  appears  to  have  been  a 
chimpanzee.  Pontoppidan  regarded  it  as  being  the  Satyr 
of  the  ancients.  He  therefore  claims  that  "  if  we  will  not 
allow  our  Norwegian  Hastromber  the  honourable  name  of 
merman,  we  may  very  well  call  it  the  (  Sea-ape,'  or  the 
'  Sea-Quoyas-Morrov ;' "  especially  as  the  author  already 
quoted  says  that,  "in  the  Sea  of  Angola  mermaids  are 
frequently  caught  which  resemble  the  human  species.  They 
are  taken  in  nets,  and  killed  by  the  negroes,  and  are  heard 
to  shriek  and  cry  like  women." 

The  Bishop  adds  that  in  the  diocese  of  Bergen,  as  well 
as  in  the  manor  of  Nordland,  there  were  hundreds  of 
persons  who  affirmed  with  the  strongest  assurances  that 
they  had  seen  this  kind  of  creature ;  sometimes  at  a 
distance  and  at  other  times  quite  close  to  their  boats, 
standing  upright,  and  formed  like  a  human  creature  down 
to  the  middle — the  rest  they  could  not  see — but  of  those 
who  had  seen  them  out  of  water  and  handled  them  he  had 
not  been  able  to  find  more  than  one  person  of  credit  who 
could  vouch  it  for  truth.  This  informant,  "  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Peter  Angel,  minister  of  Vand-Elvens  Gie'ld,  on 
Suderoe,"  assured  his  bishop,  when  he  was  on  a  visitation 
journey,  that 

"  In  tbe  year  1719,  he  (being  then  about  twenty  years  old)  saw  what 


THE  MERMAID.  211 

is  called  a  merman  lying  dead  on  a  point  of  land  near  the  sea,  which 
had  been  cast  ashore  by  the  waves  along  with  several  sea-calves 
(seals),  and  other  dead  fish.  The  length  of  this  creature  was  much 
greater  than  what  has  been  mentioned  of  any  before,  namely,  above 
three  fathoms.  It  was  of  a  dark  grey  colour  all  over  ;  in  the  lower 
part  it  was  like  a  fish,  and  had  a  tail  like  that  of  a  porpoise.  The 
face  resembled  that  of  a  man,  with  a  mouth,  forehead,  eyes,  etc. 
The  nose  was  flat,  and,  as  it  were,  pressed  down  to  the  face,  in  which 
the  nostrils  were  very  visible.  The  breast  was  not  far  from  the  head  ; 
the  arms  seemed  to  hang  to  the  side,  to  which  they  were  joined  by  a 
thin  skin,  or  membrane.  The  hands  were,  to  all  appearance,  like  the 
paws  of  a  sea-calf.  The  back  of  this  creature  was  very  fat,  and  a 
great  part  of  it  was  cut  off,  which,  with  the  liver,  yielded  a  large 
quantity  of  train-oil." 

The  author  then  quotes  a  description  by  Luke  Debes  * 
of  a  mermaid  seen  in  1670  at  Faroe,  westward  of  Qualboe 
Eide,  by  many  of  the  inhabitants,  as  also  by  others  from 
different  parts  of  Suderoe.  She  was  close  to  the  shore,  and 
stood  there  for  two  hours  and  a  half,  and  was  up  to  her 
waist  in  water.  She  had  long  hairs  on  her  head,  which 
hung  down  to  the  surface  of  the  water  all  round  about  her, 
and  she  held  a  fish  in  her  right  hand. 

Pontoppidan  mentions  other  instances  of  similar  appear- 
ances, and  says  that  the  latest  he  had  heard  of  was  of  a 
merman  seen  in  Denmark  on  the  2Oth  of  September,  1723, 
by  three  ferrymen  who,  at  some  distance  from  the  land, 
were  towing  a  ship  just  arrived  from  the  Baltic.  Having 
caught  sight  of  something  which  looked  like  a  dead  body 
floating  on  the  water,  they  rowed  towards  it,  and  there, 
resting  on  their  oars,  allowed  it  to  drift  close  to  them.  It 
sank,  but  immediately  came  to  the  surface  again,  and  then 
they  saw  that  it  had  the  appearance  of  an  old  man,  strong- 
limbed,  and  with  broad  shoulders,  but  his  arms  they  could 
not  see.  His  head  was  small  in  proportion  to  his  body, 

*  Feroa  Reserata^v  Description  of  the  Feroe  Islands.  8vo.  Copen- 
hagen, 1673. 

P   2 


212  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

and  had  short,  curled,  black  hair,  which  did  not  reach  below 
his  ears  ;  his  eyes  lay  deep  in  his  head,  and  he  had  a 
meagre  and  pinched  face,  with  a  black,  coarse  beard,  that 
looked  as  if  it  had  been  cut.  His  skin  was  coarse,  and 
very  full  of  hair.  He  stood  in  the  same  place  for  half  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  and  was  seen  above  the  water  down  to 
his  breast:  at  last  the  men  grew  apprehensive  of  some 
danger,  and  began  to  retire ;  upon  which  the  monster 
blew  up  his  cheeks,  and  made  a  kind  of  roaring  noise,  and 
then  dived  under  water,  so  that  they  did  not  see  him  any 
more.  One  of  them,  Peter  Gunnersen,  related  (what  the 
others  did  not  observe)  that  this  merman  was,  about  the 
body  and  downwards,  quite  pointed,  like  a  fish.  This  same 
Peter  Gunnersen  likewise  deposed  that  "  about  twenty  years 
before,  as  he  was  in  a  boat  near  Kulleor,  the  place  where 
he  was  born,  he  saw  a  mermaid  with  long  hair  and  large 
breasts."  He  and  his  two  companions  were,  by  command 
of  the  king,  examined  by  the  burgomaster  of  Elsineur, 
Andrew  Bussaeus,  before  the  privy-councillor,  Fridrich  von 
Gram,  and  their  testimony  to  the  above  effect  was  given 
on  their  respective  oaths. 

Brave  old  Henry  Hudson,  the  sturdy  and  renowned 
navigator,  who  thrice,  in  three  successive  years,  gave  battle 
to .  the.  northern  ice,  and  was  each  time  defeated  in  his 
endeavour  to  discover  a  north-west  or  north-east  passage 
to  China,  though  he  stamped  his  name  on  the  title-page  of 
a  mighty  nation's  history,  records  the  following  incident : — 

"  This  evening  (June  1 5th)  one  of  our  company,  looking  overboard, 
saw  a  mermaid,  and,  calling  up  some  of  the  company  to  see  her,  one 
more  of  the  crew  came  up,  and  by  that  time  she  was  come  close  to 
the  ship's  side,  looking  earnestly  on  the  men.  A  little  after  a  sea 
came  and  overturned  her.  From  the  naVel  upward,  her  back  and 
breasts  were  like  a  woman's,  as  they  say  that  saw  her  ;  her  body  as 
big  as  one  of  us,  her  skin  very  white,  and  long  hair  hanging  down 


THE  MERMAID.  213 

behind,  of  colour  black.  In  her  going  down  they  saw  her  tail,  which 
was  like  the  tail  of  a  porpoise  and  speckled  like  a  mackerel's.  Their 
names  that  saw  her  were  Thomas  Hilles  and  Robert  Rayner." 

Steller,  who  was  a  zoologist  of  some  repute,  reported 
having  seen  in  Behrings  Straits  a  strange  animal,  which  he 
called  a  "  sea-ape,"  and  in  which  one  might  almost  recog- 
nise Pontoppidan's  "  Sea-Quoyas-Morrov."  It  was  about 
five  feet  long,  had  sharp  and  erect  ears  and  large  eyes, 
and  on  its  lips  a  kind  of  beard.  Its  body  was  thick  and 
round,  and  tapered  to  the  tail,  which  was  bifurcated,  with 
the  upper  lobe  longest.  It  was  covered  with  thick  hair, 
grey  on  the  back,  and  red  on  the  belly.  No  feet  nor  paws 
were  visible.  It  was  full  of  frolic,  and  sported  in  the 
manner  of  a  monkey,  swimming  sometimes  on  one  side  of 
the  ship  and  sometimes  on  the  other.  It  often  raised  one- 
third  of  its  body  out  of  the  water,  and  stood  upright  for  a 
considerable  time.  It  would  frequently  bring  up  a  sea- 
plant,  not  unlike  a  bottle-gourd,  which  it  would  toss  about 
and  catch  in  its  mouth,  playing  numberless  fantastic  tricks 
with  it. 

But  it  is  probable  that  Steller  afterwards  recognised  the 
animal,  which  he  at  the  time  compared  to  the  ape  ;  for  he 
gives  the  following  description  of  the  sea-otter,  which  is 
now  so  rare  and  shy,  but  which  in  his  time,  and  on  the 
previously  unvisited  islands  in  Behring's  Sea,  was  both 
common  and  free  from  timidity  at  the  sight  of  man. 

"  With  respect  to  playfulness,"  he  says,  "  it  surpasses  every  other 
animal  that  lives  either  in  the  sea  or  on  the  land.  When  it  comes  up 
out  of  the  sea  it  shakes  the  water  from  its  fur,  and  dresses  it,  as  a  cat 
does  its  head  with  its  fore-paws,  stretches  its  body,  arranges  its  hair, 
throws  its  head  this  way  and  that,  contemplating  itself  and  its  beau- 
tiful fur  with  evident  satisfaction.  The  animal  is  so  much  taken  up 
with  this  dressing  of  itself,  that  while  thus  employed  it  may  be  easily 
approached  and  killed.  If  it  eludes  an  attack  it  makes  the  most 


214  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

laughable  gestures  to  the  hunter.  It  looks  at  him,  placing  one  foot 
above  the  head,  as  if  to  protect  it  from  the  sunlight,  throws  itself  on 
its  back,  and,  turning  to  its  enemy,  as  if  in  scorn,  scratches  itself  on 
the  belly  and  legs.  The  female  is  very  fond  of  her  young.  When 
attacked  she  never  leaves  it  in  the  lurch,  and  when  danger  is  not  near 
she  plays  with  it  in  a  thousand  ways,  throws  it  up  in  the  air,  and 
catches  it  in  her  fore-feet  like  a  ball,  swims  about  with  it  in  her  bosom, 
throws  it  away  now  and  then,  to  let  it  exercise  itself  in  the  art  of 
swimming,  but  takes  it  to  herself  with  caresses  when  it  is  tired." 

Accounts  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Steller  have  been 
brought  from  the  Southern  Hemisphere,  two,  at  least,  of 
which  are  worth  transcribing. 

Captain  Colnett,  in  his  *  Voyage  to  the  South  Atlantic/ 
says : — 

"  A  very  singular  circumstance  happened  off  the  coast  of  Chili,  in 
lat.  24°  S.,  which  spread  some  alarm  amongst  my  people,  and  awakened 
their  superstitious  apprehensions.  About  8  o'clock  in  the  evening  an 
animal  rose  alongside  the  ship,  and  uttered  such  shrieks  and  tones  of 
lamentation,  so  much  like  those  produced  by  the  female  human  voice 
when  expressing  the  deepest  distress,  as  to  occasion  no  small  degree 
of  alarm  among  those  who  first  heard  it.  These  cries  continued  for 
upwards  of  three  hours,  and  seemed  to  increase  as  the  ship  sailed  from 
it.  I  never  heard  any  noise  whatever  that  approached  so  near  those 
sounds  which  proceed  from  the  organs  of  utterance  in  the  human 
species." 

Captain  Weddell,  in  his  'Voyage  towards  the  South 
Pole'  (p.  143),  writes  that  one  of  his  men,  having  been  left 
ashore  on  Hall's  Island  to  take  care  of  some  produce,  heard 
one  night  about  ten  o'clock,  after  he  had  lain  down  to  rest, 
a  noise  resembling  human  cries.  As  daylight  does  not 
disappear  in  those  latitudes  at  the  season  in  which  the 
incident  occurred,  the  sailor  rose  and  searched  along  the 
beach,  thinking  that,  possibly,  a  boat  might  have  been 
upset,  and  that  some  of  the  crew  might  be  clinging  to  the 
detached  rocks. 


THE  MERMAID.  215 

"  Roused  by  that  voice  of  silver  sound, 
From  the  paved  floor  he  lightly  sprung, 
And,  glaring  with  his  eyes  around, 
Where  the  fair  nymph  her  tresses  wrung."  * 

Guided  by  occasional  sounds,  he  at  length  saw  an  object 
lying  on  a  rock  a  dozen  yards  from  the  shore,  at  which  he 
was  somewhat  frightened.  "The  face  and  shoulders  ap- 
peared of  human  form  and  of  a  reddish  colour ;  over  the 
shoulders  hung  long  green  hair  ;  the  tail  resembled  that  of 
a  seal,  but  the  extremities  of  the  arms  he  could  not  see 
distinctly." 

"  As  on  the  wond'ring  youth  she  smiled, 
Again  she  raised  the  melting  lay,"  * 

for  the  creature  continued  to  make  a  musical  noise  during 
the  two  minutes  he  gazed  at  it,  and,  on  perceiving  him, 
disappeared  in  an  instant. 

The  universality  of  the  belief  in  an  animal  of  combined 
human  and  fish-like  form  is  very  remarkable.  That  it 
exists  amongst  the  Japanese  we  have  evidence  in  their 
curious  and  ingeniously-constructed  models  which  are 
occasionally  brought  to  this  country.  I  have  one  of 
these  which  is  so  exactly  the  counterpart  of  that  which 
my  friend  Mr.  Frank  Buckland  described,  originally  in 
Land  and  Water,  and  which  forms  the  subject  of  a 
chapter  in  his  '  Curiosities  of  Natural  History/  f  that  the 
portrait  of  the  one  (Fig.  14)  will  equally  well  represent 
the  other.  The  lower  half  of  the  body  is  made  of  the  skin 
and  scales  of  a  fish  of  the  carp  family,  and  fastened  on 
to  this,  so  neatly  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  detect  where 
the  joint  is  made,  is  a  wooden  body,  the  ribs  of  which  are  so 
prominent  that  the  poor  mermaid  has  a  miserable  and  half- 

*  John  Ley  den. 

f  Third  Series,  vol.  ii.  p.  134,  2nd  ed.  -4 


2l6 


SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


starved  appearance.  The  upper  part  of  the  body  is  in  the 
attitude  of  a  Sphinx,  leaning  upon  its  elbows  and  fore-arms. 
The  arms  are  thin  and  scraggy,  and  the  fingers  attenuated 


FIG.    14. — A  JAPANESE   ARTIFICIAL   MERMAID. 

and  skeleton-like.  The  nails  are  formed  of  small  pieces  of 
ivory  or  bone.  The  head  is  like  that  of  a  small  monkey,  and 
a  little  wool  covers  the  crown,  so  thinly  and  untidily  that  if 
the  mermaid  possessed  a  crystal  mirror  she  would  see  the 
necessity  for  the  vigorous  use  of  her 
comb  of  pearl.  The  teeth  are  those 
of  some  fish — apparently  of  the  cat- 
fish, (Anarchicas  lupus).  These  Japa- 
nese artificial  mermaids  have  brought 
many  a  dollar  into  the  pockets  of 
Mr.  Barnum  and  other  showmen. 

Somewhat  different  in  appearance 
from  this,  but  of  the  same  kind,  was 
an  artificial  mermaid  described  in  the 
Saturday  Magazine  of  June  4th,  1836. 
Fig.  15  is  a>  facsimile  of  the  woodcut 
which  accompanied  it.  This  grotesque 
composition  was  exhibited  in  a  glass 
case,  some  years  previously,  "  in  a 
leading  street  at  the  west  end "  of 
London.  It  was  constructed  "  of  the  skin  of  the  head  and 
shoulders  of  a  monkey,  which  was  attached  to  the  dried 


FIG.  15. — AN  ARTIFICIAL 
MERMAID,  PROBABLY 
JAPANESE. 


THE  MERMAID. 


217 


skin  of  a  fish  of  the  salmon  kind  with  the  head  cut  off,  and 
the  whole  was  stuffed  and  highly  varnished,  the  better  to 
deceive  the  eye."  It  was  said  to  have  been  "  taken  by  the 
crew  of  a  Dutch  vessel  from  on  board  a  native  Malacca 
boat,  and  from  the  reverence  shown  to  it,  it  was  supposed 
to  be  a  representative  of  one  of  their  idol  gods."  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  it  was  of  Japanese  origin. 

Fig.  1 6  is  described  in  the  article  above  referred  to  as 
having  been  copied  from  a  Japanese  drawing,  and  as  being 
a  portrait  of  one  of  their  deities.     Its  similarity  to  one  of 
those  of  the  Assyrians  (Fig.  2, 
page  187)  is  remarkable.     The 
inscription,    however,    does    not 
indicate  this.    The  Chinese  cha- 
racters   in    the    centre  —  "  Nin 
giyo  " — signify    "  human   fish  ;  " 
those  on  the  right  in  Japanese 
Hira   Kana,    or    running-hand, 
have    the    same    purport,    and 
those  on  the  left,  in  Kata  Kana, 
the  characters  of  the  Japanese 
alphabet,  mean  " Ichi  him  ike" 

— "  one  day  kept  alive."  The  whole  legend  seems  to  pretend 
that 'this  human  fish  was  actually  caught,  and  kept  alive  in 
water  for  twenty-four  hours,  but,  as  the  box  on  which  it  is 
inscribed  is  one  of  those  in  which  the  Japanese  showmen 
keep  their  toys,  it  was  probably  the  subject  of  a  "penny 
peep-show." 

We  need  not  travel  from  our  own  country  to  find  the 
belief  in  mermaids  yet  existing.  It  is  still  credited  in  the 
north  of  Scotland  that  they  inhabit  the  neighbouring  seas : 
and  Dr.  Robert  Hamilton,  F.R.S.E.,  writing  in  1839,  ex- 
pressed emphatically  his  opinion  that  there  was  then  as 


FIG.  16. — A  MERMAID.     From  a 
Japanese  picture. 


2i8  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

much  ignorance  on  this  subject  as  had  prevailed  at  any 
former  period.* 

In  the  year  1797,  Mr.  Munro,  schoolmaster  of  Thurso,  -affirmed  that 
he  had  seen  "  a  figure  like  a  naked  female,  sitting  on  a  rock  projecting 
into  the  sea,  at  Sandside  Head,  in  the  parish  of  Reay.  Its  head  was 
covered  with  long,  thick,  light-brown  hair,  flowing  down  on  the 
shoulders.  The  forehead  was  round,  the  face  plump,  and  the  cheeks 
ruddy.  The  mouth  and  lips  resembled  those  of  a  human  being,  and 
the  eyes  were  blue.  The  arms,  fingers,  breast,  and  abdomen  were  as 
large  as  those  of  a  full-grown  female,"  and,  altogether, 

"  That  sea- nymph's  form  of  pearly  light 
Was  whiter  than  the  downy  spray, 
And  round  her  bosom,  heaving  bright, 
Her  glossy  yellow  ringlets  play."f 

"  This  creature,"  continued  Mr.  Munro,  "  was  apparently  in  the  act 
of  combing  its  hair  with  its  fingers,  which  seemed  to  afford  it  pleasure, 
and  it  remained  thus  occupied  during  some  minutes,  when  it  dropped 
into  the  sea." 

The  Dominie 

"saw  the  maiden  there, 
Just  as  the  daylight  faded, 
Braiding  her  locks  of  gowden  hair 
An'  singing  as  she  braided,"  % 

but  he  did  not  remark  whether  the  fingers  were  webbed. 
On  the  whole,  he  infers  that  this  was  a  marine  animal  of 
which  he  had  a  distinct  and  satisfactory  view,  and  that 
the  portion  seen  by  him  bore  a  narrow  resemblance  to  the 
human  form.  But  for  the  dangerous  situation  it  had 
chosen,  and  its  appearance  among  the  waves,  he  would 
have  supposed  it  to  be  a  woman.  Twelve  years  later, 
several  persons  observed  near  the  same  spot  an  animal 
which  they,  also,  supposed  to  be  a  mermaid. 

*  Naturalist's  Library,  Marine  Amphibiae,  p.  291. 

t  John  Leyden. 

I  The  Ettrick  Shepherd. 


THE  MERMAID.  219 

A  very  remarkable  story  of  this  kind  is  one  related  by 
Dr.  Robert  Hamilton  in  the  volume  already  referred  to, 
and  for  the  general  truth  of  which  he  vouches,  from  his 
personal  knowledge  of  some  of  the  persons  connected  with 
the  occurrence.  In  1823  it  was  reported  that  some  fisher- 
men of  Yell,  one  of  the  Shetland  group,  had  captured  a 
mermaid  by  its  being  entangled  in  their  lines.  The  state- 
ment was  that 

"The  animal  was  about  three  feet  long,  the  upper  part  of  the  body 
resembling  the  human,  with  protuberant  mammae,  like  a  woman ;  the 
face,  forehead,  and  neck  were  short,  and  resembled  those  of  a  monkey ; 
the  arms,  which  were  small,  were  kept  folded  across  the  breast ;  the 
fingers  were  distinct,  not  webbed  ;  a  few  stiff,  long  bristles  were  on  the 
top  of  the  head,  extending  down  to  the  shoulders,  and  these  it  could 
erect  and  depress  at  pleasure,  something  like  a  crest.  The  inferior 
part  of  the  body  was  like  a  fish.  The  skin  was  smooth,  and  of  a  grey 
colour.  It  offered  no  resistance,  nor  attempted  to  bite,  but  uttered  a 
low,  plaintive  sound.  The  crew,  six  in  number,  took  it  within  their 
boat,  but,  superstition  getting  the  better  of  curiosity,  they  carefully 
disentangled  it  from  the  lines  and  a  hook  which  had  accidentally 
become  fastened  in  its  body,  and  returned  it  to  its  native*  element. 
It  instantly  dived,  descending  in  a  perpendicular  direction." 

Mr.  Edmonston,  the  original  narrator  of  this  incident, 
was  "a  well-known  and  intelligent  observer,"  says  Dr. 
Hamilton,  and  in  a  communication  made  by  him  to  the 
Professor  of  Natural  History  in  the  Edinburgh  University 
gave  the  following  additional  particulars,  which  he  had 
learned  from  the  skipper  and  one  of  the  crew  of  the 
boat : — 

"  They  had  the  animal  for  three  hours  .within  the  boat:  the  body 
was  without  scales  or  hair  ;  it  was  of  a  silvery  grey  colour  above,  and 
white  below  ;  it  was  like  the  human  skin  ;  no  gills  were  observed,  nor 
fins  on  the  back  or  belly.  The  tail  was  like  that  of  a  dog-fish  ;  the 
mammae  were  about  as  large  as  those  of  a  woman ;  the  mouth  and 
lips  were  very  distinct,  and  resembled  the  human.  Not  one  of  the 
six  men  dreamed  of  a  doubt  of  its  being  a  mermaid,  and  it  could  not 


220  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

be  suggested  that  they  were  influenced  by  their  fears,  for  the  mermaid 
is  not  an  object  of  terror  to  fishermen  ;  it  is  rather  a  welcome  guest, 
and  danger  is  apprehended  from  its  experiencing  bad  treatment." 

Mr.  Edmonston  concludes  by  saying  that 

"  The  usual  resources  of  scepticism  that  the  seals  and  other  sea- 
animals  appearing  under  certain  circumstances,  operating  upon  an 
excited  imagination,  and  so  producing  ocular  illusion,  cannot  avail 
here.  It  is  quite  impossible  that  six  Shetland  fishermen  could  commit 
such  a  mistake." 

It  would  seem  that  the  narrator  demands  that  his  readers 
shall  be  silenced,  if  unconvinced  ;  but 

"  He  that  complies  against  his  will 
Is  of  his  own  opinion  still." 

This  incident  is  well-attested,  and  merits  respectful  and 
careful  consideration.  If  Mr.  Edmonston  himself  had  seen 
the  animal,  his  evidence  would  have  been  still  more  im- 
portant ;  but  I  decline  to  admit  any  such  impossibility  of 
error  in  observation  or  description  on  the  part  of  the 
fishermen,  or  the  further  impossibility  of  recognising  in  the 
animal  captured  by  them  one  known  to  naturalists.  The 
particulars  given  in  this  instance,  and  also  of  the  supposed 
merman  seen  cast  ashore  dead  in  1719  by  the  Rev.  Peter 
Angel  (p.  210),  are  sufficiently  accurate  descriptions  of  a 
warm-blooded  marine  animal,  with  which  the  Shetlanders, 
and  probably  Mr.  Edmonston  also,  were  unacquainted, 
namely,  the  rytina,  of  which  I  shall  have  more  to  say 
presently  (p.  228). 

It  would  be  hazarding  too  much  to  identify  them 
with  that  Sirenian,  for  its  only  known  habitat  is  far 
away  northward  in  Behring's  Sea;  yet  these  occurrences 
seem  to  me  to  afford  some  indication  that  as  this  remark- 
able beast,  which  was  supposed  to  have  become  extinct  in 
1768,  is  now  known  to  have  been  still  in  existence  in  1854, 
it  is  not  impossible  that,  at  rare  intervals,  individuals  of 


THE  MERMAID.  221 

this  genus  may  have  been  carried  by  ice,  or  driven  by 
currents  or  weather,  further  south  than  it  was  met  with  by 
its  original  describer,  Steller. 

Turning  to  Ireland,  we  find  the  same  credence  in  the 
semi-human  fish,  or  fish-tailed  human  being.  It  was 
affirmed — 

"That  in  the  autumn  of  1819.  a  creature  appeared  on  the  Irish 
coast,  about  the  size  of  a  girl  ten  years  of  age,  with  a  bosom  as  pro- 
minent as  one  of  sixteen,  having  a  profusion  of  long  dark-brown  hair, 
and  full,  dark  eyes.  The  hands  and  arms  were  formed  like  those 
of  a  man,  with  a  slight  web  connecting  the  upper  part  of  the  ringers, 
which  were  frequently  employed  in  throwing  back  and  dividing  the 
hair.  The  tail  appeared  like  that  of  a  dolphin." 

This  creature  remained  basking  on  the  rocks  during  an 
hour,  in  the  sight  of  numbers  of  people,  until  frightened  by 
the  flash  of  a  musket,  when 

"  Away  she  went  with  a  sea-gull's  scream, 
And  a  splash  of  her  saucy  tail,"  * 

for  it  instantly  plunged  with  a  scream  into  the  sea. 

From  Irish  legends  we  learn  that  those  sea-nereids,  the 
"  Merrows,"  or  "  Moruachs  "  came  occasionally  from  the  sea 
gained  the  affections  of  men,  and  interested  themselves  in 
their  affairs  ;  and  similar  traditions  of  the  "  Morgan  "  (sea- 
women)  and  the  "  Morverch  "  (sea-daughters)  are  current  in 
Brittany. 

In  English  poetry  the  mermaid  has  been  the  subject  of 
many  charming  verses,  and  Shakspeare  alludes  to  it  in  his 
plays  no  less  than  six  times.  The  head-quarters  of  these 
"  daughters  of  the  sea  "  in  England,  or  of  the  belief  in  their 
existence,  are  in  Cornwall  There  the  fishermen,  many  a 

time  and 

"Oft,  beneath  the  silver  moon,f 

Has  heard,  afar,  the  mermaid  sing," 


*  Thomas  Hood.     '  The  Mermaid  at  Margate.' 
f  John  Leyden. 


222  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

and  has  listened,  so  they  say,  to 

"The  mermaid's  sweet  sea-soothing  lay 
That  charmed  the  dancing  waves  to  sleep."* 

Mr.  Robert  Hunt,  F.R.S.,  in  his  collection  of  the  tradi- 
tions and  superstitions  of  old  Cornwall,!  records  several 
curious  legends  of  the  "  merrymaids "  and  "  merrymen  " 
(the  local  name  of  mermaids),  which  he  had  gathered  from 
the  fisher-folk  and  peasants  in  different  parts  of  that 
county. 

And,  in  a  pleasant  article  in  'All  the  Year  Round/I  1865, 
"  A  Cornish  Vicar  "  §  mentions  some  of  the  superstitions  of 
the  people  in  his  neighbourhood,  and  the  perplexing 
questions  they  occasionally  put  to  him.  One  of  his 
parishioners,  an  old  man  named  Anthony  Cleverdon,  but 
who  was  popularly  known  as  "  Uncle  Tony,"  having  been 
the  seventh  son  of  his  parents,  in  direct  succession,  was 
looked  upon,  in  consequence,  as  a  soothsayer.  This 
"  ancient  augur  "  confided  to  his  pastor  many  highly  effica- 
cious charms  and  formularies,  and,  in  return,  sought  for 
information  from  him  on  other  subjects.  One  day  he 
puzzled  the  parson  by  a  question  which  so  well  illustrates 
the  local  ideas  concerning  mermaids,  and  the  sequel  of 
which  is,  moreover,  so  humorously  related  by  the  vicar, 
that  I  venture  to  quote  his  own  words,  as  follows  : — 

"  Uncle  Tony  said  to  me, '  Sir,  there  is  one  thing  I  want  to  ask  you, 
if  I  may  be  so  free,  and  it  is  this  :  why  should  a  merrymaid,  that  will 
ride  about  upon  the  waters  in  such  terrible  storms,  and  toss  from  sea 
to  sea  in  such  ruckles  as  there  be  upon  the  coast,  why  should  she 
never  lose  her  looking-glass  and  comb?'  'Well,  I  suppose,' said  I, 


*  John  Leyden. 

f  '  Romances  and   Drolls  of  the  West  of    England.'     London  : 
Hotten,  1871. 

J  Vol.  xiii.  p.  336. 

•  §  The  "  Cornish  Vicar "  was,  evidently,  the  Rev.  Robert  Stephen 
Hawker,  M.A.,  Vicar  of  Morwenstow,  and  author  of  '  Echoes  from 
Old  Cornwall,' '  Footprints  of  Former  Men  in  Cornwall,'  £c. 


THE  MERMAID.  223 

'  that  if  there  are  such  creatures,  Tony,  they  must  wear  their  looking- 
glasses  and  combs  fastened  on  somehow,  like  fins  to  a  fish.*  '  See  ! ' 
said  Tony,  chuckling  with  delight,  '  what  a  thing  it  is  to  know  the 
Scriptures,  like  your  reverence  ;  I  should  never  have  found  it  out. 
But  there's  another  point,  sir,  I  should  like  to  know,  if  you  please ; 
I've  been  bothered  about  it  in  my  mind  hundreds  of  times.  Here  be 
I,  that  have  gone  up  and  down  Holacombe  cliffs  and  streams  fifty 
years  come  next  Candlemas,  and  I've  gone  and  watched  the  water  by 
moonlight  and  sunlight,  days  and  nights,  on  purpose,  in  rough  weather 
and  smooth  (even  Sundays,  too,  saving  your  presence),  and  my  sight 
as  good  as  most  men's,  and  yet  I  never  could  come  to  see  a  merry- 
maid  in  all  my  life  :  how's  that,  sir  ? J  *  Are  you  sure,  Tony,'  I  re- 
joined, '  that  there  are  such  things  in  existence  at  all  ? '  {  Oh,  sir,  my 
old  father  see  her  twice  !  He  was  out  one  night  for  wreck  (my  father 
watched  the  coast,  like  most  of  the  old  people  formerly),  and  it  came 
to  pass  that  he  was  down  at  the  duck-pool  on  the  sand  at  low- water 
tide,  and  all  to  once  he  heard  music  in  the  sea.  Well,  he  croped  on 
behind  a  rock,  like  a  coastguardsman  watching  a  boat,  and  got  very 
near  the  music  ....  and  there  was  the  merrymaid,  very  plain  to  be 
seen,  swimming  about  upon  the  waves  like  a  woman  bathing — and 
singing  away.  But  my  father  said  it  was  very  sad  and  solemn  to 
hear — more  like  the  tune  of  a  funeral  hymn  than  a  Christmas  carol, 
by  far — but  it  was  so  sweet  that  it  was  as  much  as  he  could  do  to  hold 
back  from  plunging  into  the  tide  after  her.  And  he  an  old  man  of 
sixty-seven,  with  a  wife  and  a  houseful  of  children  at  home.  The 
second  time  was  down  here  by  Holacombe  Pits.  He  had  been  looking 
out  for  spars — there  was  a  ship  breaking  up  in  the  Channel— and  he 
saw  some  one  move  just  at  half-tide  mark  ;  so  he  went  on  very  softly, 
step  by  step,  till  he  got  nigh  the  place,  and  there  was  tne  merrymaid 
sitting  on  a  rock,  the  bootyfullest  merrymaid  that  eye  could  behold, 
and  she  was  twisting  about  her  long  hair,  and  dressing  it,  just  like  one 
of  our  girls  getting  ready  for  her  sweetheart  on  the  Sabbath-day. 
The  old  man  made  sure  he  should  greep  hold  of  her  before  ever  she 
found  him  out,  and  he  had  got  so  near  that  a  couple  of  paces  more 
and  he  would  have  caught  her  by  the  hair,  as  sure  as  tithe  or  tax, 
when,  lo  and  behold,  she  looked  back  and  glimpsed  him  !  So,  in  one 
moment  she  dived  head-foremost  off  the  rock,  and  then  tumbled  her- 
self topsy-turvy  about  in  the  water,  and  cast  a  look  at  my  poor  father, 
and  grinned  like  a  seal.' " 

And  a  seal  it  probably  was  that  Tony's  "  poor  father  "  saw. 


224  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

What,  then,  are  these  mermaids  and  mermen,  a  belief  in 
whose  existence  has  prevailed  in  all  ages,  and  amongst  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  ?  Have  they,  really,  some  of  the 
parts  and  proportions  of  man,  or  do  they  belong  to  another 
order  of  mammals  on  which  credulity  and  inaccurate 
observation  have  bestowed  a  false  character  ? 

Mr.  Swainson,  a  naturalist  of  deserved  eminence,  has 
maintained  on  purely  scientific  grounds,  that  there  must 
exist  a  marine  animal  uniting  the  general  form  of  a  fish 
with  that  of  a  man  ;  that  by  the  laws  of  Nature  the  nata- 
torial type  of  the  Quadrumana  is  most  assuredly  wanting, 
and  that,  apart  from  man,  a  being  connecting  the  seals 
with  the  monkeys  is  required  to  complete  the  circle  of 
quadrumanous  animals.* 

Mr.  Gossef  argues  that  all  the  characters  which  Mr. 
Swainson  selects  as  making  the  natatorial  type  of  animals 
belong  to  man,  and  that  he  being,  in  his  savage  state,  a 
great  swimmer,  is  the  true  aquatic  primate,  which  Mr. 
Swainson  regards  as  absent.  Mr.  Gosse  admits,  however, 
that  "  nature  has  an  odd  way  of  mocking  at  our  impossi- 
bilities, and "  that  "  it  may  be  that  green-haired  maidens 
with  oary  tails,  lurk  in  the  ocean  caves,  and  keep  mirrors 
and  combs  upon  their  rocky  shelves ;"  and  the  conclusion 
he  arrives  at  is  that  the  combined  evidence  "induces  a 
strong  suspicion  that  the  northern  seas  may  hold  forms  of 
life  as  yet  uncatalogued  by  science." 

That  there  are  animals  in  the  northern  and  other  seas 
with  which  we  are  unacquainted,  is  more  than  probable — 
discoveries  of  animals  of  new  species  are  constantly  being 
made,  especially  in  the  life  of  the  deep  sea — but  I  venture 
to  think  that  the  production  of  an  animal  at  present 

*  '  Geography  and  Distribution  of  Animals.' 
t  '  Romance  of  Natural  History,'  2nd  Series. 


THE  MERMAID.  225 

unknown  is  quite  unnecessary  to  account  for  the  supposed 
appearances  of  mermaids. 

We  have  in  the  form  and  habits  of  the  Phocidcz,  or  earless 
seals,  a  sufficient  interpretation  of  almost  every  incident  of 
the  kind  that  has  occurred  north  of  the  Equator — of  those 
in  which  protuberant  mamma  are  described,  we  must 
presently  seek  another  explanation.  The  round,  plump, 
expressive  face  of  a  seal,  the  beautiful,  limpid  eyes,  the 
hand-like  fore-paws,  the  sleek  body,  tapering  towards  the 
flattened  hinder  fins,  which  are  directed  backwards,  and 
spread  out  in  the  form  of  a  broad  fin,  like  the  tail  of 
a  fish,  might  well  give  the  idea  of  an  animal  having  the 
anterior  part  of  its  body  human  and  the  posterior  half 
piscine. 

In  the  habits  of  the  seals,  also,  we  may  trace  those  of  the 
supposed  mermaid,  and  the  more  easily  the  better  we  are 
acquainted  with  them.  All  seals  are  fond  of  leaving  the 
water  frequently.  They  always  select  the  flattest  and 
most  shelving  rocks  which  have  been  covered  at  high  tide, 
and  prefer  those  that  are  separated  from  the  mainland. 
They  generally  go  ashore  at  half-tide,  and  invariably  lie 
with  their  heads  towards  the  water,  and  seldom  more  than 
a  yard  or  two  from  it.  There  they  will  often  remain,  if 
undisturbed,  for  six  hours  ;  that  is,  until  the  returning  tide 
floats  them  off  the  rock.  As  for  the  sweet  melody,  "  so 
melting  soft,"  that  must  depend  much  on  the  ear  and 
musical  taste  of  the  listener.  I  have  never  heard  a  seal 
utter  any  vocal  sounds  but  a  porcine  grunt,  a  plaintive 
moan,  and  a  pitiful  whine.  But  another  habit  of  the  seals 
has,  probably  more  than  anything  else,  caused  them  to  be 
mistaken  for  semi-human  beings— namely,  that  of  poising 
themselves  upright  in  the  water  with  the  head  and  the 
upper  third  part  of  the  body  above  the  surface. 

VOL.  III.— H.      '  V 


226  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

One  calm  sunny  morning  in  August,  1881,  a  fine 
schooner-yacht,  on  board  of  which  I  was  a  guest,  was 
slowly  gliding  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  Maas,  past  the 
Hook  of  Holland,  into  the  North  Sea,  when  a  seal  rose  just 
ahead  of  us,  and  assumed  the  attitude  above  described. 
It  waited  whilst  we  passed  it,  inspecting  us  apparently  with 
the  greatest  interest  ;  then  dived,  swam  in  the  direction  in 
which  we  were  sailing,  so  as  to  intercept  our  course,  and 
came  up  again,  sitting  upright  as  before.  This  it  repeated 
three  times,  and  so  easily  might  it  have  been  taken  for 
a  mermaid,  that  one  of  the  party,  who  was  called  on 
deck  to  see  it,  thought,  at  first,  that  it  was  a  boy  who 
had  swam  off  from  the  shore  to  the  vessel  on  a  begging 
expedition. 

•Laing,  in  his  account  of  a  voyage  to  the  North,  mentions 
having  seen  a  seal  under  similar  circumstances. 

A  young  seal  which  was  brought  from  Yarmouth  to  the 
Brighton  Aquarium  in  1873,  habitually  sat  thus,  showing 
his  head  and  a  considerable  portion  of  his  body  out  of 
water.  His  bath  was  so  shallow  in  some  parts  that  he  was' 
able  to  touch  the  bottom,  and,  with  his  after-flippers  tucked 
under  him,  like  a  lobster's  tail,  and  spread  out  in  front,  he 
would  balance  himself  on  his  hind  quarters,  and  look  in- 
quisitively at  everybody,  and  listen  attentively  to  every- 
thing within  sight  and  hearing.  When  he  was  satisfied 
that  no  one  was  likely  to  interfere  with  him,  and  that  it 
was  unnecessary  to  be  on  the  alert,  he  would  half-close  his 
beautiful,  soft  eyes,  and  either  contentedly  pat,  stroke,  and 
scratch  his  little  fat  stomach  with  his  right  paw,  or  flap 
both  of  them  across  his  breast  in  a  most  ludicrous  manner, 
exactly  as  a  cabman  warms  the  tips  of  his  fingers  on  a 
wintry  day,  by  swinging  his  arms  vigorously  across  his 
chest,  and  striking  his  hands  against  his  body  on  either 


THE  MERMAID.  227 

side.  He  was  very  sensitive  to  musical  sounds,  as  many 
dogs  are,  and  when  a  concert  took  place  in  the  building 
a  high  note  from  one  of  the  vocalists  would  cause  him 
to  utter  a  mournful  wail,  and  to  dive  with  a  splash  that 
made  the -water  fly,  the  audience  smile,  and  the  singer 
frown. 

Captain  Scoresby  tells  us  that  he  had  seen  the  walrus 
with  its  head  above  water,  and  in  such  a  position  that  it 
required  little  stretch  of  imagination  to  mistake  it  for  a 
human  being,  and  that  on  one  occasion  of  this  kind  the 
surgeon  of  his  ship  actually  reported  to  him  that  he  had 
seen  a  man  with  his  head  above  water. 

Peter  Gunnersen's  merman  (p.  212),  who  "  blew  up  his 
cheeks  and  made  a  kind  of  roaring  noise  "  before  diving, 
was  probably  a  "bladder-nose"  seal.  The  males  of  that 
species  have  on  the  head  a  peculiar  pad,  which  they  can 
dilate  at  pleasure,  and  their  voice  is  loud  and  discordant. 

The  appearance  and  behaviour  of  Steller's  "sea-ape," 
described  on  p.  213,  was,  as  he  subsequently  perceived,  in 
exact  conformity  with  the  observed  habits  of  the  sea-otter, 
and  they  might,  I  think,  be  attributed,  with  almost  equal 
probability  to  one  of  the  eared  seals,  the  so-called  sea-lions, 
or  sea-bears.  Every  one  who  has  seen  these  animals  fed 
must  have  noticed  the  rapidity  with  which  they  will  dive 
and  swim  to  any  part  of  their  pond  where  they  expect  to 
receive  food,  and  how,  like  a  dog  after  a  pebble,  they  will 
keenly  watch  their  keeper's  movements,  and  start  in  the 
direction  to  which  he  is  apparently  about  to  throw  a  fish, 
even  before  the  latter  has  left  his  hand.  This  may  be  seen 
at  the  Zoological  Gardens,  Regent's  Park,  and,  better  than 
anywhere  else  in  Europe,  at  the  Jardin  d'Acclimatation, 
Paris.  It  would  be  quite  in  accordance  with  their  habits 
that  one  of  these  Otaria  should  dive  under  a  ship,  and 

o  2 


228  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

rise  above  the  surface  on  either  side,  eagerly  surveying 
those  on  board,  in  hope  of  obtaining  food,  or  from  mere 
curiosity. 

The  seals  and  their  movements  account  for  so  many 
mermaid  stories,  that  all  accounts  of  sea-women  "with 
prominent  bosoms  were  ridiculed  and  discredited  until 
competent  observers  recognised  in  the  form  and  habits  of 
certain  aquatic  animals  met  with  in  the  bays  and  estuaries 
of  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  Red  Sea,  the  west  coast  of  Africa, 
and  sub-tropical  America,  the  originals  of  these  "  travellers' 
tales."  These  were — first,  the  manatee,  which  is  found  in 
the  West  Indian  Islands,  Florida,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
Brazil,  and  in  Africa  in  the  River  Congo,  Senegambia,  and 
the  Mozambique  Channel  ;  second,  the  dugongy  or  halicore, 
which  ranges  along  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  Southern  Asia, 
the  Bornean  Archipelago,  and  Australia ;  and,  third,  the 
rytina,  seen  on  Behring's  Island  in  the  Kamschatkan  Sea 
by  Steller,  the  Russian  zoologist  and  voyager,  in  1741,  and 
which  is  supposed  to  be  now  utterly  extinct,  in  conse- 
quence of  its  having  been  recklessly  and  indiscriminately 
slaughtered.*  Then  science,  in  the  person  of  Illeger,  made 


*  Almost  all  that  is  known  of  the  living  rytina  is  from  an  account 
published  in  1751,  in  St.  Petersburg,  by  Steller,  who  was  the  surgeon 
of  Behring's  ship  wrecked  on  an  unknown  and  uninhabited  island  in 
the  Kamschatkan  Sea,  thenceforth  called  "Behring's  Island."  When 
the  unfortunate  crew  landed  there,  on  November  i/th,  1741,  the  "  sea- 
cows,"  as  they  were  named,  pastured  along  the  shore  in  herds  ;  but 
during  the  ten  months  that  the  party  remained  on  the  island,  they 
found  the  flesh  of  this  animal  so  palatable  that  the  fame  of  it  was 
published  by  them  on  their  return  home,  and  it  became  a  practice 
for  the  crews  of  all  Russian  vessels  fitted  out  for  the  capture  of  the 
sea-otter  to  pass  the  winter  on  Behring's  Island,  in  order  to  lay  in  a 
sufficient  provision  of  sea-cow  meat  to  last  them  during  the  hunting 
season.  The  rytina  thus  became  more  and  more  scarce,  and  until 
within  the  last  few  years  it  was  believed  to  have  been  exterminated  in 
the  year  1768,  only  twenty-seven  years  after  its  first  discovery  by 


THE  MERMAID.  229 

the  amende  honorable,  and  frankly  accepting  Jack's  intro- 
duction to  his  fish-tailed  innamorata,  classed  these  three 
animals  together  as  a  sub-order  of  the  animal  kingdom, 
and  bestowed  on  them  the  name  of  the  Sirenia.  This  was, 
of  course,  in  allusion  to  the  Sirens  of  classical  mythology, 
who,  in  later  art,  were  represented  as  having  the  body  of  a 
woman  above  the  waist,  and  that  of  a  fish  below,  although 
they  were  originally  figured  as  having  wings  at  their 
shoulders,  and  the  lower  portion  of  their  body  like  that  of 
a  bird. 

It  has  been  found  difficult  to  determine  to  which  order 
these  Manatidcz  are  most  nearly  allied.  In  shape  they  most 
closely  resemble  the  whale  and  seals.  But  the  cetacea 
are  all  carnivorous,  whereas  the  manatee  and'  its  relatives 
live  entirely  on  vegetable  food.  Although,  therefore,  Dr. 
J.  E.  Gray,  following  Cuvier,  classed  them  with  the  cetacea 
in  his  British  Museum  catalogue,  other  anatomists,  as 
Professor  Agassiz,  Professor  Owen,  and  Dr.  Murie,  regard 
their  resemblance  to  the  whales  as  rather  superficial  than 
real,  and  conclude  from  their  organisation  and  "dentition 
that  they  ought  either  to  form  a  group  apart,  or  be  classed 
with  the  pachyderms— the  hippopotamus,  tapir,  etc. — with 
which  they  have  the  nearest  affinities,  and  to  which  they 
seem  to  have  been  more  immediately  linked  by  the  now 
lost  genera,  DinotJwrium  and  Halitherium.  With  the 
opinion  of  those  last-named  authorities  I  entirely  agree.  I 
regard  the  manatee  as  exhibiting  a  wonderful  modification 
and  adaptation  of  the  structure  of  a  warm-blooded  land 
animal  which  enables  it  to  pass  its  whole  life  in  water,  and 


Steller.  This  supposition  was,  however,  incorrect,  for  Professor  Nor- 
denskiold,  when  he  visited  Behring's  Island  in  the  "Vega,"  in  1879, 
obtained  evidence  of  a  living  rytina  having  been  seen  as  recently 
as  1854. 


230  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

as  a  connecting  link  between  the  hippopotamus,  elephant, 
etc.  on  the  one  side,  and  the  whales  and  seals  on  the  other. 

The  Halitherium  was  a  Sirenian  with  which  we  are  only 
acquainted  by  its  fossil  remains  found  in  the  Miocene 
formation  of  Central  and  Southern  Europe.  These  indicate 
that  it  had  short  hind  limbs,  and,  consequently,  approached 
more  nearly  the  terrestrial  type  than  either  the  manatee, 
the  rytina,  or  the  dugong,  in  which  the  hind  limbs  are 
absent.  The  two  last  named  tend  more  than  does  the 
manatee  to  the  marine  mammals  ;  but  there  is  a  strong 
likeness  between  these  three  recent  forms.  They  all  have 
a  cylindrical  body,  like  that  of  a  seal,  but  instead  of  hind 
limbs  there  is  in  all  a  broad  tail  flattened  horizontally  ;  and 
the  chief  difference  in  their  outward  appearance  is  in  the 
shape  of  this  organ.  In  the  manatee  it  is  rounded,  in  the 
dugong  forked  like  that  of  a  whale,  in  the  rytina  crescent- 
shaped.  The  tail  of  the  Halitherium  appears  to  have  been 
shaped  somewhat  like  that  of  the  beaver.  The  body  of 
the  manatee  is  broader  in  proportion  to  its  length  and 
depth  than  that  of  the  dugong.  In  a  paper  read  before  the 
Royal  Society,  July  I2th,  1821,  on  a  manatee  sent  to 
London  in  spirits  by  the  Duke  of  Manchester,  then 
Governor  of  Jamaica,  Sir  Everard  Home  remarked  of  this 
greater  lateral  expansion  that,  as  the  manatee  feeds  on 
plants  that  grow  at  the  mouths  of  great  rivers,  and  the 
dugong  upon  those  met  with  in  the  shallows  amongst 
small  islands  in  the  Eastern  seas,  the  difference  of  form 
would  make  the  manatee  more  buoyant,  and  better  fitted 
to  float  in  fresh  water. 

In  all  the  Manatidce  the  mammae  of  the  female,  which 
are  greatly  distended  during  the  period  of  lactation,  are 
situated  very  differently  from  those  of  the  whales,  being 
just  beneath  the  pectoral  fins.  These  fins  or  paws  are 


THE  MERMAID.  231 

much  more  flexible  and  free  in  their  movements  than 
those  of  the  cetae,  and  are  sufficiently  prehensile  to  enable 
the  animal  to  gather  food  between  the  palms  or  inner 
surfaces  of  both,  and  the  female  to  hold  her  young  one 
to  her  breast  with  one  of  them.  Like  the  whales,  they  are 
warm-blooded  mammals,  breathing  by  lungs,  and  are  there- 
fore obliged  to  come  to  the  surface  at  frequent  intervals 
for  respiration.  As  they  breathe  through  nostrils  at  the 
end  of  the  muzzle,  instead  of,  like  most  of  the  whales, 


FIG.  17. — THE  DUGONG.     From  Sir  J.  Emerson  Tennenfs  'Ceylon? 

through  a  blow-hole  on  the  top  of  the  head,  their  habit  is 
to  rise,  sometimes  vertically,  in  the  water,  with  the  head 
and  fore  part  of  the  body  exposed  above  the  surface,  and 
often  to  remain  in  this  position  for  some  minutes.  When 
seen  thus,  with  head  and  breast  bare,  and  clasping  its 
young  one  to  its  body,  the  female  presents  a  certain  re- 
semblance to  a  woman  from  the  waist  upward.  When 
approached  or  disturbed  it  dives  ;  the  tail  and  hinder  portion 
of  the  body  come  into  view,  and  we  see  that  if  there  was 
little  of  the  "  mulier  formosa  superne"  at  any  rate  "  desinit 


232  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

in  piscein"  The  manatee  has  thence  been  called  by  the 
Spaniards  and  Portuguese  the  "woman-fish,"  and  by  the 
Dutch  the  "manetje,"  or  mannikin.  The  dugong,  having 
the  muzzle  bristly,  is  named  by  the  latter  the  "baard- 
manetje,"  or  "  little  bearded  man."  There  are  no  bristles 
or  whiskers  on  the  muzzle  of  the  manatee  ;  all  the  portraits 
of  it  in  which  these  are  shown  are  in  that  respect  erroneous. 
The  origin  of  the  word  "  manatee "  has  by  some  been 
traced  to  the  Spanish,  as  indicating  "  an  animal  with 
hands."  On  the  west  coast  of  Africa  it  is  called  by  the 
natives  "Ne-hoo-le."  By  old  writers  it  was  described  as 
the  "  sea-cow."  Gesner  depicts  it  in  the  act  of  bellowing  ; 
and  Mr.  Bates,  in  his  work,  'The  Naturalist  on  the 
Amazon,'  says  that  its  voice  is  something  like  the  bellow- 
ing of  an  ox.  The  Florida  "crackers"  or  "mean  whites," 
make  the  same  statement.  Although  I  have  had  oppor- 
tunities of  prolonged  observation  of  it  in  captivity,  I  have 
not  heard  it  give  utterance  to  any  sound — not  even  a  grunt 
— and  Mr.  Bartlett,  of  the  Zoological  Gardens,  tells  me  that 
his  experience  of  it  is  the  same.  His  son,  Mr.  Clarence 
Bartlett,  says  that  a  young  one  he  had  in  Surinam  used  to 
make  a  feeble  cry,  or  bleat,  very  much  like  the  voice  of  a 
young  seal.  This  is  the  only  sound  he  ever  heard  from 
a  manatee.* 

I  believe  the  dugong  to  be  more  especially  the  animal 
referred  to  by  JElian  as  the  semi-human  whale,  and  that 
which  has  led  to  this  group  having  been  supposed  by 
southern  voyagers  to  be  aquatic  human  beings.  In  the 
first  place,  the  dugong  is  a  denizen  of  the  sea,  whereas  the 

*  For  a  full  description  of  the  habits  of  this  animal  in  captivity,  see 
an  article  by  the  present  writer  in  the «  Leisure  Hour '  of  September  28, 
1878  ;  from  which  the  illustration,  Fig.  18,  is  borrowed  by  the  kind 
consent  of  the  Editor  of  that  publication. 


THE   MERMAID. 


233 


manatee  is  chiefly  found  in  rivers  and  fresh-water  lagoons  ; 
and  secondly,  the  dugong  accords  with  ^Elian's  description 
of  the  creature  with  a  woman's  face  in  that  it  has  "  prickles 
instead  of  hairs,"  whilst  the  manatee  has  no  such  stiff 
bristles. 


FIG.    l8. — THE    MANATEE.      ITS    USUAL    POSITION 

In  the  case  of  either  of  these  two  animals  being  mistaken 
for  a  mermaid,  however,  "  distance  "  must  "  lend  enchant- 
ment to  the  view,"  and  a  sailor  must  be  very  impressible 
and  imaginative  who,  even  after  having  been  deprived  for 
many  months  of  the  pleasure  of  females'  society,  could  be 


234  SEA  PABLES  EXPLAINED. 

allured  by  the  charms  of  a  bristly-muzzled  dugong,  or 
mistake  the  snorting  of  a  wallowing  manatee  for  the  love- 
song  of  a  beauteous  sea-maiden. 

Unfortunately  both   the   dugong   and  the  manatee  are 
being  hunted  to  extinction. 

The  flesh  of  the  manatee  is  considered  a  great  delicacy. 
Humboldt  compares  it  with  ham.  Unlike  that  of  the 
whales,  which  is  of  a  deep  and  dark  red  hue,  it  is  as  white 
as  veal,  and,  it  is  said,  tastes  very  like  it.  It  is  remarkable 
for  retaining  its  freshness  much  longer  than  other  meat, 
which  in  a  tropical  climate  generally  putrefies  in  twenty- 
eight  hours.  It  is  therefore  well  adapted  for  pickling,  as 
the  salt  has  time  to  penetrate  the  flesh  before  it  is  tainted. 
The  Catholic  clergy  of  South  America  do  not  object  to  its 
being  eaten  on  fast  days,  on  the  supposition  that,  with 
whales,  seals,  and  other  aquatic  mammals,  it  may  be 
liberally  regarded  as  "  fish."  The  "  Indians  "  of  the  Amazon 
and  Orinoco  are  so  fond  of  it  that  they  will  spend  many 
days,  if  necessary,  in  hunting  for  a  manatee,  and  having 
killed  one  will  cut  it  into  slabs  and  slices  on  the  spot,  and 
cook  these  on  stakes  thrust  into  the  ground  aslant  over  a 
great  fire,  and  heavily  gorge  themselves  as  long  as  the 
provision  lasts.  The  milk  of  this  animal  is  said  to  be  rich 
and  good,  and  the  skin  is  valuable  for  its  toughness,  and 
is  much  in  request  for  making  leathern  articles  in  which 
great  strength  and  durability  are  required.  The  tail  con- 
tains a  great  deal  of  oil,  which  is  believed  to  be  extremely 
nutritious,  and  has  also  the  property  of  not  becoming 
rancid.  Unhappily  for  the  dugong,  its  oil  is  in  similarly 
high  repute,  and  is  greatly  preferred  as  a  nutrient  medicine 
to  cod-liver  oil.  As  its  flesh  also  is  much  esteemed,  it  is 
so  persistently  hunted  on  the  Australian  coasts  that  it  will 
probably  soon  become  extinct,  like  the  rytina  of  Steller. 


THE  MERMAID.  235 

The  same  fate  apparently  awaits  the  manatee,  which  is 
becoming  perceptibly  more  and  more  scarce. 

I  fear  that  before  many  years  have  elapsed  the  Sirens  of 
the  Naturalist  will  have  disappeared  from  our  earth,  before 
the  advance  of  civilization,  as  completely  as  the  fables  and 
superstitions  with  which  they  have  been  connected,  before 
the  increase  of  knowledge ;  and  that  the  mermaid  of  fact 
will  have  become  as  much  a  creature  of  the  past  as  the 
mermaid  of  fiction.  With  regard  to  the  latter — the  Siren 
of  the  poets, — the  water-maiden  of  the  pearly  comb,  the 
crystal  mirror,  and  the  sea-green  tresses, — there  are  few 
persons,  I  suppose,  at  the  present  day  who  would  not  be 
content  to  be  classed  with  Banks,  the  fine  old  naturalist 
and  formerly  ship-mate  of  Captain  Cook.  Sir  Humphry 
Davy  in  his  "  Salmonia  "  relates  an  anecdote  of  a  baronet,  a 
profound  believer  in  these  fish-tailed  ladies,  who  on  hearing 
some  one  praise  very  highly  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  said  that 
"Sir  Joseph  was  an  excellent  man,  but  he  had  his  pre- 
judices— he  did  not  believe  in  the  mermaid."  I  confess  to 
having  a  similar  "prejudice  ;"  and  am  willing  to  adopt  the 
further  remark  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy : — "  I  am  too  much 
of  the  school  of  Izaac  Walton  *  to  talk  of  impossibility.  It 
doubtless  might  please  God  to  make  a  mermaid,  but  I 
don't  believe  God  ever  did  make  one." 

*  Allusion  is  here  made  by  Sir  H.  Davy  to  a  paragraph  in  '  The 
Complete  Angler,'  in  which  Izaak  Walton  says  :  "  Indeed,  we  may 
say  of  angling  as  Dr.  Boteler  said  of  strawberries,  *  Doubtless  God 
could  have  made  a  better  berry,  but  doubtless  God  never  did  ' ;  and 
so  (if  I  might  be  judge)  God  never  did  make  a  more  calm,  quiet, 
innocent  recreation  than  angling." 


236  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA. 

THE  mystery  of  the  Kraken,  of  which  I  treated  in  a  com- 
panion volume  to  the  present,  recently  published,*  is  not 
difficult  to  unravel.  The  clue  to  it  is  plain,  and  when 
properly  taken  up  is  as  easily  unwound,  to  arrive  at  the 
truth,  as  a  cocoon  of  silk,  to  get  at  .the  chrysalis  within 
it.  It  was  a  boorish  exaggeration,  a  legend  of  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  wonder.  But  when  such  a  skein  of  facts 
has  passed  through  the  hands  of  the  poets,  it  is  sure  to  be 
found  in  a  much  more  intricate  tangle  ;  and  many  a  knot  of 
pure  invention  may  have  to  be  cut  before  it  is  made  clear. 

Nevertheless,  we  shall  be  able  to  discern  that  more  than 
one  of  the  most  famous  and  hideous  monsters  of  old 
classical  lore  originated,  like  the  Kraken,  in  a  knowledge  by 
their  authors  of  the  form  and  habits  of  those  strange  sea- 
creatures,  the  head-footed  mollusks.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  octopus  was  the  model  from  which  the  old 
poets  and  artists  formed  their  ideas,  and  drew  their 
pictures  of  the  Lernean  Hydra,  whose  heads  grew  again 
when  cut  off  by  Hercules  ;  and  also  of  the  monster  Scylla, 
who,  with  six  heads  and  six  long  writhing  necks,  snatched 
men  off  the  decks  of  passing  ships  and  devoured  them  in 
the  recesses  of  her  gloomy  cavern. 

Of  the  Hydra,  Diodorus  relates  that  it  had  a  hundred 
heads  ;  Simonides  says  fifty  ;  but  the  generally  received 
opinion  was  that  of  Apollodorus,  Hyginus  and  others,  that 
it  had  only  nine. 

*  '  Sea  Monsters  Unmasked.'     Clowes  and  Sons,  Limited. 


THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA.  237 

Apollodorus  of  Athens,  son  of  Asclepiades,  who  wrote  in 
stiff,  quaint  Greek  about  120  B.C.,  gives  in  his  '  Bibliotheca ' 
(book  ii.  chapter  5,  section  2)  the  following  account  of  the 
many-headed  monster.  "This  Hydra,"  he  says,  "nourished 
in  the  marshes  of  Lerne,  went  forth  into  the  open  country 
and  destroyed  the  herds  of  the  land.  It  had  a  huge  body 
and  nine  heaSs,  eight  mortal,  but  the  ninth  immortal. 
Having  mounted  his  chariot,  which  was  driven  by  lolaus, 
Hercules  got  to  Lerne  and  stopped  his  horses.  Finding 
the  Hydra  on  a  certain  raised  ground  near  the  source  of 
the  Amymon,  where  its  lair  was,  he  made  it  come  out  by 
pelting  it  with  burning  missiles.  He  seized  and  stopped  it, 
but  having  twisted  itself  round  one  of  his  feet,  it  struggled 
with  him.  He  broke  its  head  with  his  club  :  but  that  was 
useless  ;  for  when  one  head  was  broken  two  sprang  up, 
and  a  huge  crab  helped  the  Hydra  by  biting  the  foot  of 
Hercules.  This  he  killed,  and  called  lolaus,  who,  setting 
on  fire  part  of  the  adjoining  forest,  burned  with  torches  the 
germs  of  the  growing  heads,  and  stopped  their  development. 
Having  thus  out-manoeuvred  the  growing  heads,  he  cut  off 
the  immortal  head,  buried  it,  and  put  a  heavy  stone  upon 
it,  beside  the  road  going  from  Lerne  to  Eleonta,  and  having 
opened  the  Hydra,  dipped  his  arrows  in  its  gall." 

If  we  wish  to  find  in  nature  the  counterpart  of  this 
Hydra,  we  must  seek,  firstly,  for  an  animal  with  eight  out- 
growths from  its  trunk,  which  it  can  develop  afresh,  or 
replace  by  new  ones,  in  case  of  any  or  all  of  them  being 
amputated  or  injured.  We  must  also  show  that  this 
animal,  so  strange  in  form  and  possessing  such  remarkable 
attributes,  was  well  known  in  the  locality  where  the  legend 
was  believed.  We  have  it  in  the  octopus,  which  abounded 
in  the  Mediterranean  and  ^Egean  seas,  and  whose  eight 
prehensile  arms,  or  tentacles,  spring  from  its  central  body, 


238 


SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


the  immortal   head,   and   which,  if  lost   or    mutilated   by 
misadventure,  are  capable  of  reproduction. 

That  a  knowledge  of  the  octopus  existed  at  a  very  early 
period  of  man's  history  we  have  abundant  evidence.  The 
ancient  Egyptians  figured  it  amongst  their  hieroglyphics, 
and  an  interesting  proof  that  they  were  also  acquainted 
with  other  cephalopods  was  given  to  me  by  the  late 
Mr.  E.  W.  Cooke,  R.A.  Whilst  on  a  trip  up  the  Nile,  in 
January,  1875,  he  visited  the  temple  of  Bayr-el-Bahree, 
Thebes  (date  1700  B.C.),  the  entrance  to  which  had  been 
deeply  buried  beneath  the  light,  wind-drifted  sand,  accu- 


FIG.  19.— FIGURE  OF  A  CALAMARY.     From  the  temple  of  Bayr-el-Bahree. 

mulated  during  many  centuries.  By  order  of  the  Khedive, 
access  had  just  at  that  time  been  obtained  to  its  interior, 
by  the  excavation  and  removal  of  this  deep  deposit,  and, 
amongst  the  hieroglyphics  on  the  walls,  were  found,  between 
the  zig-zag  lines  which  represent  water,  figures  of  various 
fishes,  copies  of  which  Mr.  Cooke  kindly  gave  me,  and 
which  are  so  accurately  portrayed  as  to  be  easily  identified. 
With  them  was  the  outline  of  a  squid  fourteen  inches  long, 
a  figure  of  which,  from  Mr.  Cooke's  drawing,  is  here  shown. 
As  this  temple  is  five  hundred  miles  from  the  delta  of  the 
Nile,  it  is  remarkable  that  nearly  all  the  fishes  there  repre- 
sented are  of  marine  species. 


THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA.  239 

That  the  octopus  was  a  familiar  object  with  the 
ancient  Greeks,  we  know  by  the  frequen  cy  with  which  its 
portrait  is  found  on  their  coins,  gems,  and  ornaments. 
Aldrovandus  describes  "  very  ancient  coins "  found  at 
Syracuse  and  Tarentum  bearing  the  figure  of  an  octopus. 
He  says  the  Syracusans  had  two  coins,  one  of  bronze,  the 
other  of  gold,  both  of  which  had  an  oTctopus  alone  on  one 


FIG.   20. — FIGURE   OF   AN   OCTOPUS   ON   A   GOLD   ORNAMENT,    FOUND   BY 
DR.    SCHLIEMANN    AT    MYCENAE. 


side.  On  the  reverse  of  the  bronze  one  was  a  veiled 
female  face  in  profile,  with  the  inscription  ZYPA.  I  have  one 
of  these  bronze  Syracusan  coins  ;  it  was  kindly  given  to 
me,  some  years  ago,  by  my  friend  Dr.  John  Millar,  F.L.S. 
The  octopus  is  really  well  depicted.  On  the  gold  coin  the 
female  head  was  differently  veiled,  and  at  the  back  of  the 
neck  was  a  fish.  The  inscription  on  this  coin  was 


240  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

ZYPAKOZinN.  Goltzius  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  head 
was  that  of  Arethusa.  The  coins  found  at  Tarentum  had 
on  one  side  a  figure  of  Neptune  seated  on  a  dolphin,  and 
holding  an  octopus  in  one  hand  and  a  trident  in  the 
other. 

Lerne,  or  Lerna,  the  reputed  home  of  the  Hydra,  was  a 
port  of  Southern  Greece,  situated  at  the  head  of  the  Gulf 
of  Nauplia,  and  between  the  existing  towns  of  Argos  and 
Tripolitza.  Within  a  few  miles  of  it  was  Mycenae  ;  and  it 
is  remarkable  that  Dr.  Schliemann,  during  his  excavations 


FIG.    21. — GOLDEN    ORNAMENT   IN    FORM   OF   AN   OCTOPUS,    FOUND    BY 
DR.    SCHLIEMANN    AT   MYCENAE. 

there  in  1876,  found  in  a  tomb  a  gold  plate,  or  button,  two 
and  a  half  inches  in  diameter  (Fig.  20),  on  which  is  figured  an 
octopus,  the  eight  arms  of  which  are  converted  into  spirals, 
the  head  and  the  two  eyes  being  distinctly  visible.  In 
another  sepulchre  he  discovered  fifty-three  golden  models 
of  the  octopus  (Fig.  21),  all  exactly  alike,  and  apparently 
cast  in  the  same  mould.  The  arms  are  very  naturally 
carved.  By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Murray,  his  publisher,  I  am 
enabled  to  give  illustrations  of  these  and  two  other 
handsome  ornaments. 


THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA.  241 

Having  ascertained  that  the  octopus  was  a  familiar 
object  in  the  very  locality  where  the  combat  between 
Hercules  and  the  Hydra  is  supposed  to  have  taken  place, 
let  us  compare  the  animal  as  it  exists  with  the  monstrous 
offspring  of  Typhon  and  Echidna. 

It  is  a  not  uncommon  occurrence  that  when  an  octopus 
is  caught  it  is  found  to  have  one  or  more  of  its  arms  shorter 
than  the  rest,  and  showing  marks  of  having  been  amputated, 
and  of  the  formation  of  a  new  growth  from  the  old  cicatrix. 
Several  such  specimens  were  brought  to  the  Brighton 
Aquarium  whilst  I  had  charge  of  its  Natural  History 

FIG.   22.  FIG.   23. 


FIGURES   OF   THE   OCTOPUS   ON   GOLD   ORNAMENTS   FOUND   BY 
DR.    SCHLIEMANN   AT   MYCEN/E. 

Department.  One  of  them  was  particularly  interesting.  Two 
of  its  arms  had  evidently  been  bitten  off  about  four  inches 
from  the  base  :  and  out  from  the  end  of  each  healed  stump 
(which  in  proportion  to  the  length- of  the  limb  was  as  if 
a  man's  arm  had  been  amputated  halfway  between  the 
shoulder  and  the  elbow),  grew  a  slender  little  piece  of  newly- 
formed  arm,  about  as  large  as  a  lady's  stiletto,  or  a  small 
button-hook — in  fact  just  the  equivalent  of  worthy  Captain 
Cuttle's  iron  hook,  which  did  duty  for  his  lost  hand.  It 
was  an  illustrative  example  of  the  commencement  of  the 
repair  and  restoration  of  mutilated  limbs. 

This  mutilation  is  so  common  in  some  localities,  that 
VOL.  ill. — H,  R 


242  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

Professor  Steenstrup  says  *  that  almost  every  octopus  he 
has  examined  has  had  one  or  two  arms  reproduced  ;  and 
that  he  has  seen  females  in  which  all  the  eight  arms  had 
been  lost,  but  were  more  or  less  restored.  He  also 
mentions  a  male  in  which  this  was  the  case  as  to  seven  of  its 
arms.  He  adds  that  whilst  the  Octopoda  possess  the  power 
of  reproducing  with  great  facility  and  rapidity  their  arms, 
which  are  exposed  to  so  many  enemies,  the  Decapoda — the 
Sepiida  and  Squids — appear  to  be  incapable  of  thus 
repairing  and  replacing  accidental  injuries.  This  is 
entirely  in  accord  with  my  own  observations. 

This  reparative  power  is  possessed  by  some  other  animals, 
of  which  the  starfishes  and  Crustacea  are  the  most  familiar 
instances.  In  the  case  of  the  lobster  or  crab,  however,  the 
only  joint  from  which  new  growth  can  start  is  that  con- 
nected with  the  body,  so  that  if  a  limb  be  injured  in  any 
part,  the  whole  of  it  must  be  got  rid  of,  and  the  animal  has, 
therefore,  the  power  of  casting  it  off  at  will.  The  octopus, 
on  the  contrary,  is  incapable  of  voluntary  dismemberment, 
but  reproduces  the  lost  portion  of  an  injured  arm,  as  an 
out-growth  from  the  old  stump. 

The  ancients  were  well  acquainted  with  this  reparative 
faculty  of  the  octopus  :  but  of  course  the  simple  fact  was 
insufficient  for  an  imaginative  people  :  and  they  therefore 
embellished  it  with  some  fancies  of  their  own.  There 
lingers  still  amongst  the  fishermen  of  the  Mediterranean  a 
very  old  belief  that  the  octopus  when  pushed  by  hunger 
will  gnaw  and  devour  portions  of  its  arms.  Aristotle  knew 
of  this  belief,  and  positively  contradicted  it ;  but  a  fallacy 
once  planted  is  hard  to  eradicate.  You  may  cut  it  down, 
and  apparently  destroy  it,  root  and  branch,  but  its  seeds 
are  scattered  abroad,  and  spring  up  elsewhere,  and  in  un- 
*  Ann.  and  Mag.  Nat.  Hist.  August,  1857. 


THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA.  243 

expected  places.  Accordingly,  we  find  Oppian,  more  than 
five  centuries  later,  disseminating  the  same  old  notion,  and 
comparing  this  habit  of  the  animal  with  that  of  the  bear 
obtaining  nutriment  from  his  paws  by  sucking  them  during 
his  hybernation. 

"When  wintry  skies  o'er  the  black  ocean  frown, 
And  clouds  hang  low  with  ripen'd  storms  o'ergrown, 
Close  in  the  shelter  of  some  vaulted  cave 
The  soft-skinn'd  prekes  *  their  porous  bodies  save. 
But  forc'd  by  want,  while  rougher  seas  they  dread, 
On  their  own  feet,  necessitous,  are  fed. 
But  when  returning  spring  serenes  the  skies, 
Nature  the  growing  parts  anew  supplies. 
Again  on  breezy  sands  the  roamers  creep, 
Twine  to  the  rocks,  or  paddle  in  the  deep. 
Doubtless  the  God  whose  will  commands  the  seas, 
Whom  liquid  worlds  and  wat'ry  natives  please, 
Has  taught  the  fish  by  tedious  wants  opprest 
Life  to  preserve  and  be  himself  the  feast. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  larger  predatory  fishes  regard  an 
octopus  as  very  acceptable  food,  and  there  is  no  better 
bait  for  many  of  them  than  a  portion  of  one  of  its  arms. 
Some  of  the  cetacea  also  are  very  fond  of  them,  and 
whalers  have  often  reported  that  when  a  "  fish  "  (as  they 
call  it)  is  struck  it  disgorges  the  contents  of  its  stomach, 
amongst  which  they  have  noticed  parts  of  the  arms  of 
cuttles  which,  judging  from  the  size  -of  their  limbs,  must 
have  been  very  large  specimens.  The  food  of  the  sperm 
whale  consists  largely  of  the  gregarious  squids,  and 
the  presence  in  spermaceti  of  their  undigested  beaks  is 
accepted  as  a  test  of  its  being  genuine.  That  old  fish- 

*  The  octopus  is  still  called  the  "  preke  "  in  some  parts  of  England, 
notably  in  Sussex.  The  translation  of  Oppian's  *  Halieutics,'  from 
which  this  passage  and  others  are  quoted,  is  that  by  Messrs.  Jones  and 
Diaper,  of  Baliol  College,  Oxford,  and  was  published  in  1722. 

R   2 


244  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

reptile,  the  Ichthyosaurus,  also,  preyed  upon  them  ;  and 
portions  of  the  horny  rings  of  their  suckers  were  discovered 
in  its  coprolites  by  Dean  Buckland.  Amongst  the  worst 
enemies  of  the  octopus  is  the  conger.  They  are  both  rock- 
dwellers,  and  if  the  voracious  fish  come  upon  his  cephalopod 
neighbour  unseen,  he  makes  a  meal  of  him,  or,  failing  to 
drag  him  from  his  hold,  bites  off  as  much  of  one  or  two 
of  his  arms  as  he  can  conveniently  obtain.  The  conger, 
therefore,  is  generally  the  author  of  the  injury  which  the 
octopus  has  been  unfairly  accused  of  inflicting  on  itself. 

Continuing  our  comparison  with  the  hydra,  we  have  in 
•the  octopus  an  animal  capable  of  quitting  its  rocky  lurking- 
place  in  the  sea,  and  going  on  a  buccaneering  expedition 
on  dry  land.  Many  incidents  have  been  related  in  con- 
nection with  this  ;  but  I  can  attest  it  from  my  own  obser- 
vation. I  have  seen  an  octopus  travel  over  the  floor  of  a 
room  at  a  very  fair  rate  of  speed,  toppling  and  sprawling 
along  in  its  own  ungainly  fashion ;  and  in  May,  1873,  we 
had  one  at  the  Brighton  Aquarium  which  used  regularly 
every  night  to  quit  its  tank,  and  make  its  way  along  the 
wall  to  another  tank  at  some  distance  from  it,  in  which 
were  some  young  lump-fishes.  Day  after  day,  one  of  these 
was  missing,  until,  at  last,  the  marauder  was  discovered. 
Many  days  elapsed,  however,  before  he  was  detected,  for 
after  helping  himself  to,  and  devouring  a  young  "lump- 
sucker,"  he  demurely  returned  before  daylight  to  his  own 
quarters. 

Of  this  habit  of  the  octopus  the  ancients  were,  also,  fully 
aware.  Aristotle  wrote  that  it  left  the  water  and  walked 
in  stony  places,  and  Pliny  and  ^Elian  related  tales  of 
this  animal  stealing  barrels  of  salt  fish  from  the  wharves, 
and  crushing  their  staves  to  get  at  the  contents.  An 
octopus  that  could  do  this  would  be  as  formidable  a 


THE  LERNEAN  HYDRA. 


245 


predatory  monster  as  the  Lernean  Hydra,  which  had  the 
evil  reputation  of  devouring  the  Peloponnesian  cattle. 

Whoever  first  described  the  counter-attack  of  the  Hydra 
on  Hercules  must  have  had  the  octopus  in  his  thoughts.  "  It 
twisted  itself  round  one  of  his  feet " — exactly  that  which  an 
octopus  would  do. 

Finally,  according  to  the  legend,  Hercules  dipped  his 
arrow-heads  in  the  gall  of  the  Hydra,  and,  from  its  poisonous 
nature,  all  the  wounds  he  inflicted  with  them  upon  his 


FIG.   24. — HERCULES   SLAYING  THE  LERNEAN   HYDRA. 
From  Smith? s  *  Classical  Dictionary? 

enemies  proved  fatal.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the 
ancients  attributed  to  the  octopus  the  possession  of  a 
similarly  venomous  secretion.  Thus  Oppian  writes  : 

"  The  crawling  preke  a  deadly  juice  contains 
Injected  poison  fires  the  wounded  veins." 

The  accompanying  illustration  (Fig.  24)  of  Hercules 
slaying  the  Hydra  is  taken  from  a  marble  tablet  in  the 
Vatican.  It  will  be  immediately  seen  how  closely  the 
Hydra,  as  there  depicted,  resembles  an  octopus.  The  body 


246  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

is  elongated,  but  the  eight  necks  with  small  heads  on  them 
bear  about  the  same  proportion  to  the  body  as  the  arms  to 
the  body  of  an  octopus. 

The  Reverend  James  Spence,  in  his  'Polymetis/  pub- 
lished in  1755,  gives  a  figure,  almost  the  counterpart  of  this, 
copied  from  an  antique  gem,  a  carnelian,  in  the  collection  of 
the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  at  Florence.  Only  seven 
necks  of  the  hydra  are,  however,  there  visible,  and  there 
are  two  colis  in  the  elongated  body.  On  the  upper  part 
are  two  spots  which  have  been  supposed  to  represent 
breasts.  This  was  probably  intended  by  the  artificer  ;  but 
that  the  idea  originated  from  a  duplication  of  the  syphon 
tube  is  evident  from  the  figures  (Figs.  22,  23)  of  the  octopus 
on  the  smaller  gold  ornaments  found  by  Dr.  Schliemann  at 
Mycenae.  In  the  same  work  is  also  an  engraving  from  a 
picture  in  the  Vatican  Virgil,  entitled  'The  River,  or 
Hateful  Passage  into  the  Kingdom  of  Ades,'  wherein  an 
octopus  -  hydra,  of  which  only  six  heads  and  necks  are 
shown,  is  one  of  the  monsters  called  by  the  author  "  Terrors 
of  the  Imagination.11 


C   247    ) 


SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

IN  the  description  given  by  Homer,  in  the  twelfth  book  of 
the  *  Odyssey,'  of  the  unfortunate  nymph  Scylla,  transformed 
by  the  arts  of  Circe  into  a  frightful  monster,  the  same 
typical  idea  as  in  the  case  of  the  Hydra  is  perceptible.  The 
lurking  octopus,  having  its  lair  in  the  cranny  of  a  rock, 
watching  in  ambush  for  passing  prey,  seizing  anything 
coming  within  its  reach  with  one  or  more  of  its  prehensile 
arms,  even  brandishing  these  fear-inspiring  weapons  out  of 
water  in  a  threatening  manner,  and  known  in  some  locali- 
ties to  be  dangerous  to  boats  and  their  occupants,  is  trans- 
formed into  a  many-headed  sea  monster,  seizing  in  its 
mouths,  instead  of  by  the  adhesive  suckers  of  its  numerous 
arms,  the  helpless  sailors  from  passing  vessels,  and  devour- 
ing them  in  the  abysses  of  its  cavernous  den. 

Circe,  prophesying  to  Ulysses  the  dangers  he  had  still  to 
encounter,  warned  him  especially  of  Scylla  and  Charybdis, 
within  the  power  of  one  of  whom  he  must  fall  in  passing 
through  the  narrow  strait  (between  Italy  and  Sicily)  where 
they  had  their  horrid  abode.  Describing  the  lofty  rock  of 
Scylla,  she  tells  him  : 

"  Full  in  the  centre  of  this  rock  displayed 
A  yawning  cavern  casts  a  dreadful  shade, 
Nor  the  fleet  arrow  from  the  twanging  bow 
Sent  with  full  force,  could  reach  the  depth  below. 
Wide  to  the  west  the  horrid  gulf  extends, 
And  the  dire  passage  down  to  hell  descends. 


248  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

O  fly  the  dreadful  sight !   expand  thy  sails, 
Ply  the  strong  oar,  and  catch  the  nimble  gales; 
Here  Scylla  bellows  from  her  dire  abodes ; 
Tremendous  pest !   abhorred  by  man  and  gods  J 
Hideous  her  voice,  and  with  less  terrors  roar 
The  whelps  of  lions  in  the  midnight  hour. 
Twelve  feet  deformed  and  foul  the  fiend  dispreads; 

Six  horrid  necks  she  rears,  and  six  terrific  heads  ; 
*  *  *  *  * 

When  stung  with  hunger  she  embroils  the  flood, 

The  sea-dog  and  the  dolphin  are  her  food; 

She  makes  the  huge  leviathan  her  prey, 

And  all  the  monsters  of  the  wat'ry  way ; 

The  swiftest  racer  of  the  azure  plain 

Here  fills  her  sails  and  spreads  her  oars  in  vain ; 

Fefl  Scylla  rises,  in  her  fury  roars, 

At  once  six  mouths  expands,  at  once  six  men  devours."  * 

Circe  then  describes  the  perils  of  the  whirling  waters  of 
Charybdis  as  still  more  dreadful ;  and,  admonishing  Ulysses 
that  once  in  her  power  all  must  perish,  she  advises  him  to 
choose  the  lesser  of  the  two  evils,  and  to 

"shun  the  horrid  gulf,  by  Scylla  fly; 
Tis  better  six  to  lose  than  all  to  die." 

Ulysses  continues  his  voyage ;  and  as  his  ship  enters  the 
ominous  strait, 

"Struck  with  despair,  with  trembling  hearts  we  viewed 
The  yawning  dungeon,  and  the  tumbling  flood  ; 
When,  lo  !   fierce  Scylla  stooped  to  seize  her  prey, 
Btretched  her  dire  jaws,  and  swept  six  men  away. 
Chiefs  of  renown  !  loud  echoing  shrieks  arise ; 
I  turn,  and  view  them  quivering  in  the  skies  ; 
They  call,  and  aid,  with  outstretched  arms,  implore, 
In  vain  they  call !   those  arms  are  stretched  no  more. 
As  from  some  rock  that  overhangs  the  flood, 
The  silent  fisher  casts  th'  insidious  food ; 


*  Homer's  '  Odyssey,'  Pope's  Translation,  Book  XII. 


SCYLLA  AND  CHARY BDIS.  249 

With  fraudful  care  he  waits  the  finny  prize, 

And  sudden  lifts  it  quivering  to  the  skies  ; 

So  the  foul  monster  lifts  her  prey  on  high, 

So  pant  the  wretches,  struggling  in  the  sky  ; 

In  the  wide  dungeon  she  devours  her  food, 

And  the  flesh  trembles  while  she  churns  the  blood." 


250  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


THE  "  SPOUTING  "  OF  WHALES. 

ONE  of  the  sea-fallacies  still  generally  believed,  and  accepted 
as  true,  is  that  whales  take  in  water  by  the  mouth,  and 
eject  it  from  the  spiracle,  or  blow-hole. 

The  popular  ideas  on  this  subject  are  still  those  which 
existed  hundreds  of  years  ago,  and  which  are  expressed  by 
Oppian  in  two  passages  in  his  *  Halieutics  ' : 

"  Uncouth  the  sight  when  they  in  dreadful  play 

Discharge  their  nostrils  and  refund  a  sea," 
and 

"  While  noisy  fin-fish  let  their  fountains  fly 
And  spout  the  curling  torrent  to  the  sky." 

Eminent  zoologists  and  intelligent  observers,  who  have 
had  full  opportunities  of  obtaining  practical  knowledge  of 
the  habits  of  these  great  marine  mammals,  have  forcibly 
combated  and  repeatedly  contradicted  this  erroneous  idea  ; 
but  their  sensible  remarks  have  been  read  by  few,  in  com- 
parison with  the  numbers  of  those  to  whom  a  wrong  im- 
pression has  been  conveyed  by  sensational  pictures  in  which 
whales  are  represented  with  their  heads  above  the  surface, 
and  throwing  up  from  their  nostrils  columns  of  water,  like 
the  fountains  in  Trafalgar  Square.  One  can  hardly  be 
surprised  that  the  old  writers  on  Natural  History  were  un- 
acquainted with  the  real  composition  of  the  whale's  "  spout." 
Those  of  them  who  sought  for  any  original  information  on 
marine  zoology,  obtained  it  chiefly  from  uninstructed  and 
superstitious  fishermen;  but  they  generally  contented 


THE  "SPOUTING"  OF  WHALES.  251 

themselves  with  diligent  compilation,  and  thus  copied  and 
transmitted  the  errors  of  their  predecessors,  with  the 
addition  of  some  slight  embellishments  of  their  own.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  find  Olaus  Magnus  *  describing,  as  follows, 
the  Physeter,  or,  as  his  translator,  Streater,  calls  it,  the 
Whirlpool  "  The  Physeter  or  Pristis"  he  says,  "  is  a  kind 
of  whale,  two  hundred  cubits  long,  and  is  very  cruel.  For, 
to  the  danger  of  seamen,  he  will  sometimes  raise  himself 
above  the  sail-yards,  and  casts  such  floods  of  waters  above 
his  head,  which  he  had  sucked  in,  that  with  a  cloud  of 
them  he  will  often  sink  the  strongest  ships,  or  expose  the 
manners  to  extreme  danger.  This  beast  hath  also  a  large 
round  mouth,  like  a  lamprey,  whereby  he  sucks  in  his  meat 
or  water,  and  by  his  weight  cast  upon  the  fore  or  hinder 
deck,  he  sinks  and  drowns  a  ship." 

Figures  25  and  26  (p.  252)  are  facsimiles  of  the  illustra- 
tions which  accompany  the  above  description.  It  will  be 
seen  that,  in  the  first,  the  Physeter  is  depicted  as  uprearing 
a  maned  neck  and  head,  like  that  of  a  fabled  dragon  ; 
whilst  in  Fig.  26  it  is  shown  as  a  whale  flinging  itself  on 
board  a  ship,  which  is  sinking  under  its  ponderous  weight. 
In  both,  torrents  of  water  are  issuing  from  its  head,  and 
it  is  evident  that  they  are  merely  exaggerated  misrepre- 
sentations of  the  "  spouting  "  of  whales. 

Gesner  copies  many  of  'Olaus  Magnus's  illustrations,  and 
improves  upon  Fig.  26  by  putting  a  numerous  crew  on 
board  the  ship.  The  unfortunate  sailors  are  depicted  in 
every  attitude  of  terror  and  despair,  and  seem  to  be  in- 
capacitated from  any  attempt  to  save  themselves  by  the 
flood  of  water  which  the  whale  is  deliberately  pouring  upon 
them  from  its  blow-holes. 

*  '  Historia  dc  Gentibus  SeptentrionalibusJ  lib.  xxi.  cap.  vi.     A.D. 


252 


SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


FIG.    25. — THE    PHYSETER    INUNDATING    A   SHIP.      After  OldUS  MagUUS. 

These  old  pictures  appear,  no  doubt,  ridiculous,  but  they 
are,  really,  very  little  more  absurd  and  untrue  to  nature 
than  many  of  those  which  disfigure  some  otherwise  useful 
books  on  Natural  History  of  the  present  day.  I  could 


FIG.    26. — A   WHALE    POURING   WATER    INTO   A   SHIP    FROM    ITS   BLOW-HOLE. 
After  Olaus  Magnus. 


THE   "SPOUTING"   OF   WHALES.  253 

refer  to  several,  in  which  whales  are  represented  as  spouting 
from  their  blow-holes  one  or  more  columns  of  water,  which, 
after  ascending  skyward  to  a  considerable  distance,  fall 


over  gracefully  as  if  issuing  from  the  nozzle  of  an  ornamental 
fountain.  I  select  one  from  amongst  them  (Fig.  27),  not  with 
any  disrespect  for  the  artist,  author,  or  publisher  of  the  work 


254  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

from  which  it  is  taken,  but  because,  whilst  it  shows  correctly 
the  position  of  the  blow-hole  of  the  sperm  whale,  it  also 
exhibits  exactly  that  which  I  wish  to  confute.  The  pub- 
lishers of  the  valuable  work  in  which  this  picture  appeared 
have  generously  consented  to  my  reproducing  it  here. 

When,  in  describing,  in  1877,  the  White  Whale  then  ex- 
hibited at  the  Westminster  Aquarium,  I  said  that  whales 
do  not  spout  water  out  of  their  blow-holes,  and  that  the 
idea  that  they  do  so  is  a  popular  error,  the  statement  was 
so  contrary  to  generally-accepted  notions  that  I  was  not 
surprised  by  receiving  more  than  one  letter  on  the  subject. 
One  very  reasonable  suggestion  made  to  me  was  that 
although  the  lesser  whales,  such  as  the  porpoises,  which  I 
had  had  opportunities  of  watching  in  confinement  at 
Brighton  for  two  years,  and  the  Beluga,  which  had  been 
observed  for  a  similar  period  at  the  New  York  Aquarium, 
and  also  at  Westminster,  did  not  "  spout,"  the  respiratory 
apparatus  of  the  larger  whales  might  be  so  modified  as  to 
permit  them  to  do  so.  Let  us  consider  the  construction  of 
the  breathing  apparatus  which  would  have  to  be  thus 
modified,  as  shown  in  the  porpoise. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  a  pair  of  lungs  as  perfect  as 
those  of  any  land  mammal,  fitted  to  receive  air,  and  to 
bring  the  hot  blood  into  contact  with  the  air,  that  it  may 
absorb  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  and  so  be  purified.  But  this 
air  cannot  well  be  breathed  through  the  mouth  of  an 
animal  which  has  to  take  its  food  from  and  in  water  ;  so  it 
has  to  be  inhaled  only  by  the  nostrils.  If  these  were 
situated  as  they  are  in  land  mammals,  near  the  extremity 
of  the  nose,  the  porpoise  would  be  obliged  to  stop  when 
pursuing  its  prey,  or,  escaping  from  its  enemies,  to  put  the 
tip  of  its  nose  above  the  surface  of  the  water  every  time  it 
required  to  breathe.  A  much  more  convenient  arrange- 


SPOUTING"  OF  WHALES.  255 

ment  has,  therefore,  been  provided  for  it,  and  for  almost  all 
whales,  by  which  that  difficulty  is  removed.  Instead  of 
running  along  the  bones  of  the  nose,  the  nostrils  are  placed 
on  the  top  of  the  head,  and  the  windpipe  is  turned  up  to 
them  without  having  any  connection  with  the  palate.  The 
upper  jaw  is  quite  solid.  Thus  the  mouth  is  solely  devoted 
to  the  reception  of  food,  and  the  animal  is  enabled  to  con- 
tinue its  course  when  swimming,  however  rapidly,  by  rising 
obliquely  to  the  surface,  and  exposing  the  top  of  its  head 
above  it.  On  the  blow-hole  being  opened,  the  air,  from 
which  the  oxygen  has  been  absorbed,  is  expelled  in  a 
sudden  puff,  another  supply  is  instantaneously  inhaled,  and 
rushes  into  the  lungs  with  extreme  velocity,  and  then  the 
porpoise  can  either  descend  into  the  depths,  or  remain  with 
its  spiracle  exposed  to  the  air,  as  it  may  prefer.  In  this 
act  of  breathing  the  spiracle  is  normally  brought  above  the 
water,  the  breath  escapes,  and  the  immediate  inhalation  is 
effected  almost  in  silence.  But  frequently,  and  in  some 
whales  habitually,  the  blow-hole  is  opened  just  below  the 
surface,  and  then  the  outrush  of  air  causes  a  splash  upwards 
of  the  water  overlying  it. 

I  may  here  mention  that  I  have  frequently  seen  the 
porpoises  at  the  Brighton  Aquarium  lying  asleep  at  the 
surface,  with  the  blow-hole  exposed  above  it,  breathing 
automatically,  and  without  conscious  effort.  Aristotle  was 
acquainted  with  this  habit  of  the  cetacea  2,200  years  ago, 
for  he  wrote  :  "  They  sleep  with  the  blow-hole,  their  organ 
of  respiration,  elevated  above  the  water." 

The  apparatus  for  closing  the  blow-hole,  so  that  not  a 
drop  of  water  shall  enter  the  windpipe,  even  under  great 
pressure,  is  a  beautiful  contrivance,  complex  in  its  structure, 
yet  most  simple  in  its  working.  The  external  aperture  is 
covered  by  a  continuation  of  the  skin,  locally  thickened,  and 


256  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

connected  with  a  conical  stopper,  of  a  texture  as  tough  as 
india-rubber,  which  fits  perfectly  into  a  cone  or  funnel 
formed  by  the  extremity  of  the  windpipe,  and  closes  more 
and  more  firmly  as  the  pressure  upon  it  is  increased. 
Whilst  the  orifice  is  thus  guarded,  the  lower  end  of  the 
tube  is  surrounded  by  a  strong  compressing  muscle,  which 
clasps  also  the  glottis,  and  thus  the  passage  from  the  blow- 
hole to  the  lungs  is  completely  stopped. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  which  indicates  the  possibility  of 
the  spouting  of  water  from  the  nostrils ;  but  as  assertions 
that  water  had  been  seen  to  issue  from  them  were  positive 
and  persistent,  anatomists  seem  to  have  felt  themselves 
obliged  to  try  to  account  for  it  somehow.  Accordingly 
the  theory  was  propounded  by  F.  Cuvier  that  the  water 
taken  into  the  mouth  is  reserved  in  two  pouches  (one  on 
each  side),  until  the  whale  rises  to  blow,  when,  the  gullet 
being  closed,  it  is  forced  by  the  action  of  the  tongue  and 
jaws  through  the  nasal  passages,  somewhat  as  a  smoker 
occasionally  expels  the  smoke  of  his  cigar  through  his 
nostrils.  Although  these  pouches,  or  sacs  analogous  to 
them,  are  found  at  the  base  of  the  nostrils  of  the  horse, 
tapir,  etc., — animals  which  do  not  "  spout "  from  the  nostrils 
water  taken  in  by  the  mouth — the  explanation  was  accepted 
for  a  time. 

Mr.  Bell  held  this  opinion  when  the  first  edition  of  his 
'British  Quadrupeds '  was  published  in  1837,  but  before 
the  issue  of  the  second  edition,  in  1874,  he  had  found 
reasons  for  taking  a  different  view  of  the  matter;  and, 
under  the  advice  of  his  judicious  editors,  Mr.  Alston  and 
Professor  Flower  (the  latter  of  whom  supervised  the  proofs 
of  the  chapters  on  the  Cetacea)  his  sanction  of  the  illusion 
was  withdrawn  as  follows  : — 

"The  results  of  more   recent   and   careful  observations,  amongst 


THE  "SPOUTING*  OF  WHALES.  257 

which  we  may  notice  those  of  Bennett,  Von  Baer,  Sars  and  Burmeister, 
are  directly  opposed  to  the  statement  that  water  is  thus  ejected  ;  and 
there  can  now  be  no  doubt  that  the  appearance  which  has  given  rise 
to  the  idea  is  caused  by  the  moisture  with  which  the  expelled  breath 
is  supercharged,  which  condenses  at  once  in  the  cold  outer  air,  and 
forms  a  cloud  or  column  of  white  vapour.  It  is  possible  indeed  that 
if  the  animal  begins  to  *  blow '  before  its  head  is  actually  at  the  surface, 
the  force  of  the  rushing  air  may  drive  up  some  little  spray  along  with 
it,  but  this  is  quite  different  from  the  notion  that  water  is  really 
expelled  from  the  nasal  passages.  We  may  add  that  on  the  only 
occasion  when  we  ourselves  witnessed  the  '  spouting '  of  a  large  whale 
we  were  much  struck  with  its  resemblance  to  the  column  of  white 
spray  which  is  dashed  up  by  the  ricochetting  ball  fired  from  one  of 
the  great  guns  of  a  man-of-war." 
• 

The  simile  is  admirable,  and  nothing  could  better  describe 
the  appearance  of  a  whale's  "  spout  "  ;  but,  in  the  previous 
portion  of  the  passage  (except  with  reference  to  the  sperm 
whale,  the  nostrils  of  which  are  not  on  the  top  of  the  head), 
I  think  sufficient  importance  is  not  conceded  to  the  volume 
of  water  propelled  into  the  air  by  the  outrush  of  breath 
from  the  submerged  blow-hole.  I  do  not  know  how  many 
cubic  feet  of  air  the  lungs  of  a  great  whale  are  capable  of 
containing,  but  the  quantity  is  sufficient  to  force  up  to  a 
height  of  several  feet  the  water  above  the  valve  when  the 
latter  is  opened,  not  only  in  "  some  little  spray,"  but  for  some 
distance  in  a  good  solid  jet — enough,  in  fact,  to  give  the 
appearance  of  its  actually  issuing  from  the  blow- hole,  and 
to  account  for  the  erroneous  belief  of  sailors  that  it  does  so. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  escape  of  air  is  not  by  a 
prolonged  wheeze,  but  by  a  sudden  blast,  and  thus  when 
the  spiracle  is  opened  just  beneath  the  surface,  an  instant 
before  it  is  uncovered  to  take  in  a  fresh  supply  of  air,  the 
water  above  its  orifice  is  thrown  up  as  by  a  slight  sub- 
aqueous explosion,  or  as  by  the  momentary  opening  under 
water  of  the  safety-valve  of  a  steam  boiler.  Some  idea  of 
the  force  and  volume  of  the  blast  of  air  from  the  lungs  of 

VOL.  III. — II.  s 


258  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

even  the  common  porpoise  may  be  formed  when  I  mention 
that  one  of  the  porpoises  at  the  Brighton  Aquarium,  hap- 
pening to  open  its  spiracle  just  beneath  an  illuminating  gas 
jet  fixed  over  its  tank,  blew  out  the  light. 

In  the  sperm  whale  the  nostrils  are  placed  near  the 
extremity  of  the  nose,  and  therefore  this  whale  has  to  raise 
its  snout  above,  the  surface  when  it  requires  to  breathe ; 
but  instead  of  this  being  necessary,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
porpoise  twice  or  thrice  in  a  minute,  the  sperm  whale  only 
rises  to  "  blow  "  at  intervals  of  from  an  hour  to  an  hour  and 
twenty  minutes.  Mr.  Beale  says*  that  in  a  large  bull  sperm 
whale  the  time  consumed  in  making  one  expiration  and  one 
inspiration  is  ten  seconds,  during  six  of  which  the  nostril  is 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  water — the  expiration  occupying 
three  seconds^  and  the  inspiration  one  second.  At  each 
breathing  time  this  whale  makes  from  sixty  to  seventy 
expirations,  and  remains,  therefore,  at  the  surface  ten  or 
eleven  minutes,  and  then,  raising  its  tail,  it  descends 
perpendicularly,  head  first.  In  different  individuals  the 
time  required  for  performing  these  several  acts  varies  ;  but 
in  each  they  are  minutely  regular,  and  this  well-known 
regularity  is  of  considerable  use  to  the  fishers,  for  when  a 
whaler  has  once  noticed  the  periods  of  any  particular  whale 
which  is  not  alarmed,  he  knows  to  a  minute  when  to  expect 
it  to  come  to  the  surface,  and  how  long  it  will  remain  there. 
The  "  spout "  of  the  sperm  whale  differs  much  from  that  of 
other  whales.  Unlike,  for  instance,  the  straight  perpen- 
dicular twin  jets  of  the  "  right  whale,"  the  single,  forward- 
slanting  "  spout "  of  the  sperm  whale  presents  a  thick  curled 
bush  of  white  mist.  Each  whale  has  a  different  mode  and 
time  of  breathing,  and  the  form  of  the  "  spout "  differs 
accordingly. 

It  is  said  that  the  blowing  of  the  Beluga,  or  "White 
*  '  Natural  History  of  the  Sperm  Whale.'  Van  Voorst,  1839. 


THE  "SPOUTING"  OF  WHALES.  259 

Whale,"  is  not  unmusical  at  sea,  and  that  when  it  takes 
place  under  water  it  often  makes  a  peculiar  sound  which 
might  be  mistaken  for  the  whistling  of  a  bird.  Hence  is 
derived  one  of  the  names  given  to  this  whale  by  sailors — 
the  "Sea-canary."  Though  I  have  had  opportunities  of 
attentively  watching  the  breathing  and  other  actions  in 
captivity  of  two  specimens  of  this  whale  I  have  never  been 
able  to  detect  the  sound  alluded  to. 

Besides  the  opinions  cited  by  Mr.  Bell  concerning  whales 
spouting  water  from  their  blow-holes,  we  have  other 
evidence  which  is  most  clear  and  definite,  and  which 
ought  to  be  convincing. 

We  will  take  first  that  of  Mr.  Beale,  who  as  surgeon  on 
board  the  "  Kent  "  and  "  Sarah  and  Elizabeth,"  South  Sea 
whalers,  passed  several  seasons  amongst  sperm  whales. 
He  says : — 

"  I  can  truly  say  when  I  find  myself  in  opposition  to  these  old  and 
received  notions,  that  out  of  the  thousands  of  sperm  whales  which  I 
have  seen  during  my  wanderings  in  the  South  and  North  Pacific 
Oceans,  I  have  never  observed  one  of  them  to  eject  a  column  of  water 
from  the  nostril.  I  have  seen  them  at  a  distance,  and  I  have  been 
within  a  few  yards  of  several  hundreds  of  them,  and  I  never  saw  water 
pass  from  the  spout-hole.  But  the  column  of  thick  and  dense  vapour 
which  is  certainly  ejected  is  exceedingly  likely  to  mislead  the  judgment 
of  the  casual  observer  in  these  matters  ;  and  this  column  does  indeed 
appear  very  much  like  a  jet  of  water  when  seen  at  the  distance  of  one 
or  two  miles  on  a  clear  day,  because  of  the  condensation  of  the  vapour 
which  takes  place  the  moment  it  escapes  from  the  nostril,  and  its 
consequent  opacity,  which  makes  it  appear  of  a  white  colour,  and 
which  is  not  observed  when  the  whale  is  close  to  the  spectator.  It 
then  appears  only  like  a  jet  of  white  steam.  The  only  water  in  addi- 
tion is  the  small  quantity  that  may  be  lodged  in  the  external  fissure  of 
the  spout  hole,  when  the  animal  raises  it  above  the  surface  to  breathe, 
and  which  is  blown  up  into  the  air  with  the  '  spout,'  and  may  probably 
assist  in  condensing  the  vapour  of  which  it  is  formed.  ...  I  have 
been  also  very  close  to  the  Baltzna  mysticctus  (the  Greenland,  or 
Right  whale)  when  it  has  been  feeding  and  breathing,  and  yet  I  never 

S   2 


26o  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

saw  even  that  animal  differ  in  the  latter  respect  from  the  sperm  whale 
in  the  nature  of  the  spout.  ...  If  the  weather  is  fine  and  clear,  and 
there  is  a  gentle  breeze  at  the  time,  the  spout  may  be  seen  from  the 
masthead  of  a  moderate-sized  vessel  at  the  distance  of  four  or  five 
miles." 

Captain  Scoresby,  who  was  a  veteran  and  successful 
whaler,  a  good  zoologist,  and  a  highly  intelligent  observer, 
says : — 

"  A  moist  vapour  mixed  with  mucus  is  discharged  from  the  nostrils 
when  the  animal  breathes;  but  no  water  accompanies  it  unless  an 
expiration  of  the  breath  be  made  under  the  surface." 

Dr.  Robert  Brown,  who  communicated  to  the  Zoological 
Society,  in  May,  1868,  a  valuable  series  of  observations  on 
the  mammals  of  Greenland,  made  during  his  voyages  to 
the  Spitzbergen,  Iceland,  and  Jan  Mayen  Seas,  and  along 
the  eastern  and  western  shores  of  Davis's  Strait  and  Baffin's 
Bay  to  near  the  mouth  of  Smith's  Sound,  remarks,  in  a 
chapter  on  the  Right  whale  (Balcena  mysticetus)  : — 

"  The  '  blowing,'  so  familiar  a  feature  of  the  Cetacea,  but  especially 
of  the  Mysticetus^  is  quite  analogous  to  the  breathing  of  the  higher 
mammals,  and  the  blow-holes  are  the  homologues  of  the  nostrils. 
It  is  most  erroneously  stated  that, the  whale  ejects  water  from  the 
blow-holes.  I  have  been  many  times  only  a  few  feet  from  a  whale 
when  '  blowing,' and,  though  purposely  observing  it,  could  never  see 
that  it  ejected  from  its  nostrils  anything  but  the  ordinary  breath — 
a  fact  which  might  almost  have  been  deduced  from  analogy.  In  the 
cold  arctic  air  this  breath  is  generally  condensed,  and  falls  upon  those 
close  at  hand  in  the  form  of  a  dense  spray,  which  may  have  led  sea- 
men to  suppoie  that  this  vapour  was  originally  ejected  in  the  form  of 
water.  Occasionally,  when  the  whale  blows  just  as  it  is  rising  out  of 
or  sinking  in  the  sea,  a  little  of  the  superincumbent  water  may  be 
forced  upwards  by  the  column  of  breath.  When  the  whale  is  wounded 
in  the  lungs,  or  in  any  of  the  blood-vessels  immediately  supplying 
them,  blood,  as  might  be  expected,  is  ejected  in  the  death-throes 
along  with  the  breath.  When  the  whaleman  sees  his  prey  *  spouting 
red,'  he  concludes  that  its  end  is  not  far  distant ;  it  is  then  mortally 
wounded." 


THE  "SPOUTING"  OF  WHALES.  261 

Captain  F.  C.  Hall,  the  commander  of  the  unfortunate 
"  Polaris  "  Expedition,  thus  describes,  in  his  '  Life  with  the 
Esquimaux,'  the  spout  of  a  whale  : — 

"  What  this  blowing  is  like,"  he  says,  "  may  be  described  by  asking 
if  the  reader  has  ever  seen  the  smoke  produced  by  the  firing  of  an 
old-fashioned  flint-lock.  If  so,  then  he  may  understand  the  'blow '  of 
a  whale — a  flash  in  the  pan  and  all  is  over." 

Captain  Scammon,  an  experienced  American  whaling 
captain,  who,  like  Scoresby,  could  wield  well  both  harpoon 
and  pen,  in  his  fine  work  on  '  The  Marine  Mammals  of  the 
North- Western  Coast  of  America,'  writes  to  the  same 
effect. 

Mr.  Herman  Melville,  who  is  not  a  naturalist,  but  has 
served  before  the  mast  in  a  sperm-whaler  and  borne  his 
part  in  all  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  the  chase,  writes, 
in  his  remarkable  book,  '  The  Whale ' : — 

"  As  for  this  '  whale-spout '  you  might  almost  stand  in  it,  and  yet  be 
undecided  as  to  what  it  is  precisely.  Nor  is  it  at  all  prudent  for  the 
hunter  to  be  over  curious  respecting  it.  For,  even  when  coming  into 
slight  contact  with  the  outer  vapoury  shreds  of  the  jet,  which  will  often 
happen,  your  skin  will  feverishly  smart  from  the  acrimony  of  the 
thing  so  touching  you.  And  I  know  one  who,  coming  into  still  closer 
contact  with  the  spout — whether  with  some  scientific  object  in  view  or 
otherwise  I  cannot  say — the  skin  peeled  off  from  his  cheek  and  arm. 
Wherefore,  among  whalemen,  the  spout  is  deemed  poisonous  ;  they 
try  to  evade  it.  I  have  heard  it  said,  and  I  do  not  much  doubt  it, 
that  if  the  jet  were  fairly  spouted  into  your  eyes  it  would  blind  you." 

The  only  other  eye-witness  I  will  cite  is  Mr.  Bartlett,  of 
the  Zoological  Gardens,  whose  experience  and  accuracy  as 
an  observer  of  the  habits  of  animals  is  unsurpassed.  He 
spent  an  autumn  holiday  in  accompanying  the  late  Mr. 
Frank  Buckland  and  his  colleagues,  Messrs.  Walpole  and 
Young,  in  a  tour  of  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  the 
herring  fishery  in  Scotland.  When  the  commissioners 


262  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

left  Peterhead,  he  remained  there  for  a  few  days  as  the 
guest  of  Captain  David  Gray,  of  the  steam  whaler, 
"Eclipse,"  and  as  it  was  reported  that  large  whales  had 
been  seen  in  the  offing,  his  host  invited  him  to  go  in  search 
of  them,  and  pay  them  a  visit  in  his  steam-launch.  When 
about  twelve  miles  out,  they  saw  the  whales,  which  were 
"finners,"  at  a  distance  of  four  or  five  miles.  Fourteen 
were  counted — all  large  ones — some  of  which  were  seventy 
feet  in  length.  On  approaching  them  the  captain  shut  off 
steam,  and  the  launch  was  allowed  to  float  in  amongst 
them.  So  close  were  they  to  the  boat  that  it  would  not 
have  been  difficult  to  jump  upon  the  back  of  one  of  them 
had  that  been  desirable.  Mr.  Bartlett  tells  me  that  he  was 
greatly  astonished  by  the  immense  force  of  the  sudden  out- 
rush  of  air  from  their  blow-holes,  and  the  noise  by  which  it 
was  accompanied.  He  believes  that  the  blast  was  strong 
enough  to  blow  a  man  off  the  spiracle  if  he  were  seated  on 
it.  He  authorises  me  to  say  that  having  seen  and  watched 
these  whales  under  such  favourable  circumstances,  he 
entirely  agrees  with  all  that  I  have  here  written  concerning 
the  so-called  "  spout."  The  volume  of  hot,  vaporous  breath 
expelled  is  enormous,  and  this  is  accompanied  by  no  small 
quantity  of  water,  forced  up  by  it  when  the  blow-hole  is 
opened  below  the  surface. 

An  effect  similar  in  appearance  to  the  whale's  spout  is 
produced  by  the  breathing  of  the  hippopotamus.  When 
this  great  beast  opens  its  nostrils  beneath  the  surface, 
water  and  spray  are  driven  and  scattered  upward  by  the 
force  of  the  air,  but,  of  course,  do  not  issue  from  the  nasal 
passages.  I  have,  also,  seen  this  effect  produced,  though 
in  a  less  degree,  by  the  breathing  of  sea-lions. 

I  repeat,  therefore,  that  not  a  drop  of  sea-water  enters  or 
passes  out  of  the  blow-hole  of  a  whale.  If  the  spiracle 


THE  "SPOUTING"  OF  WHALES.  263 

valve  were  in  a  condition  to  allow  it  to  do  so  the  animal 
would  soon  be  drowned.  Every  one  knows  the  extreme 
irritation  and  the  horrible  feeling  of  suffocation  caused  to 
a  human  being,  whilst  eating  or  drinking,  by  a  crumb  or  a 
little  liquid  "  going  the  wrong  way  " — that  is,  being  acci- 
dentally drawn  to  the  air-passages  instead  of  passing  to  the 
oesophagus.  If  water  were  to  enter  the  bronchi  of  a  whale 
it  would  instantly  produce  similar  discomfort. 

The  neck  of  a  popular  error  is  hard  to  break ;  but  it  is 
time  that  one  so  palpable  as  that  concerning  the  "  spout- 
ing" of  whales  should  cease  to  be  promulgated  and  dis- 
seminated by  fanciful  illustrations  of  instructive  books. 


SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


THE  "SAILING"  OF  THE  NAUTILUS. 

ONE  of  the  prettiest  fables  of  the  sea  is  that  relating  to  the 
Paper  Nautilus,  the  constructor  and  inhabitant  of  the 
delicate  and  beautiful  shell  which  looks  as  if  it  were  made 
of  ivory  no  thicker  than  a  sheet  of  writing  paper. 


FIG.  28. — THE  PAPER  NAUTILUS  (Argonauta  argo}  SAILING. 

It  is  an  old  belief  that  in  calm  weather  it  rises  from  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  and,  elevating  its  two  broadly-expanded 
arms,  spreads  to  the  gentle  air,  as  a  sail,  the  membrane, 
light  as  a  spider's  web,  by  which  they  are  united  ;  and  that, 


THE  "SAILING"   OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  265 

seated  in  its  boat-like  shell,  it  thus  floats  over  the  smooth 
surface  of  the  ocean,  steering  and  paddling  with  its  other 
arms.  Should  storm  arise  or  danger  threaten,  its  masts 
and  sail  are  lowered,  its  oars  laid  in,  and  the  frail  craft, 
rilling  with  water,  sinks  gently  beneath  the  waves. 

When  and  where  this  picturesque  idea  originated  I  am 
unable  to  discover.  It  dates  far  back  beyond  the  range 
of  history ;  for  Aristotle  mentions  it,  and,  unfortunately, 
sanctioned  it.  With  the  weight  of  his  honoured  name  in 
its  favour,  this  fallacy  has  maintained  its  place  in  popular 
belief,  even  to  our  own  times ;  for  the  mantle  of  the  great 
father  of  natural  history,  who  was  generally  so  marvellously 
correct,  fell  on  none  of  his  successors ;  Pliny,  and  ^Elian, 
and  the  tribe,  of  compilers  who  succeeded  them,  having  been 
more  concerned  to  make  their  histories  sensational  than  to 
verify  their  statements. 

Naturally,  the  Paper  Nautilus  has  been  the  subject  of  many 
a  poet's  verses.  Oppian  wrote  of  it  in  his  '  Halieutics ' : — 

"Sail-fish  in  secret,  silent  deeps  reside, 
In  shape  and  nature  to  the  preke  *  allied  ; 
Close  in  their  concave  shells  their  bodies  wrap, 
Avoid  the  waves  and  every  storm  escape. 
But  not  to  mirksome  depths  alone  confined ; 
When  pleasing  calms  have  stilled  the  sighing  wind, 
Curious  to  know  what  seas  above  contain, 
They  leave  the  dark  recesses  of  the  main  ; 
Now,  wanton,  to  the  changing  surface  haste, 
View  clearer  skies,  and  the  pure  welkin  taste. 
But  slow  they,  cautious,  rise,  and,  prudent,  fear 
The  upper  region  of  the  watery  sphere ; 
Backward  they  mount,  and  as  the  stream  o'erflows, 
Their  convex  shells  to  pressing  floods  oppose. 
Conscious,  they  know  that,  should  they  forward  move, 
O'erwhelming  waves  would  sink  them  from  above, 


*  The  octopus. 


266  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

Fill  the  void  space,  and  with  the  rushing  weight, 
Force  down  th'  inconstants  to  their  former  seat. 
When,  first  arrived,  they  feel  the  stronger  blast, 
They  lie  supine  and  skim  the  liquid  waste. 
The  natural  barks  out-do  all  human  art 
When  skilful  floaters  play  the  sailor's  part. 
Two  feet  they  upward  raise,  and  steady  keep ; 
These  are  the  masts  and  rigging  of  the  ship  : 
A  membrane  stretch'd  between  supplies  the  sail, 
Bends  from  the  masts,  and  swells  before  the  gale. 
Two  other  feet  hang  paddling  on  each  side, 
And  serve  for  oars  to  row  and  helm  to  guide. 
'Tis  thus  they  sail,  pleased  with  the  wanton  game, 
The  fish,  the  sailor,  and  the  ship,  the  same. 
But  when  the  swimmers  dread  some  dangers  near 
The  sportive  pleasure  yields  to  stronger  fear. 
No  more  they,  wanton,  drive  before  the  blasts, 
But  strike  the  sails,  and  bring  down  all  the  masts  ; 
The  rolling  waves  their  sinking  shells  o'erflow, 
And  dash  them  down  again  to  sands  below." 

Montgomery  also  thus  exquisitely  paraphrases  the  same 
idea  in  his  '  Pelican  Island ' : — 

"  Light  as  a  flake  of  foam  upon  the  wind, 
Keel  upwards,  from  the  deep  emerged  a  shell 
Shaped  like  the  moon  ere  half  her  orb  is  filled. 
Fraught  with  young  life,  it  righted  as  it  rose, 
And  moved  at  will  along  the  yielding  water. 
The  native  pilot  of  this  little  bark 
Put  out  a  tier  of  oars  on  either  side, 
Spread  to  the  wafting  breeze  a  twofold  sail, 
And  mounted  up,  and  glided  down,  the  billows 
In  happy  freedom,  pleased  to  feel  the  air> 
And  wander  in  the  luxury  of  light." 

Byron   mentions   the   Nautilus   in   his   'Mutiny   of  the 
Bounty '  as  follows  : — 

"The  tender  Nautilus,  who  steers  his  prow, 
The  sea-born  sailor  of  his  shell  canoe, 
The  ocean  Mab— the  fairy  of  the  sea, 
Seems  far  less  fragile,  and  alas!  more  free. 


THE  "SAILING"  OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  267 

He,  when  the  lightning-winged  tornadoes  sweep 
The  surge,  is  safe  :  his  port  is  in  the  deep  ; 
And  triumphs  o'er  the  armadas  of  mankind 
Which  shake  the  world,  yet  crumble  in  the  wind." 

The  very  names  by  which  this  animal  is  known  to  the 
science  which  some  persons  erroneously  think  must  be  so 
hard  and  dry  are  poetic.  In  Aristotle's  day  it  was  called 
the  Nautilus  or  Nauticus,  "  the  mariner,"  and  though  two 
thousand  two  hundred  years  have  passed  since  the  great 
master  wrote,  the  name  still  clings  to  it.  As  the  Pearly 
Nautilus,  a  very  different  animal,  also  bears  that  name, 
Gualtieri  perceived  the  necessity  of  distinguishing  the 
Paper  Nautilus  from  it,  and  was  followed  by  Linnaeus,  who 
therefore  entitled  the  genus  to  which  the  latter  belongs 
Argonauta,  after  the  ship  Argo,  in  which  Jason  and  his 
companions  sailed  to  Colchis  to  carry  off  the  "Golden 
Fleece "  suspended  there  in  the  temple  of  Mars,  and 
guarded  by  brazen-hoofed  bulls,  whose  nostrils  breathed 
out  fire  and  death,  and  by  a  watchful  dragon  that  never 
slept.  According  to  the  Greek  legend,  the  Argo  was 
named  after  its  builder  Argus,  the  son  of  Danaus,  and  was 
the  first  ship  that  ever  was  built.  Oppian  ('  Halieutics,' 
book  i.)  expresses  his  opinion  that  the  Nautilus  served  as 
a  model  for  the  man  who  first  conceived  the  idea  of  con- 
structing a  ship,  and  embarking  on  the  waters  :— 

"  Ye  Powers !  when  man  first  felled  the  stately  trees, 
And  passed  to  distant  shores  on  wafting  seas, 
Whether  some  god  inspired  the  wondrous  thought, 
Or  chance  found  out,  or  careful  study  sought ; 
If  humble  guess  may  probably  divine, 
And  trace  th'  improvement  to  the  first  design, 
Some  wight  of  prying  search,  who  wond'ring  stood 
When  softer  gales  had  smoothed  the  dimpled  flood, 
Observed  these  careless  swimmers  floating  move 
And  how  each  blast  the  easy  sailor  drove; 


268  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

Hence  took  the  hint,  hence  formed  th'  imperfect  draught, 

And  ship-like  fish  the  future  seaman  taught. 

Then  mortals  tried  the  shelving  hull  to  slope, 

To  raise  the  mast,  and  twist  the  stronger  rope, 

To  fix  the  yards,  let  fly  the  crowded  sails, 

Sweep  through  the  curling  waves,  and  court  auspicious  gales." 

Pope,  too,  in  his  '  Essay  on  Man '  (Ep.  3),  adopted  the 
idea  in  his  exhortation — 

"  Learn  of  the  little  Nautilus  to  sail, 
Spread  the  thin  oar,  and  catch  the  driving  gale." 

Poetry,  like  the  wizard's  spell,  can  make 

"A  nutshell  seem  a  gilded  barge, 
A  sheeling  seem  a  palace  large," 

but  the  equally  enchanting  wand  of  science  is  able  by  a 
touch  to  dispel  the  illusion,  and  cause  the  object  to  appear 
in  its  true  proportions.  So  with  the  fiction  of  the  "  Paper 
Sailor." 

I  have  elsewhere  described  the  affinities  of  the  Nautili 
and  their  place  in  nature,  therefore  it  will  only  be  necessary 
for  me  here  to  allude  to  these  very  briefly,  to  explain  the 
great  and  essential  difference  that  exists  between  the  two 
kinds  of  Nautilus  which  are  popularly  regarded  as  being 
one  and  the  same  animal. 

The  Pearly  Nautilus  (Nautilus  pompilius]  and  the 
Argonaut,  which  from  having  a  fragile  shell  of  somewhat 
similar  external  form  is  called  the  Paper  Nautilus,  both 
belong  to  that  great  primary  group  of  animals  known  as 
the  Mollusca,  and  to  the  class  of  it  called  the  Cephalopoda, 
from  their  having  their  head  in  the  middle  of  that  which  is 
the  foot  in  other  mollusks.  In  the  Cephalopoda  the  foot  is 
split  or  divided  into  eight  segments  in  some  families,  and 
in  others  into  ten  segments,  which  radiate  from  the  central 
head,  like  so  many  rays.  These  rays  are  not  only  used  as 


THE  "SAILING"   OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  269 

feet,  but,  being  highly  flexible,  are  adapted  for  employment 
also  as  prehensile  arms,  with  which  their  owner  captures 
its  prey,  and  they  are  rendered  more  perfect  for  this  purpose 
by  being  furnished  with  suckers  which  hold  firmly  to  any 
surface  to  which  they  are  applied.  The  Cephalopods 
which  have  the  foot  divided  into  ten  of  these  segments  or 
arms  are  called  the  Decapoday  those  which  have  only  eight 
of  them  are  called  the  Octopoda.  All  of  these  have  two 
plume-like  gills — one  on  each  side — and  so  are  called 
Dibranchiata  ;  and  in  the  eight-armed  section  of  these  is  the 
argonaut  or  Paper  Nautilus.  Of  the  Pearly  Nautilus  and 
the  four-gilled  order  to  which  it  belongs  I  shall  have  more 
to  say  by-and-by  :  at  present  we  will  follow  the  history  of 
the  argonaut. 

Notwithstanding  all  that  has 
been  written  of  it,  it  is  only 
within  the  last  fifty  years 
that  this  has  been  correctly 
understood.  An  eight-armed 
cuttle  was  recognised  and  named 
Ocytkoe,  which,  instead  of  hav- 

,.,          ,,  FIG.    20. — THE   PAPER   NAUTILUS 

ing,  like  the   common  octopus,        (Arsomula    argo)    RETRAC. 
all  of  its  eight  arms  thong-like        TED  WITHIN  ITS  SHELL. 
and   tapering   to   a  point,    had 

the  two  dorsal  limbs  flattened  into  a  broad  thin  mem- 
brane. Although  this  animal  was  sometimes  seen  dead 
without  any  covering,  it  was  generally  found  contained  in 
a  thin  and  slightly  elastic  univalve  shell  of  graceful  form 
and  bearing  some  resemblance  to  an  elegantly  shaped  boat. 
It  did  not  penetrate  to  the  bottom  of  this  shell ;  it  was  not 
attached  to  it  by  any  muscular  ligament,  nor  was  the  shell 
moulded  on  its  body,  nor  apparently  made  to  fit  it.  Hence 
it  was  long  regarded  as  doubtful,  and  even  by  naturalists  so 


270  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

recent  and  eminent  as  Dumeril  and  De  Blainville,  whether 
the  octopod  really  secreted  the  shell,  or  whether,  like  the 
hermit-crab,  it  borrowed  for  its  protection  the  shell  of  some 
other  mollusk.  Aristotle  left  the  subject  with  the  faithful 
acknowledgment :  "  As  to  the  origin  and  growth  of  this 
shell  nothing  is  yet  exactly  determined.  It  appears  to  be 
produced  like  other  shells  ;  but  even  this  is  not  evident, 
any  more  than  it  is  whether  the  animal  can  live  without  it." 
Pliny,  as  usual,  instead  of  throwing  light  on  the  matter, 
obscured  it.  He  regarded  the  shell  as  the  property  of  a 
gasteropod  like  the  snail,  and  the  octopod  as  an  amateur 
yachtsman  who  occasionally  went  on  board  and  took  a  trip 
in  the  frail  craft,  and  assisted  its  owner  to  navigate  it  for 
the  fun  of  the  thing.  This  is  what  he  says  about  it :  * 

"  Mutianus  reports  that  he  saw  in  the  Propontis  a  shell  formed  like 
a  little  ship,  having  the  poop  turned  up  and  the  prow  pointed.  An 
animal  called  the  Nauplius,  resembling  an  octopus,  was  enclosed  in 
the  shell  with  its  owner,  for  its  amusement  in  the  following  manner. 
When  the  sea  is  calm  the  guest  lowers  his  arms,  and  uses  them  as 
oars  and  a  helm,  whilst  the  owner  of  the  shell  expands  himself  to 
catch  the  wind  ;  so  that  one  has  the  pleasure  of  carrying  and  sailing, 
and  the  other  of  steering.  Thus,  these  two  otherwise  senseless  animals 
take  their  pleasure  together ;  but  the  meeting  them  sailing  in  their 
shell  is  a  bad  omen  for  mariners,  and  foretells  some  great  calamity." 

Although  the  animal  was  never  found  in  any  other  shell, 
and  the  shell  was  never  known  to  contain  any  other  animal, 
and  though,  when  the  shell  and  the  animal  were  found 
together  they  were  always  of  proportionate  size,  this  octo- 
pod, as  I  have  said,  was  looked  upon  by  some  conchologists 
as  a  pirate  who  had  taken  possession  of  a  ship  which  did 
not  belong  to  him,  until  Madame  Jeannette  Power,  a 
French  lady  then  residing  in  Messina,  having  succeeded  in 
keeping  alive  for  a  time  an  argonaut  the  shell  of  which  had 
*  Naturalis  Historia,  lib.  ix.  cap.  30. 


THE  "  SAILING  "  OF  THE  NA  UTIL  US.  27  r 

been  broken  in  its  capture,  discovered  that  the  animal 
quickly  repaired  the  fracture,  and  reproduced  the  portions 
that  had  been  broken  off.  Induced  by  this  to  make 
further  experiments,  she  kept  a  number  of  living  argonauts 
in  cages  sunk  in  the  sea  near  the  citadel  of  Messina,  and  in 
1836  laid  before  the  "Academy"  at  Catania  the  following 
results  of  her  observations  of  them  : — 

ist.  That  the  argonaut  constructs  the  shell  which  it 
inhabits. 

2nd.  That  it  quits  the  egg  entirely  naked,  and  forms  the 
shell  after  its  birth. 

3rd.  That  it  can  repair  its  shell,  if  necessary,  by  a  fresh 
deposit  of  material  having  the  same  chemical  composition 
as  its  original  shell. 

4th.  That  this  material  is  secreted  by  the  palmate,  or 
sail,  arms,  and  is  laid  on  the  outside  of  the  shell,  to  the 
exterior  of  which  these  membranous  arms  are  closely 
applied. 

Madame  Power  was  mistaken  on  two  points.  Firstly, 
the  construction  of  the  shell  does  not  commence  after 
the  birth  of  the  animal,  but,  as  has  been  shown  by 
M.  Duvernoy,  its  rudimentary  form  is  distinctly  visible  by 
the  aid  of  the  microscope  in  the  embryo,  whilst  still  in  the 
egg ;  and  secondly,  she  continued  to  believe  in  the  use  of 
the  membranous  arms  as  sails,  and  of  the  others  as  oars 
This  fallacy  was  exploded  by  Captain  Sander  Rang,  an 
officer  of  the  French  navy,  and  "  port-captain  "  at  Algiers, 
who  carefully  followed  up  Madame  Power's  experiments, 
and  confirmed  the  more  important  of  them.  Thus  were 
set  at  rest  questions  which  for  centuries  had  divided  the 
opinions  of  zoologists. 

"  The  *  Paper  Nautilus '   is,   in    fact,   a   female   octopod 
provided  with  a  portable  nest,  in  which  to  carry  about  and 


272  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

protect  her  eggs,  instead  of  brooding  over  them  in  some 
cranny  of  a  rock,  or  within  the  recesses  of  a  pile  of  shells, 
as  does  her  cousin  the  octopus.  From  the  membranes  of 
the  two  flattened  and  expanded  arms  she  secretes  and,  if 
necessary,  repairs  her  shell,  and,  by  applying  them  closely 
to  its  outer  surface  on  each  side,  holds  herself  within  it,  for 
it  is  not  fastened  to  her  body  by  any  attaching  muscles. 
When  disturbed  or  in  danger  she  can  loosen  her  hold,  and, 
leaving  her  cradle,  swim  away  independently  of  it.  It 
has  been  said  that,  having  once  left  it,  she  has  not  the 
ability  nor  perhaps  the  sagacity  to  re-enter  her  nest,  and 
resume  the  guardianship  of  her  eggs."  *  From  my  own 
observations  of  the  breeding  habits  of  other  octopods  I 
think  this  most  improbable.  The  use  and  purpose  of  the 
shell  of  the  argonaut  will  be  better  understood  if  I  briefly 
describe  what  I  have  witnessed  of  the  treatment  of  its  eggs 
by  its  near  relative,  the  octopus. 

"The  eggs  of  the  octopus,"  as  I  have  elsewhere  said, 
"when  first  laid,  are  small,  oval,  translucent  granules, 
resembling  little  grains  of  rice,  not  quite  an  eighth  of  an 
inch  long.  They  grow  along  and  around  a  common  stalk, 
to  which  every  egg  is  separately  attached,  as  grapes  form 
part  of  a  bunch.  Each  of  the  elongated  bunches  is  affixed 
by  a  glutinous  secretion  to  the  surface  of  a  rock  or  stone 
(never  to  seaweed,  as  has  been  erroneously  stated),  and 
hangs  pendant  by  its  stalk  in  a  long  white  cluster,  like  a 
magnified  catkin  of  the  filbert,  or,  to  use  Aristotle's  simile, 
like  the  fruit  of  the  white  alder.  The  length  and  number 
of  these  bunches  varies  according  to  the  size  and  condition 
of  the  parent.  Those  produced  by  a  small  octopus  are 
seldom  more  than  about  three  inches  long,  and  from 

1  Appendix  to  Sir  Edward  Belcher's  'Voyage  of  the  Samarang: 
by  Mr.  Arthur  Adams,  assistant  surgeon  to  the  expedition. 


THE  "SAILING"  OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  273 

twelve  to  twenty  in  number ;  but  a  full-grown  female  will 
deposit  from  forty  to  fifty  of  such  clusters,  each  about  five 
inches  in  length.  I  have  counted  the  eggs  of  which  these 
clusters  are  composed,  and  find  that  there  are  about  a 
thousand  in  each :  so  that  a  large  octopus  produces  in  one 
laying,  usually  extended  over  three  days,  a  progeny  of 
from  40,000  to  50,000.  I  have  seen  an  octopus,  when 
undisturbed,  pass  one  of  her  arms  beneath  the  hanging 
bunches  of  her  eggs,  and,  dilating  the  membrane  on  each 
side  of  it  into  a  boat-shaped  hollow,  gather  and  receive 
them  in  it,  as  in  a  trough  or  cradle  which  exhibited  in  its 
general  shape  and  outline  a  remarkable  similarity  to  the 
shell  of  the  argonaut,  with  the  eggs  of  which  octopod  its 
own  are  almost  identical  in  form  and  appearance.  Then 
she  would  caress  and  gently  rub  them,  occasionally  turning 
towards  them  the  mouth  of  her  flexible  exhalant  and  loco- 
motor  tube,  like  the  nozzle  of  a  fireman's  hose-pipe,  so  as 
to  direct  upon  them  a  jet  of  the  excurrent  water.  I  believe 
that  the  object  of  this  syringing  process  is  to  free  the  eggs 
from  parasitic  animalcules,  and  possibly  to  prevent  the 
growth  of  conferva,  which,  I  have  found,  rapidly  over- 
spreads those  removed  from  her  attention."  * 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  syringing  may  be  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  the  water  surrounding  the  eggs  well 
aerated  ;  but  this  is  evidently  erroneous,  for  the  water 
ejected  from  the  tube  has  been  previously  deprived  of  its 
oxygen,  and  consequently  of  its  health-giving  properties, 
whilst  passing  over  the  gills  of  the  parent.  Week  after 
week,  for  fifty  days,  a  brooding  octopus  will  continue  to 
attend  to  her  eggs  with  the  most  watchful  and  assiduous 
care,  seldom  leaving  them  for  an  instant  except  to  take 
food,  which,  without  a  brief  abandonment  of  her  position, 

*  The  Octopus,  1873,  P-  57-     " 
VOL  III. — H.  T 


274  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

would  be  beyond  her  reach.  Aristotle  asserted  that  while 
the  female  is  incubating  she  takes  no  food.  This  is 
incorrect ;  but  in  every  case  of  the  kind  that  has  come 
under  my  observation  the  mother  octopod,  whenever  she 
has  been  obliged  to  leave  her  nest,  has  returned  to  it  as 
quickly  as  possible  ;  and  so  I  believe  can,  and  does,  the 
female  argonaut  to  her  shell,  and  that,  too,  without  any 
difficulty.  In  her  case  the  numerous  clusters  of  eggs  are  all 
united  at  their  origin  to  one  slender  and  tapering  stalk 
which  is  fixed  by  a  spot  of  glutinous  matter  to  the  body- 
whorl  of  the  spiral  shell. 


FIG.   30.—  THE   PAPER   NAUTILUS    (Argonautd  argo)    CRAWLING. 

•  This  "  paper-sailor,"  then,  whom  the  poets  have  regarded 
as  endowed  with  so  much  grace  and  beauty,  and  living 
in  luxurious  ease,  is  but  a  fine  lady  octopus  after  all. 
Turn  her  out  of  her  handsome  residence,  and,  instead 
of  the  fairy  skimmer  of  the  seas,  you  have  before  you  an 
object  apparently  as  free  from  loveliness  and  romance  as 
her  sprawling,  uncanny-looking,  relative.  Instead  of  floating 
in  her  pleasure  boat  over  the  surface  of  the  sea,  the 
argonaut  ordinarily  crawls  along  the  bottom,  carrying  her 
shell  above  her,  keel  uppermost ;  and  the  broad  extremities 
of  the  two  arms  are  not  hoisted  as  sails,  nor  allowed  when 
at  rest  to  dangle  over  the  side  of  the  "boat ; "  but  are  used 


THE  "SAILING"   OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  275 

as  a  kind  of  hood  by  which  the  animal  retains  the  shell  in 
its  proper  position,  as  a  man  bearing  a  load  on  his  shoulders 
holds  it  with  his  hands.  When  she  comes  to  the  surface, 
or  progresses  by  swimming  instead  of  walking,  she  does  so 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  octopus :  namely,  by  the  forcible 
expulsion  of  water  from  her  funnel-like  tube. 

But  if  truth  compels  us  to  deprive  her  of  the  counterfeit 
halo  conferred  on  her  by  poets,  we  can  award  her,  on  behalf 
of  science,  a  far  nobler  crown  ;  namely,  that  of  the  Queen 
of  the  whole  great  Invertebrate  Animal  Kingdom.  For 
the  Cephalopoda,  of  which  the  argonaut  is  a  highly 
organised  member,  are  not  only  the  highest  in  their  own 
division,  the  Mollusca,  but  they  are  as  far  superior  to  all 


FIG.  31. — THE  PAPER  NAUTILUS  (Argonauta  argo)  SWIMMING. 

other  animals  which  have  no  backbones,  as  man  stands 
lord  and  king  over  all  created  beings  that  possess  them. 

Although  in  outward  shape  the  spiral  shell  of  the  Pearly 
Nautilus  (Natitihis  pompilius)  somewhat  resembles  that  of 
the  argonaut,  its  internal  structure  is  very  different.  A 
section  of  it  shows  that  it  is  divided  into  several  chambers, 
each  of  which  is  partitioned  off  from  the  adjoining  ones,  the 
last  formed  or  external  one,  in  which  the  animal  lives,  being 
much  larger  than  the  rest.  The  object  and  mode  of 
construction  of  these  chambers  is  as  follows.  As  the 
animal  grows,  a  constant  secretion  of  new  material  takes 
place  on  the  edge  of  the  shell.  By  this  unceasing  process 
of  the  addition  of  new  shell  in  the  form  of  a  circular  curve 

T  2 


276  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

or  coil  around  the  older  portion,  the  whole  rapidly  increases 
in  size,  both  in  diameter,  and  in  the  length  of  the  chamber. 
The  Nautilus,  requiring  to  keep  the  secreting  portion  of  its 
mantle  applied  to  the  lip  of  the  shell,  finds  the  chamber  in 
which  it  dwells  gradually  becoming  inconveniently  long  for 
it,  and  therefore  builds  up  a  wall  behind  itself,  and  continues 
its  work  of  enlarging  its  premises  in  front.  Each  of  these 
walls,  concave  in  front,  towards  the  mouth  of  the  shell,  and 
concave  behind,  acts  as  a  strong  girder  and  support  of  the 


FIG.  32. — SHELL  OF  THE  PAPER  NAUTILUS  (Argonauta  argo). 


arch  of  the  shell  against  the  inward  pressure  of  deep  water  : 
and  it  was  formerly  supposed  that  each  successive  chamber 
so  constructed  and  vacated  remained  filled  with  air,  and 
thus  became  an  additional  float  by  which  the  constantly 
increasing  weight  of  the  growing  shell  was  counterbalanced. 
By  this  beautiful  adjustment  of  augmented  floating  power  to 
increased  weight,  the  buoyancy  of  the  shell  would  be  secured 
and  its  specific  gravity  maintained  as  nearly  as  possible  equal 
to  that  of  the  surrounding  water.  This  adjustment  does 


THE  "SAILING"   OF  THE  NAUTILUS. 


277 


probably  take  place,  but  in  a  somewhat  different  manner. 
As  the  Nautilus  inhabits  a  depth  of  from  twenty  to  forty 
fathoms,  it  is  evident  that  the  air  within  its  shell  would 
be  displaced  by  the  pressure  of  such  a  column  of  water.* 
Accordingly,  in  every  instance  of  the  capture  of  a  Nautilus 
the  chambers  of  its  shell  have  been  found  filled  with  water. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  the  fluid  they  contain  may  be  less 
compressed,  and  exert  less  pressure  from  within  outwards 


FIG.    33.— SHELL   OF   THE    PEARLY    NAUTILUS    (Nautilus pOlllpilius} . 

than  that  of  the  external  superincumbent  column  of  water, 
and  that  by  this    unbalanced  pressure — under   the   same 

*  "At  100  fathoms  the  pressure  exceeds  265  Ibs.  to  the  square  inch. 
Empty  bottles,  securely  corked,  and  sunk  with  weights  beyond  100 
fathoms,  are  always  crushed.  If  filled  with  liquid  the  cork  is  driven 
in,  and  the  liquid  replaced  by  salt  water  ;  and  in  drawing  the  bottle  up 
again  the  cork  is  returned  to  the  neck  of  the  bottle,  generally  in  a 
reversed  position." — Sir  F.  Beaufort,  quoted  by  Dr.  S.  P.  Woodward 
in  his  Manual  of  the  Mollusca. 


278 


SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


hydro-dynamic  law  which  governs  its  mode  of  self-propulsion 
when  swimming,  and  possibly  in  some  degree  within  the 
control  of  the  animal— the  latter  is  relieved  of  much  of  the 
weight  of  its  shell.  When  the  Nautilus  is  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea  its  movement  is  like  that  of  a  snail  crawling  along 


FIG.   34. — THE   PEARLY  NAUTILUS   (Nautilus  pompilius)>    AND   SECTION   OF 

ITS  SHELL.     After  Professor  Owen. 

a  a,  Partitions ;  b  b,  chambers  ;  b\  the  last-formed  chamber,  in  which  the 
animal  lives ;  c  c,  the  siphuncle ;  d,  attaching  muscle  ;  e  e,  the  hollow 
arms  ;  ffy  retractile  tentacles  ;  £•,  muscular  disk,  or  foot ;  h,  the  eye  j  i, 
position  of  funnel. 

upon  the  ground  with  its  shell  above  it.  The  shell,  in 
proportion  to  the  size  of  the  animal  that  inhabits  it,  is  a 
heavy  one,  and  unless  it  were  rendered  semi-buoyant,  its 
owner's  strength  would  be  severely  taxed  by  the  effort  to 
drag  it  along.  By  the  means  indicated  this  portable 


THE  "SAILING"   OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  279 

domicile  is  borne  lightly  above  the  body  of  the  Nautilus, 
without  in  any  way  impeding  its  progress. 

The  chambers  are  all  connected  by  a  membranous  tube 
slightly  coated  with  nacre,  which  is  connected  with  a  large 
sac  in  the  body  of  the  animal,  near  the  heart,  and  passes 
through  a  circular  orifice  and  a  short  projecting  tube  in  the 
centre  of  each  partition  wall,  till  it  ends  in  the  smallest 
chamber  at  the  inner  extremity  of  the  shell.  Dean 
Buckland  believed  this  "  syphon  "  to  be  an  hydraulic  ap- 
paratus acting  as  a  "  fine  adjustment "  of  the  specific  gravity 
of  the  shell,  by  admitting  water  within  it  when  expanded, 
and  excluding  it  when  contracted.  As  it  contains  an 
artery  and  vein  near  its  origin  at  the  mantle,  Professor 
Owen  has  regarded  it  as  subservient  to  the  maintenance  of 
a  low  vitality  in  the  vacated  portion  of  the  shell.  Dr. 
Henry  Woodward  is  of  the  opinion  that,  whilst  in  the 
early  life  of  the  Nautilus  this  siphuncle  forms  the  main 
point  of  attachment  between  the  animal  and  its  shell,  it 
is  in  the  adult  "  simply  an  aborted  embryonal  organ  whose 
function  is  now  filled  by  the  shell-muscles,  but  which  in  the 
more  ancient  and  straight-shelled  representatives  of  the 
group  (the  Orthoceratites)  was  not  merely  an  embryonal 
but  an  important  organ  in  the  adult." 

Every  one  knows  the  shell  of  the  Pearly  Nautilus.  It 
may  be  purchased  at  any  shell-shop  in  a  seaside  watering- 
place,  and  is  imported  by  hundreds  every  year  from 
Singapore.*  It  is  abundant  in  the  waters  of  the  Indian 
Archipelago,  especially  about  the  Molucca  and  Philippine 
Islands,  and  on  the  shores  of  New  Caledonia  and  the  Fiji 

*  I  need  hardly  say  that  before  the  nacreous  layer  of  the  shell 
from  whicu  this  animal  takes  its  name  is  made  visible,  an  outer  deposit 
of  dense  calcareous  matter  has  to  be  removed  by  hydrochloric  acid  : 
the  pearly  ourtace  thus  exposed  is  then  easily  polished. 


28o  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

and  Solomon  Islands.  It  has  also  been  found  alive  on 
Pemba  Island,  near  Zanzibar.  It  seems  strange,  therefore, 
that  until  about  half  a  century  ago  hardly  anything  was 
known  of  the  animal  that  secretes  and  inhabits  it.  Rum- 
phius,  a  Dutch  naturalist,  in  his  'Rarities  of  Amboyna/ 
published,  in  1705,  a  description  of  one  with  an  engraving, 
incorrect  in  drawing,  and  deficient  in  detail ;  and  until  1832 
this  was  the  only  information  which  existed  concerning  it. 
The  great  Cuvier  never  saw  one,  and  being  acquainted  only 
with  the  two-gilled  cephalopods,  he  regarded  the  head- 
footed  mollusks  as  absolutely  isolated  from  all  other 
animals  in  the  kingdom  of  nature,  even  from  the  other 
classes  of  the  mollusca^  It  seemed,  however,  to  Professor 
Owen,  then  only  nineteen  years  of  age,  that  in  the  only 
living  representative  of  the  four-gilled  order,  Nautilus 
pompilius,  might  be  found  the  "missing  link."  When, 
therefore,  in  the  year  1824,  his  fellow- student,  Mr.  George 
Bennett,  was  about  to  sail  from  England  to  the  Polynesian 
Islands,  young  Richard  Owen  earnestly  charged  his  friend 
to  do  his  utmost  to  obtain,  and  bring  home  in  alcohol,  a 
specimen  of  the  much-coveted  Pearly  Nautilus.  The 
opportunity  did  not  occur  till  one  warm  and  calm  Monday 
evening,  the  24th  of  August,  1829,  when  a  living  Nautilus 
was  seen  at  the  surface  of  the  water  not  far  distant  from 
the  ship,  in  Marekini  Bay,  on  the  south-west  coast  of  the 
Island  of  Erromango,  New  Hebrides,  in  the  South  Pacific 
Ocean.  It  looked  like  a  dead  tortoise-shell  cat,  as  the 
sailors  said.  As  it  began  to  sink  as  soon  as  it  was 
observed,  it  was  struck  at  with  a  boat-hook,  and  was  thus 
so  much  injured  that  it  died  shortly  after  being  taken  on 
board  the  ship.  The  shell  was  destroyed,  but  the  soft 
body  of  the  animal  was  preserved  in  spirits,  and  great  was 
the  joy  of  Mr.  Owen  when,  in  July,  1831,  Mr.  Bennett 


THE  "SAILING"  OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  281 

arrived  with  it  in  England,  and  presented  it  to  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons.  Mr.  Owen  was  then  Assistant- 
Conservator  of  the  Museum  of  the  College  under  Mr.  Clift, 
who  was  afterwards  his  father-in-law.  He  immediately 
commenced  to  anatomise,  describe,  and  figure  his  rare 
acquisition,  and  in  the  early  part  of  1832  published  the 
result  of  his  work  in  the  form  of  a  masterly  treatise,  which 
proved  to  be  the  foundation  of  his  future  fame.* 

Mr.  Owen's  investigations  confirmed  his  previous  sup- 
position that  the  Pearly  Nautilus  is  inferior  in  its  organisa- 
tion to  octopus,  sepia,  or  any  other  known  cephalopod  ; 
that  it  is  not  isolated,  but  that  it  recedes  towards  the 
gasteropods,  to  which  belong  the  snail,  the  periwinkle,  &c., 
and  that  in  some  of  its  characters  its  structure  is  analo- 
gously related  to  the  still  lower  annulosa,  or  worms.  Mr. 

*  It  is  so  interesting  to  most  of  us  to  know  something  of  the  early 
work  of  our  greatest  men,  and  of  the  tide  in  their  affairs,  which, 
taken  at  the  flood,  led  on  to  fortune,  that  I  hope  I  may  be  excused  for 
referring  to  the  period  when  the  distinguished  chief  of  the  Natural 
History  Department  of  the  British  Museum,  the  great  comparative 
anatomist,  the  unrivalled  palaeontologist,  the  illustrious  physiologist, 
the  venerable  and  venerated  friend  of  all  earnest  students,  was  be- 
ginning to  attract  the  attention,  and  to  receive  the  approbation  of  his 
seniors  as  a  promising  young  worker.  In  Messrs.  Griffith  and  Pidgeon's 
Supplement  to  Cuvier's  '  Mollusca  and  Radiata,'  published  in  1834,  the 
treatise  in  question  is  thus  mentioned  :  "  We  have  much  pleasure  in 
referring  to  a  most  excellent  memoir  on  Nautilus  pompilius,  by  Mr. 
Owen,  with  elaborate  figures  of  the  animal,  its  shell,  and  various  parts, 
published  by  direction  of  the  Council  of  the  College  of  Surgeons.  The 
reader  will  find  the  most  satisfactory  information  on  the  subject,  and 
the  scientific  public  will  earnestly  hope  that  the  present  volume  will  be 
the  first  of  a  similar  series."  This  hope  has  been  more  than  fulfilled. 
Dean  Buckland,  in  his  '  Bridgewater  Treatise,'  wrote  of  this  work  :  "  I 
rejoice  in  the  present  opportunity  of  bearing  testimony  to  the  value  of 
Professor  Owen's  highly  philosophical  and  most  admirable  memoir — 
a  work  not  less  creditable  to  the  author  than  honourable  to  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons,  under  whose  auspices  the  publication  has  been  so 
handsomely  conducted." 


282  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

Owen  was  just  about  to  start  for  Paris  with  the  intention 
of  presenting  a  copy  of  his  book  to  his  celebrated  contem- 
porary and  friend,  and  of  showing  him  his  dissections  of  the 
Nautilus  which  had  been  the  subject  of  his  research,  when 
he  heard  of  Baron  Cuvier's  death.  It  must  have  been  to 
him  a  great  sorrow  and  a  grievous  disappointment. 

The  Pearly  Nautilus,  then,  is  a  true  cephalopod,  in  that 
it  has  its  foot  divided  and  arranged  in  segments  around 
its  head,  but  the  form  and  number  of  these  segments  are 
very  different  from  those  of  any  other  of  its  class.  Instead  of 
there  being  eight,  as  in  the  argonaut  and  octopus,  or  ten,  as 
in  sepia  and  the  calamaries,  the  Nautilus  has  about  ninety 
projecting  in  every  direction  from  around  the  mouth.  They 
are  short,  round  and  tapering,  of  about  the  length  and  thick- 
ness of  the  fingers  of  a  child.  Some  of  them  are  retractile 
into  sheaths,  and  they  are  attached  to  fleshy  processes 
(which  might  represent  the  child's  hand),  overlying  each 
other,  and  covering  the  mouth  on  each  side.  They  have 
none  of  the  suckers  with  which  the  arms  and  tentacles  of  all 
thet  other  cuttles  are  furnished,  but  their  annulose  structure, 
like  the  rings  of  an  earthworm's  body,  gives  them  some 
little  prehensile  power.  None  of  these  numerous  finger- 
like  segments  of  the  foot  are  flattened  out  like  the  broad 
membranous  expansions  of  the  argonaut,  and,  in  fact,  the 
Nautilus  is  without  any  members  which  can  possibly  be 
regarded  as  sails  to  hoist,  or  as  oars  with  which  to  row.  It 
has  a  strong  beak,  like  the  rest  of  the  cuttles,  but,  unlike 
them,  has  four  gills  instead  of  two ;  and  it  has  no  ink-sac, 
for  its  shell  is  strong  enough  to  afford  it  the  protection 
which  its  two-gilled  relatives  have  to  seek  in  concealment. 

The  Pearly  Nautilus  usually  creeps,  like  a  snail,  along 
the  bed  of  the  sea.  It  lives  at  the  bottom,  and  feeds 


THE  "SAILING"  OF  THE  NAUTILUS.  283 

at  the  bottom,  principally  on  crabs  ;  and,  as  Dr.  S.  P. 
Woodward  says,  in  his  'Manual  of  the  Mollusca/  "perhaps 
often  lies  in  wait  for  them,  like  some  gigantic  sea-anemone, 
with  outspread  tentacles."  The  shape  of  its  shell  is  not 
well  adapted  for  swimming,  but  it  can  ascend  to  the  surface, 
if  it  so  please,  in  the  same  manner  as  can  all  the  cuttles — 
namely,  by  the  outflow  of  water  from  its  locomotor  tube. 
The  statement  that  it  visits  the  surface  of  the  sea  of  its  own 
accord  is  at  present,  however,  unconfirmed  by  observation. 

But,  if  the  Pearly  Nautilus  is  the  inferior  and  poor  rela- 
tion of  the  argonaut,  it  lives  in  a  handsome  house,  and 
comes  of  an  ancient  lineage.  The  Ammonites,  whose 
beautiful  whorled  and  chambered  shells,  and  the  casts  of 
them,  are  so  abundant  in  every  stratum,  especially  in  the 
lias,  the  chalk,  and  the  oolite,  had  four  gills  also.  These 
Ammonites  and  the  Nautili  were  amongst  the  earliest 
occupants  of  the  ancient  deep;  and,  with  the  Hamites, 
Turrilites,  and  others,  lived  upon  our  earth  during  a  great 
portion  of  the  incalculable  period  which  has  elapsed  since 
it  became  fitted  for  animal  existence,  and  in  their  time 
witnessed  the  rise  and  fall  of  many  an  animal  dynasty. 
But  they  are  gone  now ;  and  only  the  fossil  relics  of  more 
than  two  thousand  species  (of  which  188  were  Nautili) 
remain  to  tell  how  important  a  race  they  were  amongst  the 
inhabitants  of  the  old  world  seas.  They  and  their  con- 
geners of  the  chambered  shells,  however,  left  one  represen- 
tative which  has  lived  on  through  all  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  on  the  surface  of  this  globe  since  they  became 
extinct — namely,  Nautilus  pompilius,  the  Nautilus  of  the 
pearly  shell — the  last  of  the  Tetrabranchs. 

I  need  offer  no  apology  for  endeavouring  to  explain  the 
difference  between  the  Nautilus  of  the  chambered  shell  and 
the  argonaut  with  the  membranous  arms  which  it  was 


2g4  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

supposed  to  use  as  sails,  when  Webster,  in  his  great  stan- 
dard dictionary,  describes  the  one  and  figures  the  other  as 
one  and  the  same  animal ;  and  when  a  writer  of  the  cele- 
brity of  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  also  blends  the  two  in 
the  following  poem,  containing  a  sentiment  as  exquisite  as 
its  science  is  erroneous.  I  hope  the  latter  distinguished 
and  accomplished  author,  whose  delightful  writings  I  enjoy 
and  highly  appreciate,  will  pardon  my  criticism.  I  admit 
that  the  beauty  of  the  thought  might  well  atone  for  its 
inaccuracy  (of  which  the  author  is  conscious),  were  it  not 
that  the  latter  is  made  so  attractive  that  truth  appears 
harsh  in  disturbing  it. 

"THE  CHAMBERED  NAUTILUS." 

"  This  is  the  ship  of  pearl,  which  poets  feign 

Sails  the  unshadowed  main, 

The  venturous  bark  that  flings 
On  the  sweet  summer  wind  its  purpled  wings, 
In  gulfs  enchanted,  where  the  siren  sings, 

And  coral  reefs  lie  bare, 
Where  the  cold  sea-maids  rise  to  sun  their  streaming  hair. 

Its  webs  of  living  gauze  no  more  unfurl, 

Wrecked  is  the  ship  of  pearl ! 

And  every  chambered  cell, 

Where  its  dim,  dreaming  life  was  wont  to  dwell, 
As  the  frail  tenant  shaped  his  growing  shell, 

Before  thee  lies  revealed, 
Its  irised  ceiling  rent,  its  sunless  crypt  unsealed  ! 

Year  after  year  beheld  the  silent  toil 

That  spread  his  lustrous  coil; 

Still,  as  the  spiral  grew, 
He  left  "the  past  year's  dwelling  for  the  new, 
Stole  with  soft  step  its  shining  archway  through, 

Built  up  its  idle  door, 
Stretched  in  his  last-found  home,  and  knew  the  old  no  more. 


THE   "SAILING"    OF   THE  NAUTILUS.  285 

Thanks  for  the  heavenly  message  brought  by  thee, 

Child  of  the  wandering  sea, 

Cast  from  her  lap  forlorn ! 
From  the  dead  lips  a  clearer  note  is  born 
Than  ever  Triton  blew  from  wreathed  horn  ! 

While  on  mine  ear  it  rings, 
Through  the  deep  caves  of  thought  I  hear  a  voice  that  sings  : — 

*  Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  O  my  soul, 

As  the  swift  seasons  roll! 

Leave  thy  low  vaulted  past ; 
Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast, 

Till  thou  at  length  art  free, 
Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea.'" 


286  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES. 

THE  belief  that  some  wild  geese,  instead  of  being  hatched 
from  eggs,  like  other  birds,  grew  on  trees  and  rotten 
wood  has  never  been  surpassed  as  a  specimen  of  ignorant 
credulity  and  persistent  error. 

There  are  two  principal  versions  of  this  absurd  notion. 
One  is  that  certain  trees,  resembling  willows,  and  growing 
always  close  to  the  sea,  produced  at  the  ends  of  their 
branches  fruit  in  form  like  apples,  and  each  containing 
the  embryo  of  a  goose,  which,  when  the  fruit  was  ripe,  fell 
into  the  water  and  flew  away.  The  other  is  that  the  geese 
were  bred  from  a  fungus  growing  on  rotten  timber  floating 
at  sea,  and  were  first  developed  in  the  form  of  worms  in 
the  substance  of  the  wood. 

When  and  whence  this  improbable  theory  had  its  origin 
is  uncertain.  Aristotle  does  not  mention  it,  and  con- 
sequently Pliny  and  ^Elian  were  deprived  of  the  pleasure 
they  would  have  felt  in  handing  down  to  posterity,  without 
investigation  or  correction,  a  statement  so  surprising.  It  is, 
comparatively,  a  modern  myth  ;  although  we  find  that 
it  was  firmly  established  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  for  Gerald  de  Barri,  known  in  literature  as 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,  mentions  it  in  his  *  Topographia 
Hiberniae,'  published  in  1 187.  Giraldus,  who  was  Archdeacon 
of  Brecknock  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  and  tried  hard,  more 
than  once,  for  the  bishopric  of  St.  David's,  the  functions  of 
which  he  had  temporarily  administered  without  obtaining 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.    287 

the  title,  was  a  vigorous  and  zealous  reformer  of  Church 
abuses.  Amongst  the  laxities  of  discipline  against  which 
he  found  it  necessary  to  protest  was  the  custom  then 
prevailing  of  eating  these  Barnacle  geese  during  Lent, 
under  the  plea  that  their  flesh  was  not  that  of  birds,  but  of 
fishes.  He  writes  : — 

"There  are  here  many  birds  which  are  called  Bernacae,  which 
nature  produces  in  a  manner  contrary  to  nature,  and  very  wonderful. 
They  are  like  marsh-geese  but  smaller.  They  are  produced  from  fir- 
timber  tossed  about  at  sea,  and  are  at  first  like  geese  upon  it.  After- 
wards they  hang  down  by  their  beaks,  as  if  from  a  sea-weed  attached 
to  the  wood,  and  are  enclosed  in  shells  that  they  may  grow  the  more 
freely.  Having  thus,  in  course  of  time,  been  clothed  with  a  strong 
covering  of  feathers,  they  either  fall  into  the  water,  or  seek  their  liberty 
in  the  air  by  flight.  The  embryo  geese  derive  their  growth  and  nutri- 
ment from  the  moisture  of  the  wood  or  of  the  sea,  in  a  secret  and  most 
marvellous  manner.  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  more  than  a 
thousand  minute  bodies  of  these  birds  hanging  from  one  piece  of 
timber  on  the  shore,  enclosed  in  shells  and  already  formed.  Their 
eggs  are  not  impregnated  in  coitu,  like  those  of  other  birds,  nor  does 
the  bird  sit  upon  its  eggs  to  hatch  them,  and  in  no  corner  of  the  world 
have  they  been  known  to  build  a  nest.  Hence  the  bishops  and  clergy 
in  some  parts  of  Ireland  are  in  the  habit  of  partaking  of  these  birds  on 
fast  days,  without  scruple.  But  in  doing  so  they  are  led  into  sin. 
For,  if  any  one  were  to  eat  of  the  leg  of  our  first  parent,  although  he 
(Adam)  was  not  born  of  flesh,  that  person  could  not  be  adjudged 
innocent  of  eating  flesh." 

This  fable  of  the  geese  appears,  however,  to  have  been 
current  at  least  a  hundred  years  before  Giraldus  wrote,  for 
Professor  Max  Muller,  who  treats  of  it  in  one  of  his 
"  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,"  amongst  many 
interesting  references  there  given,  quotes  a  Cardinal  of  the 
eleventh  century,  Petrus  Damianus,  who  clearly  describes 
that  version  of  it  which  represents  the  birds  as  bursting, 
when  fully  fledged,  from  fruit  resembling  apples. 

It   is   a   curious   fact   that   these    Barnacle   geese   have 


288  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

troubled  the  priesthood  of  more  than  one  creed  as  to  the 
instructions  they  should  give  to  the  laity  concerning  the  use 
of  them  as  food.  The  Jews— all  those,  at  least,  who 
maintain  a  strict  observance  of  the  Hebrew  Law — eat  no 
meat  but  that  of  animals  which  have  been  slaughtered  in  a 
certain  prescribed  manner ;  and  a  doubt  arose  amongst 
them  at  the  period  we  refer  to,  whether  these  geese  should 
be  killed  as  flesh  or  as  fish.  Professor  Max  Miiller  cites 
Mordechai,*  as  asking  whether  these  birds  are  fruits,  fish, 
or  flesh  ;  that  is,  whether  they  must  be  killed  in  the  Jewish 
way,  as  if  they  were  flesh.  Mordechai  describes  them  as 
birds  which  grow  on  trees,  and  says,  "the  Rabbi  Jehuda,  of 
Worms  (who  died  1216)  used  to  say  that  he  had  heard  from 
his  father,  Rabbi  Samuel,  of  Speyer  (about  1150),  that 
Rabbi  Jacob  Tham,  of  Ramerii  (who  died  1 171),  the  grand- 
son of  the  great  Rabbi  Rashi  (about  1 140),  had  decided  that 
they  must  be  killed  as  flesh." 

Pope  Innocent  III.  took  the  same  view ;  for  at  the 
Lateran  Council,  in  1215,  he  prohibited  the  eating  of 
Barnacle  geese  during  Lent.  In  1277,  Rabbi  Izaak,  of 
Corbeil,  determined  to  be  on  the  safe  side,  forbade  altogether 
the  eating  of  these  birds  by  the  Jews,  "  because  they  were 
neither  flesh  nor  fish." 

Michael  Bernhard  Valentine,!  quoting  Wormius,  says 
that  this  question  caused  much  perplexity  and  disputation 
amongst  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  ;  but  that  they  passed 
an  ordinance  that  these  geese  should  be  classed  as  fishes, 
and  not  as  birds  ;  and  he  adds,  that  in  consequence  of  this 
decision  large  numbers  of  these  birds  were  annually  sent  to 
Paris  from  England  and  Scotland,  for  consumption  in 


*  Riva,  1559,  leaf  142*. 

t  Historia  Simplicium,  lib.  iii.  p.  327. 


BARNACLE   GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.         289 

Lent.  Sir  Robert  Sibbald  *  refers  to  this,  and  says  that 
Normandy  was  the  locality  from  which  the  French  capital 
was  reported  to  be  principally  supplied ;  but  that  in  fact 
the  greater  number  of  these  geese  came  from  Holland. 
The  date  of  this  edict  is  not  given. 

Professor  Max  M tiller  says  that  in  Brittany   Barnacle . 
geese  are  still  allowed  to  be  eaten  on  Fridays,  and  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Ferns  may  give  permission  to 
people  out  of  his  diocese  to  eat  these  birds  at  his  table. 

In  Bombay,  also,  where  fish  is  prohibited  as  food  to  some 
classes  of  the  population,  the  priests  call  this  goose  a  "  sea- 
vegetable,"  under  which  name  it  is  allowed  to  be  eaten. 

Various  localities  were  mentioned  as  the  breeding-places  of 
these  arboreal  geese.  Gervasius  of  Tilbury,  f  writing  about 
121 1,  describes  the  process  of  their  generation  in  full  detail, 
and  says  that  great  numbers  of  them  grew  in  his  time 
upon  the  young  willow  trees  which  abounded  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Abbey  of  Faversham,  in  the  county 
of  Kent,  and  within  the  Archiepiscopate  of  Canterbury. 
The  bird  was  there  commonly  called  the  Barneta. 

Hector  Boethius,  or  Boece,  the  old  Scottish  historian, 
combats  this  version  of  the  story.  His  work,  written  in 
Latin,  in  1527,  was  translated  into  quaint  Scottish  in  1540, 
by  John  Bellenden,  Archdeacon  of  Murray.  In  his  four- 
teenth chapter,  "  Of  the  nature  of  claik  geis,  and  of  the 
syndry  maner  of  thair  procreatioun,  And  of  the  ile  of 
Thule,"  he  says  :— 

"  Restis  now  to  speik  of  the  geis  generit  of  the  see  namit  clakis. 
Sum  men  belevis  that  thir  clakis  growls  on  treis  be  the  nebbis.  Bot 
thair  opinioun  is  vane.  And  becaus  the  nature  and  procreatioun  of 
thir  clakis  is  strange  we  have  maid  na  lytyll  laubore  and  deligence  to 


*  Prodrom.  Hist.  Nat.  Scot.,  part  2,   lib.  iii.  p.  21,  1684. 
t  Otia  Imperialia,  iii.  123. 
VOL.  III.— H. 


290  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

serche  ye  treuth  and  verite  yairof,  we  have  salit  throw  ye  seis  quhare 
thir  clakis  ar  bred,  and  I  fynd  be  gret  experience,  that  the  nature  of 
the  seis  is  mair  relevant  caus  of  thir  procreatioun  than  ony  uther 
thyng." 

From  the  circumstances  attending  the  finding  of  "ane 
gret  tree  that  was  brocht  be  alluvion  and  flux  of  the  see  to 
land,  in  secht  of  money  pepyll  besyde  the  castell  of  Petslego, 
in  the  yeir  of  God*  ane  thousand  iiii.  hundred  Ixxxx,  and  of 
a  see  tangle  hyngand  full  of  mussill  schellis,"  brought  to 
him  by  "  Maister  Alexander  Galloway,  person  of  Kynkell," 
who  knowing  him  to  be  "richt  desirus  of  sic  uncouth 
thingis  came  haistely  with  the  said  tangle,"  he  arrives  at 
the  conclusion,  by  a  process  of  reasoning  highly  satisfactory 
and  convincing  to  himself,  that, 

"  Be  thir  and  mony  othir  resorcis  and  examplis  we  can  not  beleif 
that  thir  clakis  ar  producit  be  ony  nature  of  treis  or  rutis  thairof,  but 
allanerly  be  the  nature  of  the  Oceane  see,  quhilk  is  the  caus  and  pro- 
duction of  mony  wonderful  thingis.  And  becaus  the  rude  and  ignorant 
pepyl  saw  oftymes  the  fruitis  that  fel  of  the  treis  (quhilkis  stude  neir 
the  see)  convertit  within  schort  tyme  in  geis,  thai  belevit  that  thir  geis 
grew  apon  the  treis  hingand  be  thair  nebbis  sic  lik  as  appillis  and 
uthir  frutis  hingis  be  thair  stalkis,  bot  thair  opinioun  is  nocht  to  be 
sustenit.  For  als  sone  as  thir  appillis  or  frutis  fallis  of  the  tre  in  the 
see  nude  thay  grow  first  wormeetin.  And  be  schort  process  of  tyme 
are  alterat  in  geis." 

In  describing  the  bird  thus  produced,  Boethius  declares 
that  the  male  has  a  sharp,  pointed  beak,  like  the  gallin- 
aceous birds,  but  that  in  the  female  the  beak  is  obtuse  as 
in  other  geese  and  ducks. 

According  to  other  authors,  this  wonderful  production  of 
birds  from  living  or  dead  timber  was  not  confined  to 
England  and  Scotland.  Vincentius  Bellovacensis  *  (1190- 

*  For  this  quotation  and  the  following  one  I  am  indebted  to 
Professor  Max  M tiller's  Lecture  before  referred  to. 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.         291 

1 264)  in  his  '  Speculum  Naturae,'  xvii.  40,  states  that  it  took 
place  in  Germany,  and  Jacob  de  Vitriaco  (who  died  1244) 
in  his  '  Historia  Orientalis,'  cap.  91,  mentions  its  occurrence 
in  certain  parts  of  Flanders. 

Jonas  Ramus  gives  a  somewhat  different  version  of  the 
process  as  it  occurs  in  Norway.  He  writes :  *  "It  is  said 
that  a  particular  sort  of  geese  is  found  in  Nordland,  which 
leave  their  seed  on  old  trees,  and  .stumps  and  blocks  lying 
in  the  sea  ;  and  that  from  that  seed  there  grows  a  shell  fast 
to  the  trees,  from  which  shell,  as  from  an  egg,  by  the  heat 
of  the  sun,  young  geese  are  hatched,  and  afterwards  grow 
up  ;  which  gave  rise  to  the  fable  that  geese  grow  upon 
trees." 

But,  strange  to  say,  if  any  painstaking  enquirer,  wishing 
to  investigate  the  matter  for  himself,  went  to  a  locality 
where  it  was  said  the  phenomenon  regularly  occurred,  he 
was  sure  to  find  that  he  had  literally,  "  started  on  a  wild- 
goose  chase,"  and  had  come  to  the  wrong  place.  This  was 
the  experience  of  ^neas  Sylvius  Piccolomini,  afterwards 
Pope  Pius  II.,  who  complained  that  miracles  will  always 
flee  farther  and  farther  away ;  for  when  he  was  on  a  visit 
(about  1430)  to  King  James  I.,  of  Scotland,!  and  enquired 
after  the  tree  which  he  most  eagerly  desired  to  see,  he 
was  told  that  it  grew  much  farther  north,  in  the  Orkney 
Islands. 

Notwithstanding  the  suspicious  fact  that  the  prodigy 
receded  like  Will  o'  the  Wisp,  whenever  it  was  per- 
sistently followed  up,  Sebastian  Muenster,  who  relates  \ 

*  '  Description  of  Norway,'  p.  244. 

f  ^neas  Sylvius  gives  us  information  concerning  the  personal 
appearance  of  his  royal  host,  whom  he  describes  as  "  hominem  quad- 
ratum  et  multa pinguedine  gravem?— literally,  "a  square-built  man, 
heavy  with  much  fat." 

%  Cosmographia  Universalis,  p.  49,  ed.  1572.  The  original  edition 
was  published  in  1550. 

U   2 


292  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

the  foregoing  anecdote  of  ^Eneas  Sylvius,  appears  to  have 
entertained  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  report,  for  he 
writes  : — 

"  In  Scotland  there  are  trees  which  produce  fruit,  conglomerated  of 
their  leaves ;  and  this  fruit,  when  in  due  time  it  falls  into  the  water 
beneath  it,  is  endowed  with  new  life,  and  is  converted  into  a  living 
bird,  which  they  call  the  *  tree-goose.'  This  tree  grows  in  the  Island 
of  Pomonia,  which  is  not  far  from  Scotland,  towards  the  north. 
Several  old  cosmographers,  especially  Saxo  Grammaticus,  mention 
the  tree,  and  it  must  not  be  regarded  as  fictitious,  as  some  new  writers 
suppose." 

One  of  the  "  new  writers  "  to  whom  the  eminent  German 
divine  and  mathematician  referred  was  probably  Polydorus 
Vergilius,  who  bluntly  avowed  that  he  looked  upon  the 
whole  story  as  fabulous.  For  this  brusque  expression  of 
his  opinion  he  was  taken  to  task  by  Giralomo  Cardano, 
who  told  him  that  he  had  arrived  too  rashly  at  his  con- 
clusions, and  that  before  doing  so  it  was  his  duty  to  have 
read  the  writings  of  Hector  Boetius  on  the  subject,  and  if 
he  were  unable  to  refute  them  to  have  abstained  from 
treating  the  matter  so  dogmatically  and  superciliously. 

Cardano,  however,  whose  character  was  a  curious  com- 
pound of  wisdom  and  folly,  weakness  and  power,  evidently 
found  it  impossible  to  give  full  credence  to  so  strange  a 
phenomenon.  After  rebuking  Polydorus  Vergilius  for  his 
unreserved  disbelief,  he,  with  the  caprice  and  inconsistency 
for  which  he  was  noted,  lays  before  his  readers  various 
arguments  for  and  against  the  possibility  of  geese  being 
generated  in  the  manner  described  by  Boetius,  and,  after 
much  seemingly  impartial  consideration  of  the  subject, 
quits  it  as  one  open  to  grave  doubts,  and  requiring  further 
and  more  precise  evidence  to  substantiate  it* 

Cardano  having  taken  this  view  of  the  matter  in  dispute, 
*  De  Rcrnm  Varietate.  lib.  vii.  cap.  36,  1557. 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.          293 

we  may,  of  course,  expect  to  see  his  bitter  opponent,  Julius 
Caesar  Scaliger,*  appear  (probably  more  satirically  than 
sincerely)  as  a  champion  on  the  other  side.  Accordingly, 
we  find  him  not  only  prepared  to  challenge  the  correctness 
of  Cardano's  judgment,  but  also  giving  publicity  to  a  new 
version  of  the  legend,  in  which  it  is  asserted  that  the  leaves 
which  fall  from  the  tree  into  the  water  are  converted  into 
fishes,  and  those  which  fall  upon  the  land  become  birds. 
In  his  "  Exercitatioms?  f  addressed  to  Girolamo  Cardano, 
Scaliger  says : — 

"  I  must  not  pass  over  in  silence  that  which  is  reported  of  a  river  in 
Juverna  (Ireland),  namely,  that  a  certain  tree  grows  on  its  banks  the 
leaves  of  which  when  they  fall  into  its  water  as.sume  the  form  of  fishes. 
These  fishes  come  to  life — a  phenomenon  which,  on  careful  considera- 
tion, appears  to  be  attributable  less  to  any  power  or  property  of  the 
said  river  than  to  the  tree  itself ;  for  those  leaves  of  the  latter  which 


*  Julius  Csesar  Scaliger,  born  in  1484,  probably  at  Padua,  was  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  many  great  writers  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. He  was  a  man  of  real  talent,  but,  also,  of  unbounded  vanity 
and  unscrupulous  ambition.  Originally  baptized  "  Jules,"  he  added 
"  Caesar  "  to  his  name,  and,  to  enhance  his  own  merits  by  the  tdat  of 
high  birth,  made  for  himself  a  false  genealogy,  and  asserted  that  he 
was  the  hero  of  adventures  in  which  he  had  taken  no  part.  In  order 
to  force  himself  into  notice,  he  attacked  Erasmus,  and  in  two  harangues, 
which  the  latter  disdained  to  answer,  used  towards  him  the  grossest 
invectives.  Scaliger  next  directed  his  insolent  hostility  against 
Giralomo  Cardano.  Jealous  of  the  fame  of  the  great  Pavian  physician 
and  mathematician,  he,  in  a  critique  containing  more  insults  than 
arguments,  ferociously  assailed  Cardano's  treatise,  De  Subtilitate,  and 
so  exaggerated  was  the  estimate  he  formed  of  the  effect  of  his  diatribes 
on  the  objects  of  his  malice,  that,  when  Erasmus  died,  and  a  false 
rumour  was  spread  abroad  of  the  decease  of  Cardano,  he  believed,  or 
affected  to  believe,  that  the  death  of  both  had  been  caused  by  his 
conduct  towards  them,  and,  in  fulsome  terms  of  eulogy,  expressed  his 
regret  for  having  deprived  the  world  of  letters  of  two  such  valuable 
lives.  Scaliger  died  in  1558,  aged  seventy-five  years. 

f  Exoticarum  Exercitationum  Liber  XV.  De  subtilitate;  ad 
Hieronymum  Cardanum.  Paris,  1557.  Exercit  59,  sect.  2. 


294 


SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 


fall  upon  the  land  are  transformed  into  flying  birds.  And  you  will  be 
still  more  astonished  to  learn  that  in  the  British  seas  a  bird  like  a 
duck,  of  a  species  unknown  to  you,  hangs  by  the  beak  to  fragments  of 


FIG.   35.— THE  TREE   THAT  WHEN    ROTTEN    PRODUCES  WORMS   WHICH    ARE 

DEVELOPED  INTO  LIVING  AND  FLYING  DUCKS.    After  Claude  Duret,  1605. 

old  and  rotten  wood,  the  remains  of  wrecked  vessels,  from  which  it 
ultimately  becomes  detached,  and  flies  away  in  quest  of  the  fishes 
which  are  its  natural  food.  We  have  seen  these  birds.  The  Gascons 
who  live  on  the  sea-coast  call  them  Crabrans.  The  Britons  call  them 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES. 


295 


Bernachiae  ;  and  this  word  is  also  used  by  them  proverbially  to  desig- 
nate a  person  whom  they  wish  to  rebuke  for  indolence  and  vacillation  ; 


FIGj   36. — THE  TREE  WHOSE  LEAVES  WHEN   THEY  FALL  ON  THE  LAND  ARE 
CHANGED    INTO    BIRDS,    AND   WHEN    THEY    FALL    INTO   WATER    BECOME 

FISHES.     After  Claude  Duret,  1605. 

as  much  as  to  say  that  he  is  neither  flesh  nor  fish.  The  following  is 
the  history  of  a  most  remarkable  prodigy.  There  was  brought  to  the 
French  King  a  shell,  not  very  large,  within  which  was  a  little  Dird, 


296  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

almost  perfect  even  to  the  points  of  its  wings,  its  beak,  and  its  feet. 
It  still  adhered  to  the  shell  by  the  tip  of  its  beak.  Learned  men  of 
whom  the  king  was  the  encouraging  and  munificent  patron  were  of 
the  opinion  that  the  flesh  of  the  shell-fish  had  been  transformed  into 
that  of  the  bird." 

So  completely  was  the  statement  that  geese  were  pro- 
duced from  the  fruit  of  trees,  or  generated  from  rotten 
timber,  accepted  as  true  in  the  sixteenth  century,  that 
Guillaume  de  Saluste,  the  Sieur  du  Bartas,  in  his  "La 
Semaine"  a  Miltonic  poem,  published  in  1578,  in  which  the 
first  few  days  of  the  existence  of  all  terrestrial  things  are 
described  reverendly  and  with  considerable  power,  repre- 
sents Adam  as  wandering  through  the  garden  of  Eden,  and 
regarding  with  astonishment,  amongst  other  wonders  of 
the  earthly  Paradise  in  which  he  had  been  placed,  these 
goose-bearing  trees. 

"  Darbre  qui  -vapor tant  sur  ses  branches  tremblantes 
Et  les  peuples  nageurs  et  les  trouppes  volantes; 
yentens  VArbre  aiiiourd'huy  en  Juverne  mvant 
Dont  lefeuillage  espars,  par  les  souspirs  du  vent, 
Est  metamorphose  d'une  vertu  ftconde 
Sur  terre  en  vrays  oiseaux,  en  vrays  poissons  sur  Vonde;  "  * 

which  his  translator,  Sylvester,  thus  renders  : — 

"  And  then  that  tree  from  off  whose  trembling  top 
Both  swimming  shoals  and  flying  troups  doe  drop ; 
I  mean  that  tree,  now  in  Juverna  growing, 
Whose  leaves,  disperst  by  Zephyrs  wanton  blowing, 
Are  metamorphosed,  both  in  form  and  matter, 
On  land  to  fowls,  to  fishes  in  the  water."f 


*  La  Seconde  Semaine,  ie  jour. 

t  Du  Bartas.  His  Divine  Weekes  and  Workes ;  translated  and 
dedicated  to  the  King's  most  excellent  Maiestie  by  Joshua  Sylvester 
London,  1584. 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.         297 

In  another  part  of  the  same  poem,  Du  Bartas,  referring 
to  animals  growing  without  natural  parentage,  writes  :— 

"  Ainsi  souz  soi  Bbote  6s  glaqeuses  campagnes 
Tardif,  void  des  oysons  qrfon  appelle  Gravaignes, 
Qui  sontfils  (comme  on  dif]  de  certains  arbrisseaux 
Qui  leur  feuille  feconde  anime  dans  les  eaux. 
Ainsi  le  vieil  fragment  d'une  barque  se  change 
En  des  canards  volans  :  6  changement  estrange  ! 
Mesme  corps  fut  jadis  arbre  "verd,puis  vaisseau 
Naguieres  champignon,  et  maintenant  oyseau."  * 

Of  this,  Sylvester  gives  the  following  English  version  : — 

"  So  slow  Bootes  underneath  him  sees, 
In  th'  icy  isles,  those  goslings  hatched  on  trees, 
Whose  fruitful  leaves,  falling  into  the  water, 
Are  turned,  they  say,  to  living  fowls  soon  after ; 
So  rotten  sides  of  broken  ships  do  change, 
To  barnacles,  O,  transformation  strange ! 
'Twas  first  a  green  tree ;  then  a  gallant  hull ; 
Lately  a  mushroom  ;  then  a  flying  gull." 

Thus  this  extraordinary  belief  held  sway,  and  remained 
strong  and  invincible,  although  from  time  to  time  some 
man  of  sense  and  independent  thought  attempted  to  turn 
the  tide  of  popular  error.  Albertus  Magnus  (who  died 
1280)  showed  its  absurdity,  and  declared  that  he  had  seen 
the  bird  referred  to  lay  its  eggs  and  hatch  them  in  the 
ordinary  way.  Roger  Bacon  (who  died  in  1294)  also  con- 
tradicted it,  and  Belon,  in  1551,  treated  it  with  ridicule  and 
contempt.  Olaus  Wormius  f  seems  to  have  believed  in  it, 
though  he  wrote  cautiously  about  it.  Olaus  Magnus  (1553) 
mentions  it,  and  apparently  accepts  it  as  a  fact,  occurring 
in  the  Orkneys,  on  the  authority  of  "a  Scotch  historian 

*  La  premiere  semaine  ,  6e  jour. 
f  Museum,  p.  257. 


298  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

who  diligently  sets  down  the  secrets  of  things,"  and  then 
dismisses  it  in  three  lines. 

Passing  over  many  other  writers  on  the  subject,  we  come 
to  the  time  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  (in  1 597) 
"  John  Gerarde,  Master  in  Chirurgerie,  London,"  published 
his  "  Herball,  or  Generall  Historic  of  Plants  gathered  by 
him,"  and  in  the  last  chapter  thereof  solemnly  declared, 
that  he  had  actually  witnessed  the  transformation  of 
"  certaine  shell  fish  "  into  Barnacle  Geese,  as  follows. 


Of  the     Goose     tree,     Barnacle     tree,    or   the    tree 
bearing   Geese. 

Britanicte  Concha  anatifera. 
THE  BREED  OF  BARNACLES. 


IF  The  Description. 

Hauing  trauelled  from  the  Grasses  growing  in  the  bottome  of  the 
fenny  waters,  the  Woods,  and  mountaines,  euen  vnto  Libanus  itselfe  ; 
and  also  the  sea,  and  bowels  of  the  same,  wee  are  arriued  at  the  end 
of  our  History ;  thinking  it  not  impertinent  to  the  conclusion  of  the 
same,  to  end  with  one  of  the  maruels  of  this  land  (we  may  say  of  the 
World).  The  history  whereof  to  set  forth  according  to  the  worthinesse 
and  raritie  thereof,  would  not  only  require  a  large  and  peculiar  volume, 
but  also  a  deeper  search  into  the  bowels  of  Nature,  then  my  intended 
purpose  will  suffer  me  to  wade  into,  my  sufficiencie  also  considered  ; 
leauing  the  History  thereof  rough  hewen,  vnto  some  excellent  man, 
earned  in  the  secrets  of  nature,  to  be  both  fined  and  refined  ;  in  the 
meane  space  take  it  as  it  falleth  out,  the  naked  and  bare  truth,  though 
vnpolished.  There  are  found  in  the  North  parts  of  Scotland  and  the 
Islands  adiacent,  called  Orchades,  certaine  trees  whereon  do  grow 
certaine  shells  of  a  white  colour  tending  to  russet,  wherein  are  contained 
little  liuing  creatures  :  which  shells  in  time  of  maturity  doe  open,  and 
out  of  them  grow  those  little  liuing  things,  which  falling  into  the  water 
do  become  fowles,  which  we  call  Barnacles  ;  in  the  North  of  England, 
brant  Geese ;  and  in  Lancashire,  tree  Geese :  but  the  other  that  do 
fall  vpon  the  land  perish  and  come  to  nothing.  Thus  much  by  the 


BARNACLE  GEESE—GOOSE  BARNACLES.         299 

writings  of  others,  and  also  from  the  mouthes  of  people  of  those  parts, 
which  may  very  well  accord  with  truth. 

But  what  our  eies  haue  scene,  and  hands  haue  touched  we  shall 
declare.  There  is  a  small  Island  in  Lancashire,  called  the  Pile  of 
Foulders,  wherein  are  found  the  broken  pieces  of  old  and  bruised  ships 
some  whereof  haue  beene  cast  thither  by  shipwracke,  and  also  the 
trunks  and  bodies  with  the  branches  of  old  and  rotten  trees,  cast  vp 
there  likewise ;  whereon  is  found  a  certaine  spume  or  froth  that  in 
time  breedeth  vnto  certaine  shells,  in  shape  like  those  of  the  Muskle, 
but  sharper  pointed,  and  of  a  whitish  colour  ;  wherein  is  contained  a 
thing  in  forme  like  a  lace  of  silke  finely  wouen  as  it  were  together,  of  a 
whitish  colour,  one  end  whereof  is  fastened  vnto  the  inside  of  the  shell, 
euen  as  the  fish  of  Oisters  and  Muskles  are  :  the  other  end  is  made 
fast  vnto  the  belly  of  a  rude  masse  or  lumpe,  which  in  time  commeth  to 
the  shape  and  forme  of  a  Bird  :  when  it  is  perfectly  formed  the  shell 
gapeth  open,  and  the  first  thing  that  appeareth  is  the  foresaid  lace  or 
string ;  next  come  the  legs  of  the  bird  hanging  out,  and  as  it  groweth 
greater  it  openeth  the  shell  by  degrees,  til  at  length  it  is  all  come 
forth,  and  hangeth  onely  by  the  bill  :  in  short  space  after  it  commeth 
to  full  maturitie,  and  falleth  into  the  sea,  where  it  gathereth  feathers, 
and  groweth  to  a  fowle  bigger  than  a  Mallard,  and  lesser  than  a 
Goose,  hauing  blacke  legs  and  bill  or  beake,  and  feathers  blacke  and 
white,  spotted  in  such  manner  as  is  our  Magpie,  called  in  some  places 
a  Pie-Annet,  which  the  people  of  Lancashire  call  by  no  other  name 
than  a  tree  Goose  :  which  place  aforesaid,  and  all  those  parts  adjoyn- 
ing  do  so  much  abound  therewith,  that  one  of  the  best  is  bought  for 
three  pence.  For  the  truth  hereof,  if  any  doubt,  may  it  please  them  to 
repaire  vnto  me,  and  I  shall  satisfie  them  by  the  testimonie  of  good 
witnesses. 

Moreover,  it  should  seeme  that  there  is  another  sort  hereof;  the 
History  of  which  is  true,  and  of  mine  owne  knowledge ;  for  trauelling 
vpon  the  shore  of  our  English  coast  betweene  Douer  and  Rumney,  I 
found  the  trunke  of  an  old  rotten  tree,  which  (with  some  helpe  that  I 
procured  by  Fishermen's  wiues  that  were  there  attending  their 
husbands'  returne  from  the  sea)  we  drew  out  of  the  water  vpon  dry 
land  ;  vpon  this  rotten  tree  I  found  growing  many  thousands  of  long 
crimson  bladders,  in  shape  like  vnto  puddings  newly  filled,  before  they 
be  sodden,  which  were  very  cleere  and  shining ;  at  the  nether  end 
whereof  did  grow  a  shell  fish,  fashioned  somewhat  like  a  small  Muskle, 
but  much  whiter,  resembling  a  shell  fish  that  groweth  vpon  the  rockes 
about  Garnsey  and  Garsey,  called  a  Lympit :  many  of  these  shells  I 


300  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

brought  with  me  to  London,  which  after  I  had  opened  I  found  in  them 
liuing  things  without  forme  or  shape ;  in  others  which  were  neensr 


FIG.  37. — THE  GOOSE  TREE.     Copied  from  Gerard's  'Herball^  \st  edition ,  1 597-* 

come  to  ripenesse  I  found  liuing  things  that  were  very  naked,  in  shape 
like  a  Bird  :  in  others,  the  Birds  couered  with  soft  downe,  the  shell 


*  The  original  of  this  picture  is  a  small  wood-cut  in  Matthias  de 
Lobel's  'Stirpium  Historia,'  published  in  1570.  The  birds  within  the 
shells  were  added  by  Gerard.  Aldrovandus,  in  copying  it,  gave  leaves 
to  the  tree,  as  shown  on  page  302. 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.          301 

halfe  open,  and  the  Bird  ready  to  fall  out,  which  no  doubt  were  the 
Fowles  called  Barnacles.  I  dare  not  absolutely  auouch  euery  circum- 
stance of  the  first  part  of  this  history,  concerning  the  tree  that  beareth 
those  buds  aforesaid,  but  will  leaue  it  to  a  further  consideration  ;  how- 
beit,  that  which  I  haue  seene  with  mine  eies,  and  handled  with  mine 
hands,  I  dare  confidently  auouch,  and  boldly  put  downe  for  verity. 
Now  if  any  will  object  that  this  tree  which  I  saw  might  be  one  of  those 
before  mentioned,  which  either  by  the  waues  of  the  sea  or  some  violent 
wind  had  beene  ouerturned  as  many  other  trees  are  ;  or  that  any  trees 
falling  into  those  seas  about  the  Orchades,  will  of  themselves  bear 
the  like  Fowles,  by  reason  of  those  seas  and  waters,  these  being  so 
probable  conjectures,  and  likely  to  be  true,  I  may  not  without  prejudice 
gainsay,  or  endeauour  to  confute. 

If  The  Place. 

i 

The  bordes  and  rotten  plankes  whereon  are  found  these  shels  breed- 
ing the  Barnakle,  are  taken  vp  in  a  small  Island  adioyning  to  Lanca- 
shire, halfe  a  mile  from  the  main  land,  called  the  Pile  of  Foulders. 

T  The  Time. 

They  spawn  as  it  were  in  March  and  Aprill ;  the  Geese  are  formed 
in  May  and  June,  and  come  to  fulnesse  of  feathers  in  the  moneth 
after. 

And  thus  hauing  through  God's  assistance  discoursed  somewhat  at 
large  of  Grasses,  Herbes,  Shrubs,  Trees,  'and  Mosses,  and  certaine 
Excrescenses  of  the  Earth,  with  other  things  moe,  incident  to  the 
historic  thereof,  we  conclude  and  end  our  present  Volume,  with  this 
wonder  of  England.  For  the  which  God's  name  be  euer  honored  and 
praised. 

Gerard  was  probably  a  good  botanist  and  herbalist ;  but 
Thomas  Johnson,  the  editor  of  a  subsequent  issue  of  his 
book,  tells  us  that 

"  He,  out  of  a  prepense  good  will  to  the  publique  advancement  of 
this  knowledge,  endeavoured  to  performe  therein  more  than  he  could 
well  accomplish,  which  was  partly  through  want  of  sufficient  learning  . 
but,"  he  adds,  "  let  none  blame  him  for  these  defects,  seeing  he  was 
neither  wanting  in  pains  nor  good  will  to  performe  what  hee  intended  : 
and  there  are  none  so  simple  but  know  that  heavie  burthens  are  with 


302  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

most  paines  vndergone  by  the  weakest  men  ;  and  although  there  are 
many  faults  in  the  worke,  yet  iudge  well  of  the  Author  ;  for,  as  a  late 
writer  well  saith  :— '  To  err  and  to  be  deceived  is  human,  and  he  must 
seek  solitude  who  wishes  to  live  only  with  the  perfect' " 

It  is  difficult  to  comply  with  the  request  to  think  well  of 
one  who,  writing  as  an  authority,  deliberately  promulgated, 
with  an  affectation  of  piety,  that  which  he  must  have 


FIG.  38. — THE  BARNACLE  GOOSE  TREE.     After  Aldrovandus. 

known  to  be  untrue,  and  who  was,  moreover,  a  shameless 
plagiarist ;  for  Gerard's  ponderous  book  is  little  more  than 
a  translation  of  Dodonaeus,  whole  chapters  having  been 
taken  verbatim  and  without  acknowledgment  from  that 
comparatively  unread  author. 

After  this  series  of  erroneous  observations,  self-delusion, 
and  ignorant  credulity,  it  is  refreshing  to  turn  to  the  pages 


BARNACLE  GEESE—GOOSE  BARNACLES.         303 

of  the  two  little  thick  quarto  volumes  of  Caspar  Schott* 
This  learned  Jesuit  made  himself  acquainted  with  every- 
thing that  had  been  written  on  the  subject,  and  besides 
the  authors  I  have  referred  to,  quotes  and  compares  the 
statements  of  Majolus,  Abrahamus  Ortelius,  Hieronymus 
Cardanus,  Eusebius,  Nierembergius,  Deusingius,  Odoricus, 
Gerhardus  de  Vera,  Ferdinand  of  Cordova,  and  many 


FIG.    39. — DEVELOPMENT  OF   BARNACLES   INTO  GEESE.      After  Aldrovandus . 

others.  He  then  gives,  firmly  and  clearly,  his  own  opinion 
that  the  assertion  that  birds  in  Britain  spring  from  the 
fruit  or  leaves  of  trees,  or  from  wood,  or  from  fungus,  or 
from  shells,  is  without  foundation,  and  that  neither  reason, 
experience,  nor  authority  tend  to  confirm  it.  He  concedes 
that  worms  may  be  bred  in  rotting  timber,  and  even 
that  they  may  be  of  a  kind  that  fly  away  on  arriving  at 

• 

*  Physica  Curiosa,  sive  Mirabilia  Natures  et  Artis,  1662,  lib. 
cap.  xxii.  p.  960. 


304  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

maturity  (referring  probably  to  caterpillars  being  developed 
into  moths),  but  that  birds  should  be  thus  generated,  he 
says,  is  simply  the  repetition  of  a  vulgar  error,  for  not  one 
of  the  authors  whose  works  he  has  examined  has  seen  what 
they  all  affirm  ;  nor  are  they  able  to  bring  forward  a  single 
eye-witness  of  it.  He  asks  how  it  can  be  possible  that 
animals  so  large  and  so  highly-organised  as  these  birds 
can  grow  from  puny  animalcules  generated  in  putrid 
wood.  He  further  declares  that  these  British  geese  are 
hatched  from  eggs  like  other  geese,  which  he  considers 
proved  by  the  testimony  of  Albertus  Magnus,  Gerhardus 
de  Vera,  and  of  Dutch  seamen,  who,  in  1569,  gave  their 
written  declaration  that  they  had  personally  seen  these 
birds  sitting  on  their  eggs,  and  hatching  them,  on  the 
coasts  of  Nova  Zembla. 

In  marked  and  disgraceful  contrast  with  this  careful 
and  philosophical  investigation  and  its  author's  just  deduc- 
tions from  it,  is  'A  Relation  concerning  Barnacles  by 
Sir  Robert  Moray,  lately  one  of  His  Majesty's  Council  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Scotland/  read  before  the  Royal  Society, 
and  published  in  the  '  Philosophical  Transactions,'  No.  137, 
January  and  February,  1678. 

People  had  begun  to  see  the  absurdity  of  the  story,  and 
the  fallacy  was  dying  out,  when  this  sage  philosopher,  a 
distinguished  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  who,  I 
find,  was  "nominated  vice-president  and  sworn  as  such," 
July  1 8th,  1666,  undertook  to  investigate  the  subject,  and 
made  a  journey  northward  for  that  purpose.  The  account 
he  gave  of  his  precious  researches,  and  the  publication  of 
it  under  the  auspices  of  so  learned  a  body  of  savants,  partly 
reinstated  the  error  in  popular  opinion,  though  only  for  a 
short  time. 

Describing  "a  cut  of  a  large  Firr-tree  of  about  two  and 
a  half  feet  diameter,  and  nine  or  ten  feet  long,"  which  he 


BARNACLE   GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.         305 

saw  on  the  shore  in  the  Western  Islands  of  Scotland,  and 
which  had  become  so  dry  that  many  of  the  Barnacle  shells 
with  which  it  had  been  covered  had  been  rubbed  off,  he 
says : — 

"  Only  on  the  parts  that  lay  next  the  ground  there   still  hung 
multitudes  of  little  Shells,  having  within  them  little  Birds,  perfectly 
shap'd,  supposed  to  be  Barnacles.     The  Shells  hung  very  thick  and 
close  one  by  another,  and  were  of  different  sizes.     Of  the  colour  and 
consistence  of  Muscle-Shells,  and  the  sides  and  joynts  of  them  joyned 
with  such  a  kind  of  film  as  Muscle-Shells  are,  which  serves  them  for  a 
King  to  move  upon,  when  they  open  and  shut.  .  .  .  The  Shells  hang  at 
the  Tree  by  a   Neck  longer  than  the   Shell,   of  a  kind  of  Filmy 
substance,  round,  and  hollow,  and  creased,  not  unlike  the  Wind-pipe 
of  a  chicken,  spreading  out  broadest  where  it  is  fastened  to  the  Tree, 
from  which  it  seems  to  draw  and  convey  the  matter  which  serves  for 
the  growth  and  vegetation  of  the  Shell  and  the  little  Bird  within  it. 
This  Bird  in  every  Shell  that  I  opened,  as  well  the  least  as  the  biggest, 
I   found   so  curiously  and  compleatly  formed,   that  there  appeared 
nothing  wanting  as  to  internal  parts,  for  making  up  a  perfect  Sea- 
fowl  :   every  little  part  appearing  so  distinctly  that  the  whole  looked 
like  a  large  Bird  seen  through  a  concave  or  diminishing  glass,  colour 
and  feature  being  everywhere  so  clear  and  neat.     The  little  Bill,  like 
that  of  a  Goose ;  the  eyes  marked  ;  the  Head,  Neck,  Breast,  Wings, 
Tail,  and  Feet  formed,  the  Feathers  everywhere  perfectly  shap'd,  and 
blackish  coloured  ;  and  the  Feet  like  those  of  other  Water-fowl,  to  my 
best  remembrance.     All  being  dead  and  dry,  J  did  not  look  after  the 
internal  parts  of  them.     Nor  did  I  ever  see  any  of  the  little  Birds  alive, 
nor  met  with  anybody  that  did.      Only  some  credible  persons  have 
assured  me  they  have  seen  some  as  big  as  their  fist." 

It  seems  almost  incredible  that  little  more  than  two 
hundred  years  ago  this  twaddle  should  not  only  have  been 
laid  before  the  highest  representatives  of  science  in  the 
land,  but  that  it  should  have  been  printed  in  their  "  Trans- 
actions "  for  the  further  delusion  of  posterity.*  Dr.  Tancred 

*  Sir  Robert  Moray  seems  to  have  been  fond  of  marvels.  In 
Birch's  '  History  of  the  Royal  Society '  (vol.  ii.  p.  41)  we  find  the 
following  entry  relative  to  a  meeting  of  the  Society  held  April  26th, 

VOL.   III.— H.  X 


3o6  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

Robinson  subsequently  contradicted  Sir  Robert  Moray 
and  assured  the  society  that  "the  Brent  Geese  were  bred, 
like  other  geese,  from  eggs  laid  by  the  females,  and  that 
the  shell  which  it  was  pretended  contained  them  had 
nothing  in  it  but  a  *  fish/  such  as  oysters,  cockles,  and  all 
other  shells." 

Ray,  in  his  edition  of  Willughby's  Ornithology,  published 
in  the  same  year  as  the  above,  contradicted  the  fallacy  as 
strongly  as  Caspar  Schott ;  and  (except  that  he  incidentally 
admits  the  possibility  of  spontaneous  generation  in  some 
of  the  lower  animals,  as  insects  and  frogs)  in  language  so 
similar  that  I  think  he  must  have  had  Schott's  work  before 
him  when  he  wrote. 

Aldrovandus  *  tells  us  that  an  Irish  priest,  named  Octa- 
vianus,  assured  him,  with  an  oath  on  the  Gospels,  that  he 
had  seen  and  handled  the  geese  in  their  embryo  condition  ; 
and  he  adds  that  he  "  would  rather  err  with  the  majority 
than  seem  to  pass  censure  on  so  many  eminent  writers  who 
have  believed  the  story." 

In  1629  Count  Maier  (Michaelus  Meyerus — these  old 
authors  when  writing  in  Latin,  latinized  their  names  also) 
published  a  monograph  '  On  the  Tree-bird '  f  in  which  he 
explains. the  process  of  its  birth,  and  states  that  he  opened 
a  hundred  of  the  goose-bearing  shells  and  found  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  bird  fully  formed. 

Now,  let  us  turn  from  fiction  to  facts. 


1665:— "Sir  Robert  Moray  affirmed  that  he  had  known  a  man  who 
could  take  two  or  three  pipes  of  tobacco  into  his  stomach  before  he 
let  out  any  smoke  ;  and  then  let  it  out  afterwards  all  together.  This 
was  seconded  by  Mr.  Evelyn,  who  remarked  that  he  had  seen  a  person 
who  after  taking  tobacco  would  discourse  awhile  before  he  let  out  the 
smoke." 

*  Ornithologia,)  lib.  xix.  p.  173,  ed.  1603. 

t  De  Valuer i  Arbor  ea,  1629. 


BARNACLE   GEESE—GOOSE  BARNACLES.         307 

Almost  every  one  is  acquainted  with  at  least  one  kind  of 
the  Barnacle  shells  which  were  supposed  to  enclose  the 
embryo  of  a  goose,  namely  the  small  white  conical  hillocks 
which  are  found,  in  tens  of  thousands,  adhering  to  stones, 
rocks,  and  old  timber  such  as  the  piles  of  piers,  and  may 
be  seen  affixed  to  the  shells  of  oysters  and  mussels  in  any 
fishmonger's  shop.  The  little  animals  which  secrete  and 
inhabit  these  shells  belong  to  a  sub-class  and  order  of  the 
Crustacea,  called  the  Cirrhopoda,  because  their  feet  (poda), 
which  in  the  crab  and  lobster  terminate  in  claws,  are  modi- 
fied into  tufts  of  curled  hairs  (cirri),  or  feathers.  When 


FIG  40. — SECTION  OF  A  SESSILE  BARNACLE.     Balanus  tintinnabulum. 

the  animal  is  alive  and  active  under  water,  a  crater  may  be 
seen  to  open  on  the  summit  of  the  little  shelly  mountain, 
and,  as  if  from  the  mouth  of  a  miniature  volcano,  there 
issue  from  this  aperture,  from  between  two  inner  shells,  the 
cirri  in  the  form  of  a  feathery  hand,  which  clutches  at  the 
water  within  its  reach,  and  is  then  quickly  retracted  within 
the  shell.  During  this  movement  the  hair-fringed  fingers 
have  filtered  from  the  water  and  conveyed  towards  the 
mouth  within  the  shell,  for  their  owner's  nutriment,  some 
minute  solid  particles  or  animalcules,  and  this  action  of  the 
casting-net  alternately  shot  forth  and  retracted  continues 

x  2 


3o8  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

for  hours  incessantly,  as  the  water  flows  over  its  resting- 
place.  The  animal  can  live  for  a  long  time  out  of  water, 
and  in  some  situations  thus  passes  half  its  life.  Under 
such  circumstances,  the  shells,  containing  a  reserve  of 
moisture,  remain  firmly  closed  until  the  return  of  the  tide 
brings  a  fresh  supply  of  water  and  food.  These  are  the 
"acorn-barnacles,"  the  balani,  commonly  known  in  some 
localities  as  "  chitters." 

Barnacles  of  another  kind  are  those  furnished  with  a  long 
stem,  or  peduncle,  which  Sir  Robert  Moray  described  as 
"  round,  hollow,  and  creased,  and  not  unlike  the  wind-pipe 
of  a  chicken."  The  stem  has,  in  fact,  the  ringed  formation 
of  the  annelids,  or  worms.  The  shelly  valves  are  thin,  flat 
and  in  shape  somewhat  like  a  mitre.  They  are  composed 
of  five  pieces,  two  on  each  side,  and  one,  a  kind  of  rounded 
keel  along  the  back  of  the  valves,  by  which  these  are 
united.  The  shells  are  delicately  tinted  with  lavender  or 
pale  blue  varied  with  white,  and  the  edges  are  frequently 
of  a  bright  chrome  yellow  or  orange  colour. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  occurrence  for  a  large  plank 
entirely  covered  with  these  "  necked  barnacles  "  to  be  found 
floating  at  sea  and  brought  ashore  for  exhibition  at  some 
watering-place  ;  and  I  have  more  than  once  sent  portions 
of  such  planks  to  the  Aquaria  at  Brighton,  and  the  Crystal 
Palace. 

It  is  most  interesting  to  watch  a  .dense  mass  of  living 
cirripedes  so  closely  packed  together  that  not  a  speck  of 
the  surface  of  the  wood  is  left  .uncovered  by  them  ;  their 
fleshy  stalks  overhanging  each  other,  and  often  attached 
in  clusters  to  those  of  some  larger  individuals ;  their 
plumose  casting-nets  ever  gathering  in  the  food  that 
comes  within  their  reach,  and  carrying  towards  the  mouth 
any  solid  particles  suitable  for  their  sustenance.  How 


BARNACLE   GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.         309 

much  of  insoluble  matter  barnacles  will  eliminate  from 
the  water  is  shown  by  the  rapidity  with  which  they 
will  render  turbid  sea  water  clear  and  transparent.  The 
most  common  species  of  these  "  necked  barnacles  "  bears 
the  name  of  "  Lepas  anatifera"  "the  duck -bearing  Lepas" 
It  was  so  entitled  by  Linnaeus,  in  recognition  of  its  having 
been  connected  with  the  fable,  which,  of  course,  met  with 
no  credit  from  him. 


FfG.  41. — PEDUNCULATED  BARNACLES.     {Lepas  anatifera.} 

Fig.  42,  on  next  page,  represents  the  figure-head  of  a 
ship,  partly  covered  with  barnacles,  which  was  picked  up 
about  thirty  miles  off  Lowestoft  on  the  22nd  of  October, 
1857.  It  was  described  in  the  Illustrated  London  News, 
and  the  proprietors  of  that  paper  have  kindly  given  me  a 
copy  of  the  block  from  which  its  portrait  was  printed. 

Others  of  the  barnacles  affix  themselves  to  the  bottoms 
of  ships,  or  parasitically  upon  whales  and  sharks,  and 
those  of  the  latter  kind  often  burrow  deeply  into  the  skin  of 


3io  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

their  host.  Fig.  43  is  a  portrait  of  a  Coronula  diadema  taken 
from  the  nose  of  a  whale  stranded  at  Kintradwell,  in  the 
north  of  Scotland,  in  1 866,  and  sent  to  the  late  Mr.  Frank 
Buckland.  Growing  on  this  Coronula  are  three  of  the 
curious  eared  barnacles,  Conchoderma  aiirita,  the  Lepas 
aurita  of  Linnaeus.  The  species  of  the  whale  from  which 
these  Barnacles  were  taken  was  not  mentioned,  but  it  was 
probably  the  "  hunch-backed  "  whale,  Megaptera  longimana, 
which  is  generally  infested  with  this  Coronula.  This  very 


FIG.  42. — A  SHIP'S  FIGURE-HEAD  WITH   BARNACLES  ATTACHED  TO   IT. 

illustrative  specimen  was,  and  I  hope  still  is,  in  Mr.  Buck- 
land's  Museum  at  South  Kensington.  It  was  described  by 
him  in  Land  and  Water,  of  May  iQth,  1866,  and  I  am 
indebted  to  the  proprietors  of  that  paper  for  the  accom- 
panying portrait  of  it. 

The  young  Barnacle  when  just  extruded  from  the  shell  of 
its  parent  is  a  very  different  being  from  that  which  it  will 
be  in  its  mature  condition.  It  begins  its  life  in  a  form 
exactly  like  that  of  an  entomostracous  crustacean,  and, 
like  a  Cyclops,  has  one  large  eye  in  the  middle  of  its  fore- 


BARNACLE   GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.         311 

head.  In  this  state  it  swims  freely,  and  with  great  activity. 
It  undergoes  three  moults,  each  time  altering  its  figure, 
until  at  the  third  exuviation  it  has  become  enclosed  in  a 


FIG.   43. — WHALE    BARNACLE    (Coronula  diadema),    WITH    THREE 

Conchoderma  aurita  ATTACHED  TO  IT. 

bivalve  shell,  and  has  acquired  a  second  eye.    .It   is   now 
ready  to  attach  itself  to  its  abiding-place  ;  so,  selecting  its 


3i2  SEA    FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

future  residence,  it  presses  itself  against  the  wood,  or  what- 
ever the  substance  may  be,  pours  out  from  its  two  antennae 
a  glutinous  cement,  which  hardens  in  water,  and  thus  fastens 
itself  by  the  front  of  its  head,  is  henceforth  a  fixture  for 


FIG.  44. — A  YOUNG  BARNACLE.     (Larva  of  ChtJiamalus  stellatus.) 

life,  and  assumes  the  adult   form  in  which  most  persons 
know  it  best.* 

*  If  any  of  my  readers  wish  to  observe  the  development  of  young 
barnacles  they  may  easily  do  so.  The  method  I  have  generally 
adopted  has  been  as  follows  :  Procure  a  shallow  glass  or  earthenware 
milk-pan  that  will  hold  at  least  a  gallon.  Fill  this  to  within  an  inch 
of  the  top  with  sea-water,  and  place  it  in  any  shaded*  part  of  a  room — 
not  in  front  of  a  window.  Put  in  the  pan  six  or  eight  pebbles  or  clean 
shells  of  equal  height,  say  i£  or  2  inches,  and  on  them  lay  a  clean 
sheet  of  glass,  which,  by  resting  on  the  pebbles,  is  brought  to  within 
about  2j  inches  of  the  surface  of  the  water.  Select  some  limpets  or 
mussels  having  acorn-barnacles  on  them  ;  carefully  cut  out  the  limpet 
or  mussel,  and  clean  nicely  the  interior  of  the  shell ;  then  place  a 
dozen  or  more  of  these  shells  on  the  sheet  of  glass,  and  the  barnacles 
upon  them  will  be  within  convenient  reach  of  any  observation  with 
a  magnifying  glass.  If  this  be  done  in  the  month  of  March,  the  ex- 
perimenter will  not  have  to  wait  long  before  he  sees  young  Balani 
ejected  from  the  summits  of  some  of  the  shells.  Up  to  the  moment  of 
their  birth  each  of  them  is  enclosed  in  a  little  cocoon  or  case,  in  shape 
like  a  canary-seed,  and  most  of  them  are  tossed  into  the  world  whilst 
still  enclosed  in  this.  In  a  few  seconds  this  casing  is  ruptured  longi- 


BARNACLE   GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.         313 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  describe  more  minutely  the 
anatomy  of  the  Cirripedes  ;  I  have  said  enough  to  show 
the  nature  of  the  plumose  appurtenances  which,  hanging 
from  the  dead  shells,  were  supposed  to  be  the  feathers  of  a 
little  bird  within  ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  any 
one  could  have  seen  in  the  natural  occupant  of  the  shell 
"the  little  bill,  like  that  of  a  goose,  the  eyes,  head,  neck, 
breast,  wings,  tail,  and  feet,  like  those  of  other  water-fowl," 
so  precisely  and  categorically  detailed  by  Sir  Robert 
Moray.  As  Pontoppidan,  who  denounced  the  whole  story, 
as  being  "without  the  least  foundation,"  very  truly  says, 
"  One  must  take  the  force  of  imagination  to  help  to  make 
it  look  so !" 

As  to  the  origin  of  this  myth,  I  venture  to  differ  from 


tudinally,  apparently  by  the  struggles  of  its  inmate,  which  escapes  at 
one  end,  like  a  butterfly  emerging  from  its  chrysalis,  and  swims  freely 
to  the  surface  of  the  water,  leaving  the  split  cocoon  or  case  at  the 
bottom  of  the  pan.  Some  few  of  the  young  barnacles  seem  to  be 
freed  from  the  cocoon  before,  or  at  the  moment  of,  extrusion.  From 
three  to  a  dozen  or  more  of  these  escape  with  each  protrusion  of  the 
cirri  of  the  parent,  and  as  the  parturient  barnacle  will  put  forth  its 
feathery  casting  net  at  least  twenty  times  in  a  minute  for  an  hour  or 
more,  it  follows  that  as  many  as  ten  thousand  young  ones  may  be  pro- 
duced in  an  hour.  These,  as  they  are  cast  forth  at  each  pulsation  of 
the  parent's  cirri,  fall  upon  the  clean  sheet  of  glass,  and  may  be  taken 
up  in  a  pipette,  and  placed  under  a  microscope,  or  removed  to  a 
smaller  vessel  of  sea- water,  for  minute  and  separate  investigation.  It 
seems  strange  that  animals  which,  like  the  oyster  and  the  barnacles, 
are  condemned  in  their  mature  condition  to  lead  so  sedentary  a  life, 
should  in  the  earlier  stages  of  their  existence  swim  freely  and  merrily 
through  the  water — young  fellows  seeking  a  home,  and  when  they 
have  found  it,  although  their  connubial  life  must  be  a  very  tame  one, 
settling  down,  and  not  caring  to  rove  about  any  more  for  the  remainder 
of  their  days.  These  young  Balani  dart  about  like  so  many  water- 
fleas,  and  yet,  after  a  few  days  of  freedom,  they  become  fixed  and 
immovable,  the  inhabitants  of  the  pyramidal  shells  which  grow  in 
such  abundance  on  other  shells,  stones,  and  old  wood. 


314  SEA   FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

philologists  who  attribute  it  entirely  to  "  language,"  "  the 
power  of  popular  etymology,"  and  "  a  similarity  of  names  ;" 
for,  although,  as  Professor  Max  Miiller  truly  observes  in  one 
of  his  lectures, "  words  without  definite  meanings  are  at  the 
bottom  of  nearly  all  our  philosophical  and  religious  con- 
troversies," it  certainly  is  not  applicable  in  this  instance. 
Every  quotation  here  given  shows  that  the  mistake  arose 
from  the  supposed  resemblance  of  the  plumes  of  the 
cirrhopod,  and  the  feathers  of  a  bird,  and  the  fallacious 
deductions  derived  therefrom.  The  statements  of  Gerard 
(p.  298),  Maier  (p.  306),  Sir  Robert  Moray  (p.  304),  &c., 
prove  that  this  fanciful  misconception  sprang  from  errone- 
ous observation.  The  love  of  the  marvellous  inherent  in 
mankind,  and  especially  prevalent  in  times  of  ignorance 
and  superstition,  favoured  its  reception  and  adoption,  and  I 
believe  that  it  would  have  been  as  widely  circulated,  and 
have  met  with  equal  credence,  if  the  names  of  the  cirripede 
and  of  the  goose  that  was  supposed  to  be  its  offspring  had 
been  far  more  dissimilar  than,  at  first,  they  really  were. 
For  this  is  not  the  only  instance  of  a  downy  substance 
found  upon  a  tree  or  plant  having  given  rise  to  a  report 
that  the  animal  whose  covering  it  resembled  was  itself  of 
vegetable  growth.  The  equally  absurd  belief  that  lambs 
grew  on  trees  in  Tartary  was  curiously  analogous  to  it. 
The  story  of  "  the  Scythian  Lamb "  is,  however,  too  long 
to  be  introduced  parenthetically  here ;  therefore,  although 
it  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  origin  and  acceptance 
of  such  fictions,  I  can  only  cursorily  refer  to  it,  for  it  is  not 
a  Fable  of  the  Sea. 

Setting  aside  several  ingenious  and  far-fetched  deriva- 
tions that  have  been  proposed,  I  think  we  may  safely 
regard  the  word  "  barnacle,"  as  applied  to  the  cirrhopod 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.    315 

as  a  corruption  of  pernacula,  the  diminutive  of  perna,  a 
bivalve  mollusk,  so-called  from  the  similarity  in  shape  of 
its  shell  to  that  of  a  ham — pernacula  being  changed  to 
bernacula.  In  some  old  Glossaries  perna  is  actually  spelt 
berna. 

To  arrive  at  the  origin  of  the  word  "barnacle,"  or 
"bernicle,"  as  applied  to  the  goose,  we  must  understand 
that  this  bird,  Anser  leucopsis,  was  formerly  called  the 
"  brent,"  "  brant,"  or  "  bran  "  goose,  and  was  supposed  to 
be  identical  with  the  species,  A  nser  torquatus,  which  is  now 
known  by  that  name.  The  Scottish  word  for  "  goose "  is 
"  clake,"  or  "  clakis,"  *  and  I  think  that  the  suggestion 
made  long  ago  to  Gesnerf  (1558),  by  his  correspondent 
Joannes  Caius,  is  correct,  that  the  word  "  barnacle  "  comes 
from  "  branclakis,"  or  "  barnclake,"  "  the  dark-coloured 
goose." 

Professor  Max  M tiller  is  of  the  opinion  that  its  Latin 
name  may  have  been  derived  from  Hiberniccz,  Hiberniculce 
Berniculce,  as  it  was  against  the  Irish  bishops  that  Giraldus 
wrote,  but  I  must  say  that  this  does  not  commend  itself  to 
me ;  for  the  name  Bernicula  was  not  used  in  the  early 
times  to  denote  these  birds.  Giraldus  himself  described 
them  as  Bernacce,  but  they  were  variously  known,  also,  as 
Barliates,  Bernestas,  Barnetas,  Barbates,  &c. 

I  believe  that  Dr.  John  Hill,{  following  Deusingius,  gave 
the  true  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  story,  as  follows. 
The  Branclake,  or  Brent  Goose,  abounds  at  certain  times 
of  the  year  in  the  Western  Islands  of  Scotland,  and  some 
other  parts  of  the  British  dominions,  but  rarely  breeds 

*  See  the  quotation  from  Hector  Boetius,  p.  289. 
t  Historia  Animalium,  lib.  iii.  p.  no. 

j  'Review  of  the  Works  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,'  1751, 
p.  -105  ;  and  '  Natural  History  of  Animals,'  1752,  p.  422. 


3i6  SEA  FABLES  EXPLAINED. 

there.  The  ignorant  people  of  those  localities,  never 
finding  any  of  the  eggs  or  nests  of  these  birds  in  places 
where  they  were  so  commonly  seen,  supposed  that  they 
never  laid  eggs,  nor  made  a  nest,  and  that  they  were  not 
bred  like  other  birds,  but  in  a  different  and  mysterious 
manneY.  Upon  the  shores  most  frequented  by  these  geese 
were,  also,  found  in  abundance  certain  "  shell-fish,"  having 
fibres,  or  filaments,  hanging  out  of  them  which,  in  some 
degree,  resembled  the  feathers  of  a  bird.  From  this  slight 
origin  arose  the  belief  that  they  contained  real  birds.  The 
fishermen  persuaded  themselves  that  these  birds  within  the 
shells  were  the  geese  whose  origin  they  had  been  previously 
unable  to  discover,  and  that  they  were  thus  bred,  instead 
of  being  hatched,  like  other  birds,  from  eggs.  The  "  shell- 
fish "  were  found  growing  on  pieces  of  timber  or  old  trees 
floating  in  the  water  or  cast  upon  the  land.  As  the  tale 
spread  to  a  distance,  it  gained  by  repetition.  The  trees 
found  upon  the  shore  were  soon  reported  to  be  trees 
growing  on  the  shore ;  that  which  grew  on  trees  people 
soon  asserted  to  be  the  fruit  of  trees  ;  and  thus,  from  step 
to  step,  the  story  increased  in  wonder  and  obtained  credit, 
till,  at  length,  Gerard  had  the  audacity  to  assert  that  he 
had  witnessed  the  transformation  of  the  "shell-fish"  into 
geese. 

The  Barnacle  Goose  is  only  a  winter  visitor  of  Great 
Britain.  It  breeds  in  the  far  north,  in  Greenland,  Iceland, 
Spitzbergen,  and  Nova  Zembla,  and  probably,  also,  along 
the  shores  of  the  White  Sea.  There  are  generally  some 
specimens  of  this  prettily-marked  goose  in  the  gardens  of 
the  Zoological  Society  in  the  Regent's  Park, 'London  ;  and 
they  thrive  there,  and  become  very  tame.  In  the  months 
of  December  and  January  these  geese  may  often  be  seen 
hanging  for  sale  in  poulterer's  shops  ;  and  he  who  has 


BARNACLE  GEESE— GOOSE  BARNACLES.          317 

tasted  one  well  cooked  may  be  pardoned  if  the  suspicion 
cross  his  mind,  that  the  "  monks  of  old,"  and  "  the  bare- 
footed friars,"  as  well  as  the  laity,  may  not  have  been 
unwilling  to  sustain  the  fiction  in  order  that  they  might 
conserve  the  privilege  of  having  on  their  tables  during  the 
long  fast  of  Lent  so  agreeable  and  succulent  a  "  vegetable  " 
or  "  fish  "  as  a  Barnacle  Goose. 


SEA    MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 


BY 

HENRY    LEE,    F.L.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.Z.S., 

SOMETIME    NATURALIST    OF    THE    BRIGHTON    AQUARIUM,    AND     AUTHOR     OF    'THE 
OCTOPUS,    OR   THE   DEVIL-FISH    OF    FICTION    AND    FACT. 

ILLUSTRATED. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE        ....        {        ...  .321 

THE  KRAKEN -325 

THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT    .        .        .         .        .         .        .   378 


PREFACE. 


As  I  commence  this  little  history  of  two  sea  monsters 
there  comes  to  my  mind  a  remark  made  to  me  by  my 
friend,  Mr.  Samuel  L.  Clemens — "Mark  Twain" — which 
illustrates  a  feeling  that  many  a  writer  must  have 
experienced  when  dealing  with  a  subject  that  has  been 
previously  well  handled.  Expressing  to  me  one  day  the 
gratification  he  felt  in  having  made  many  pleasant 
acquaintances  in  England,  he  added,  with  dry  humour, 
and  a  grave  countenance,  "  Yes  !  I  owe  your  countrymen 
no  grudge  or  ill-will.  I  freely  forgive  them,  though  one 
of  them  did  me  a  grievous  wrong,  an  irreparable  injury ! 
It  was  Shakspeare :  if  he  had  not  written  those  plays  of 
his,  I  should  have  done  so !  They  contain  my  thoughts, 
my  sentiments  !  He  forestalled  me  !  " 

In  treating  of  the  so-called  "  sea  serpent,"  I  have  been 
anticipated  by  many  able  writers.  Mr.  Gosse,  in  his 
delightful  book,  'The  Romance  of  Natural  History/ 
published  in  1862,  devoted  a  chapter  to  it ;  and  numerous 
articles  concerning  it  have  appeared  in  various  papers  and 
periodicals. 

But,  for  the  information  from  which  those  authors  have 
drawn  their  inferences,  and  on  which  they  have  founded 
their  opinions,  they  have  been  greatly  indebted,  as  must 

be  all  who  have  seriously  to  consider  this  subject,  to  the 
VOL.  ill. — II.  Y 


322  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

late  experienced  editor  of  the  Zoologist,  Mr.  Edward 
Newman,  a  man  of  wonderful  power  of  mind,  of  great 
judgment,  a  profound  thinker,  and  an  able  writer.  At  a 
time  when,  as  he  said,  "  the  shafts  of  ridicule  were  launched 
against  believers  and  unbelievers  in  the  sea  serpent  in  a 
very  pleasing  and  impartial  manner,"  he,  in  the  true  spirit 
of  philosophical  inquiry,  in  1847,  opened  the  columns  of 
his  magazine  to  correspondence  on  this  topic,  and  all  the 
more  recent  reports  of  marine  monsters  having  been  seen 
are  therein  recorded.  To  him,  therefore,  the  fullest 
acknowledgments  are  due. 

The  great  cuttles,  also,  have  been  the  subject  of  articles 
in  various  magazines,  notably  one  by  Mr.  W.  Saville 
Kent,  F.L.S.,  in  the  '  Popular  Science  Review '  of  April, 
1874,  and  a  chapter  in  my  little  book  on  the  Octopus, 
published  in  1873,  is  also  devoted  to  them.  In  writing 
of  them  as  the  living  representatives  of  the  kraken,  and  as 
having  been  frequently  mistaken  for  the  "  sea  serpent," 
my  deductions  have  been  drawn  from  personal  knowledge, 
and  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  habits,  form,  and 
structure  of  the  animals  described.  It  was  only  by 
watching  the  movements  of  specimens  of  the  "common 
squid  "  (Loligo  vulgaris\  m&  the  "little  squid"  (L.  media), 
which  lived  in  the  tanks  of  the  Brighton  Aquarium,  that 
I  recognised  in  their  peculiar  habit  of  occasionally 
swimming  half-submerged,  with  uplifted  caudal  extremity, 
and  trailing  arms,  the  fact  that  I  had  before  me  the  "  sea 
serpent "  of  many  a  well-authenticated  anecdote.  A  mere 
knowledge  of  their  form  and  anatomy  after  death  had 
never  suggested  to  me  that  which  became  at  once  apparent 
when  I  saw  them  in  life. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  acknowledge  gratefully  the 
kindness  I  have  met  with  in  connection  with  the  illustra- 


PREFACE.  323 

tions  of  this  book.  The  proprietors  of  the  Illustrated 
London  Neivs  not  only  \  gave  me  permission  to  copy,  in 
reduced  size,  their  two  pictures  of  the  Dcedalus  incident, 
but  presented  to  me  electrotype  copies  of  all  others  small 
enough  for  these  pages — namely,  "  Jonah  and  the  Monster," 
Egede's  "  Sea  Serpent,"  and  the  Whale  as  seen  from  the 
Pauline.  Equally  kind  have  been  the  proprietors  of  the 
Field.  To  them  I  am  greatly  indebted  for  their  permission 
to  copy  the  beautiful  woodcuts  of  the  "  Octopus  at  Rest," 
"  The  Sepia  seizing  its  Prey,"  and  the  arms  of  the  New- 
foundland squids,  and  also  for  "  electros  "  of  the  two  curious 
Japanese  engravings,  all  of  which  originally  appeared 
in  their  paper.  From  the  Graphic  I  have  had  similar 
permission  to  copy  any  cuts  that  might  be  thought 
suitable,  and  the  illustrations  of  the  sea  serpent,  as  seen 
from  Her  Majesty's  yacht  Osborne  and  the  City  of  Balti- 
more, are  from  that  journal.  Messrs.  Nisbet  most  courteously 
allowed  me  to  have  a  copy  of  the  block  of  the  Enaliosaurus 
swimming,  which  was  one  of  the  numerous  pictures  in 
Mr.  Gosse's  book,  published  by  them,  already  referred  to. 
And  last,  not  least,  I  have  to  thank  Miss  Ellen  Woodward, 
daughter  of  my  friend,  Dr.  Henry  Woodward,  F.R.S.,  for 
enabling  me  to  better  explain  the  movements  and  appear- 
ances of  the  squids  when  swimming,  and  when  raising  their 
bodies  out  of  water  in  an  erect  position,  by  carefully 
drawing  them  from  my  rough  sketches. 


HENRY  LEE. 


SAVAGE  CLUB; 
July  2u/,  1883. 


V  2 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FIG.  PACK 

The  Sea  Serpent  as  first  seen  from  H. M.S.  Dtzdalus      .      .     .  318 

1.  Beak  and  Arms  of  a  Decapod  Cuttle      .      .     ...      .     .      .339 

2.  The  Octopus  (Octopus  vulgaris] 342 

3.  The  Cuttle  (Sepia  officinalis] 345 

4.  Hooked  Tentacles  of  Onychoteuthis 346 

5.  Japanese  Woman  seized  by  an  Octopus  whilst  bathing    .     .  351 

6.  Japanese  fisherman  attacked  by  a  Cuttle 353 

7.  Arms  of  a  great  Cuttle  exhibited  in  a  Japanese  fish-shop      .  353 

8.  Facsimile  of  De  Montfort's  "Poiilpe  colossal" 357 

9.  Gigantic  Calamary  caught  by  the  French  despatch  vessel 

Alecton,  near  Teneriffe .365 

10.  Tentacle  of  a  great  Calamary  (Architeuthis  princeps]  taken 

in  Conception  Bay,  Newfoundland 369 

11.  Head  and  Tentacles  of  a  great   Calamary   (Architeuthis 

princeps]  taken  in  Logic  Bay,  Newfoundland  ....  370 

12.  Jonah  and  the  Sea  Monster 381 

13.  Sea  Serpent  seizing  a  man  on  board  ship 384 

14.  Gigantic  Lobster  dragging  a  man  from  a  ship 384 

15.  Pontoppidan's  "Sea  Serpent" 389 

1 6.  The  Animal  drawn  by  Mr.  Bing  as  having  been  seen  by  Egede  392 

17.  The  Animal  which  Egede  probably  saw 393 

1 8.  The  Sea  Serpent  of  the  Wernerian  Society  (facsimile)     .     .  394 

19.  A  Calamary  swimming  at  the  surface  of  the  sea    ....  402 

20.  The   Sea  Serpent  passing  under  the   quarter  of   H.M.S. 

Dadalus 406 

21.  The   Sea   Serpent  and  Sperm  Whale    as  seen   from  the 

Pauline      . 421 

22.  The  Sea  Serpent  as  seen  from  the  City  of  Baltimore  .     .     .  424 

23.  The    Sea    Serpent    as    seen    from    H.M.    yacht    Osborne. 

Phase  i 425 

24.  The    Sea    Serpent    as    seen    from    H.M.    yacht    Osborne. 

Phase  2 425 

25.  Skeleton  of  the  Plesiosaurus,  restored  by  Mr.  Conybeare      .  435 

26.  The  Sea  Serpent  on  the  Enaliosaurian  hypothesis      .     .     .  437 


SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 


THE  KRAKEN. 

IN  the  legends  and  traditions  of  northern  nations,  stories  of 
the  existence  of  a  marine  animal  of  such  enormous  size 
that  it  more  resembled  an  island  than  an  organised  being 
frequently  found  a  place.  It  is  thus  described  in  an 
ancient  manuscript  (about  A.D.  1180),  attributed  to  the 
Norwegian  King  Sverre,  and  the  belief  in  it  has  been 
alluded  to  by  other  Scandinavian  writers  from  an  early 
period  to  the  present  day.  It  was  an  obscure  and 
mysterious  sea-monster,  known  as  the  Kraken,  whose  form 
and  nature  were  imperfectly  understood,  and  it  was  pecu- 
liarly the  object  of  popular  wonder  and  superstitious 
dread. 

Eric  Pontoppidan,  the  younger,  Bishop  of  Bergen,  and 
member  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Copenhagen, 
is  generally,  but  unjustly,  regarded  as  the  inventor  of  the 
semi-fabulous  Kraken,  and  is  constantly  misquoted  by 
authors  who  have  never  read  his  work,*  and  who,  one  after 
another,  have  copied  from  their  predecessors  erroneous  state- 
ments concerning  him.  More  than  half  a  century  before  him, 
Christian  Francis  Paullinus,t  a  physician  and  naturalist  of 

*  *  Natural  History  of  Norway.'     A.D.  1751. 
t  Born  1643;  died  1712. 


326  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

Eisenach,  who  evinced  in  his  writings  an  admiration  of 
the  marvellous  rather  than  of  the  useful,  had  described 
as  resembling  Gesner's  '  Heracleoticon,'  a  monstrous  animal 
which  occasionally  rose  from  the  sea  on  the  coasts  of 
Lapland  and  Finmark,  and  which  was  of  such  enormous 
dimensions,  that  a  regiment  of  soldiers  could  conveniently 
manoeuvre  on  its  back.  About  the  same  date,  but  a  little 
earlier,  Bartholinus,  a  learned  Dane,  told  how,  on  a  certain 
occasion,  the  Bishop  of  Midaros  found  the  Kraken  quietly 
reposing  on  the  shore,  and  mistaking  the  enormous  creature 
for  a  huge  rock,  erected  an  altar  upon  it  and  performed 
mass.  The  Kraken  respectfully  waited  till  the  ceremony 
was  concluded,  and  the  reverend  prelate  safe  on  shore,  and 
then  sank  beneath  the  waves. 

And  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Bartholinus  and 
Paullinus  wrote,  Olaus  Magnus,*  Archbishop  of  Upsala,  in 
Sweden,  had  related  many  wondrous  narratives  of  sea- 
monsters, — tales  which  had  gathered  and  accumulated 
marvels  as  they  had  been  passed  on  from  generation  to 
generation  in  oral  history,  and  which  he  took  care  to 
bequeath  to  his  successors  undeprived  of  any  of  their 
fascination.  According  to  him,  the  Kraken  was  not  so 
polite  to  the  laity  as  to  the  Bishop,  for  when  some  fisher- 
men lighted  a  fire  on  its  back,  it  sank  beneath  their  feet, 
and  overwhelmed  them  in  the  waters. 

Pontoppidan  was  not  a  fabricator  of  falsehoods  ;  but,  in 

*  Olaus  Magnus  has  sometimes  been  mistaken  for  his  brother  and 
predecessor  in  the  archiepiscopal  see,  Johan  Magnus,  author  of  a 
book  entitled  Gothorum,  Suevorumque  Historia.  Olaus  was  the  last 
Roman  Catholic  archbishop  of  the  Swedish  church,  and  when  the 
Reformation,  supported  by  Gustavus  Vasa,  gained  the  ascendancy  in 
Sweden,  he  remained  true  to  his  faith,  and  retired  to  Rome,  where  he 
wrote  his  work  Historia  de  Gentibus  Septentrionalibus,  Roma,  1555. 
An  English  translation  of  this  book  was  published  by  J.  Streater,  in 
1658.  It  does  not  contain  the  illustrations. 


THE  KRAKEN.  327 

collecting  evidence  relating  to  the  "  great  beasts  "  living  in 
"  the  great  and  wide  sea,"  was  influenced,  as  he  tells  us,  by 
"  a  desire  to  extend  the  popular  knowledge  of  the  glorious 
works  of  a  beneficent  Creator."  He  gave  too  much 
credence  to  contemporary  narratives  and  old  traditions  of 
floating  islands  and  sea  monsters,  and  to  the  superstitious 
beliefs  and  exaggerated  statements  of  ignorant  fishermen  ; 
but  if  those  who  ridicule  him  had  lived  in  his  day  and 
amongst  his  people,  they  would  probably  have  done  the 
same ;  for  even  Linnaeus  was  led  to  believe  in  the  Kraken, 
and  catalogued  it  in  the  first  edition  of  his  *  Systema 
Naturae,'  as  *  Sepia  Microcosmos?  He  seems  to  have  after- 
wards had  cause  to  discredit  his  information  respecting  it, 
for  he  omitted  it  in  the  next  edition.  The  Norwegian 
bishop  was  a  conscientious  and  painstaking  investigator 
and  the  tone  of  his  writings  is  neither  that  of  an  intentional 
deceiver  nor  of  an  incautious  dupe.  He  diligently  en- 
deavoured to  separate  the  truth  from  the  cloud  of  error  and 
fiction  by  which  it  was  obscured  ;  and  in  this  he  was  to  a 
great  extent  successful,  for  he  correctly  identifies,  from  the 
vague  and  perplexing  descriptions  submitted  to  him,  the 
animal  whose  habits  and  structure  had  given  rise  to  so 
many  terror-laden  narratives  and  extravagant  traditions. 

The  following  are  some  of  his  remarks  on  the  subject  of 
this  gigantic  and  ill-defined  animal.  Although  I  have 
greatly  abbreviated  them,  I  have  thought  it  right  to  quote 
them  at  considerable  length,  that  the  modest  and  candid 
spirit  in  which  they  were  written  may  be  understood  :* 

"  Amongst  the  many  things,"  he  says,  "  which  are  in  the  ocean,  and 
concealed  from  our  eyes,  or  only  presented  to  our  view  for  a  few 
minutes,  is  the  Kraken.  This  creature  is  the  largest  and  most  sur- 
prising of  all  the  animal  creation,  and  consequently  well  deserves  such 

*  *  Natural  History  of  Norway/  vol.  ii.,  p.  210. 


328  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

an  account  as  the  nature  of  the  thing,  according  to  the  Creator's  wise 
ordinances,  will  admit  of.  Such  I  shall  give  at  present,  and  perhaps 
much  greater  light  on  this  subject  may  be  reserved  for  posterity. 

"  Our  fishermen  unanimously  affirm,  and  without  the  least  variation 
in  their  accounts,  that  when  they  row  out  several  miles  to  sea,  par- 
ticularly in  the  hot  summer  days,  and  by  their  situation  (which  they 
know  by  taking  a  view  of  different  points  of  land)  expect  to  find  eighty 
or  a  hundred  fathoms  of  water,  it  often  happens  that  they  do  not  find 
above  twenty  or  thirty,  and  sometimes  less.  At  these  places  they 
generally  find  the  greatest  plenty  of  fish,  especially  cod  and  ling. 
Their  lines,  they  say,  are  no  sooner  out  than  they  may  draw  them  up 
with  the  hooks  all  full  of  fish.  By  this  they  know  that  the  Kraken  is 
at  the  bottom.  They  say  this  creature  causes  those  unnatural  shal- 
lows mentioned  above,  and  prevents  their  sounding.  These  the  fisher- 
men are  always  glad  to  find,  looking  upon  them  as  a  means  of  their 
taking  abundance  of  fish.  There  are  sometimes  twenty  boats  or  more 
got  together  and  throwing  out  their  lines  at  a  moderate  distance  from 
each  other  ;  and  the  only  thing  they  then  have  to  observe  is  whether 
the  depth  continues  the  same,  which  they  know  by  their  lines,  or 
whether  it  grows  shallower,  by  their  seeming  to  have  less  water.  If 
this  last  be  the  case  they  know  that  the  Kraken  is  raising  himself 
nearer  the  surface,  and  then  it  is  not  time  for  them  to  stay  any  longer ; 
they  immediately  leave  off  fishing,  take  to  their  oars,  and  get  away  as 
fast  as  they  can.  When  they  have  reached  the  usual  depth  of  the 
place,  and  find  themselves  out  of  danger,  they  lie  upon  their  oars,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  after  they  see  this  enormous  monster  come  up  to  the 
surface  of  the  water ;  he  there  shows  himself  sufficiently,  though  his 
whole  body  does  not  appear,  which,  in  all  likelihood,  no  human  eye 
ever  beheld.  Its  back  or  upper  part,  which  seems  to  be  in  appearance 
about  an  English  mile  and  a  half  in  circumference  (some  say  more, 
but  I  chuse  the  least  for  greater  certainty),  looks  at  first  like  a  number 
of  small  islands  surrounded  with  something  that  floats  and  fluctuates 
k  e  sea-weeds.  Here  and  there  a  larger  rising  is  observed  like  sand- 
banks, on  which  various  kinds  of  small  fishes  are  seen  continually 
leaping  about  till  they  roll  off  into  the  water  from  the  sides  of  it ;  at 
last  several  bright  points  or  horns  appear,  which  grow  thicker  and 
thicker  the  higher  they  rise  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  some- 
times they  stand  up  as  high  and  as  large  as  the  masts  of  middle-sized 
vessels.  It  seems  these  are  the  creature's  arms,  and  it  is  said  if  they 
were  to  lay  hold  of  the  largest  man  of  war  they  would  pull  it  down  to 
the  bottom,  After  this  monster  has  been  on  the  surface  of  the  water 


THE  KRAKEN.  329 

a  short  time  it  begins  slowly  to  sink  again,  and  then  the  danger  is  as 
great  as  before  ;  because  the  motion  of  his  sinking  causes  such  a  swell 
in  the  sea,  and  such  an  eddy  or  whirlpool,  that  it  draws  everything 
down  with  it,  like  the  current  of  the  river  Male. 

"  As  this  enormous  sea-animal  in  all  probability  may  be  reckoned 
of  the  Polype,  or  of  the  Starfish  kind,  as  shall  hereafter  be  more  fully 
proved,  it  seems  that  the  parts  which  are  seen  rising  at  its  pleasure, 
and  are  called  arms,  are  properly  the  tentacula,  or  feeling  instruments, 
called  horns,  as  well  as  arms.  With  these  they  move  themselves,  and 
likewise  gather  in  their  food. 

"  Besides  these,  for  this  last  purpose  the  great  Creator  has  also 
given  this  creature  a  strong  and  peculiar  scent,  which  it  can  emit  at 
certain  times,  and  by  means  of  which  it  beguiles  and  draws  other  fish 
to  come  in  heaps  about  it.  This  animal  has  another  strange  property, 
known  by  the  experience  of  many  old  fishermen.  They  observe  that 
for  some  months  the  Kraken  or  Krabben  is  continually  eating,  and  in 
other  months  he  always  voids  his  excrements.  During  this  evacuation 
the  surface  of  the  water  is  coloured  with  the  excrement,  and  appears 
quite  thick  and  turbid.  This  muddiness  is  said  to  be  so  very  agree- 
able to  the  smell  or  taste  of  other  fishes,  or  to  both,  that  they  gather 
together  from  all  parts  to  it,  and  keep  for  that  purpose  directly  over 
the  Kraken  ;  he  then  opens  his  arms  or  horns,  seizes  and  swallows  his 
welcome  guests,  and  converts  them  after  due  time,  by  digestion,  into 
a  bait  for  other  fish  of  the  same  kind.  I  relate  what  is  affirmed  by 
many ;  but  I  cannot  give  so  certain  assurances  of  this  particular,  as  I 
can  of  the  existence  of  this  surprising  creature  ;  though  I  do  not  find 
anything  in  it  absolutely  contrary  to  Nature.  As  we  can  hardly 
expect  to  examine  this  enormous  sea-animal  alive,  I  am  the  more 
concerned  that  nobody  embraced  that  opportunity  which,  according 
to  the  following  account  once  did,  and  perhaps  never  more  may,  offer, 
of  seeing  it  entire  when  dead." 

The  lost  opportunity  which  the  worthy  prelate  thus 
lamented,  with  the  true  feeling  of  a  naturalist,  was  made 
known  to  him  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Friis,  Consistorial  As- 
sessor, Minister  of  Bodoen  in  Nordland,  and  Vicar  of  the 
college  for  promoting  Christian  knowledge,  and  was  to  the 
following  effect : 

"  In  the  year  1680,  a  Krake  (perhaps  a  young  and  foolish  one)  came 
into  the  water  that  runs  between  the  rocks  and  cliffs  in  the  parish  of 


330  SEA   MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 

Alstahoug,  though  the  general  custom  of  that  creature  is  to  keep 
always  several  leagues  from  land,  and  therefore  of  course  they  must 
die  there.  It  happened  that  its  extended  long  arms,  or  antennae,  which 
this  creature  seems  to  use  like  the  snail,  in  turning  about,  caught  hold 
of  some  trees  standing  near  the  water,  which  might  easily  have  been 
torn  up  by  the  roots  ;  but  beside  this,  as  it  was  found  afterwards,  he 
entangled  himself  in  some  openings  or  clefts  in  the  rock,  and  therein 
stuck  so  fast,  and  hung  so  unfortunately,  that  he  could  not  work  him- 
self out,  but  perished  and  putrefied  on  the  spot.  The  carcass,  which 
was  a  long  while  decaying,  and  filled  great  part  of  that  narrow  channel 
made  it  almost  impassable  by  its  intolerable  stench. 

"  The  Kraken  has  never  been  known  to  do  any  great  harm,  except," 
the  Author  quaintly  says,  "  they  have  taken  away  the  lives  of  those 
who  consequently  could  not  bring  the  tidings.  I  have  heard  but  one 
instance  mentioned,  which  happened  a  few  years  ago,  near  Fridrich- 
stad,  in  the  diocess  of  Aggerhuus.  They  say  that  two  fishermen 
accidentally,  and  to  their  great  surprise,  fell  into  such  a  spot  on  the 
water  as  has  been  before  described,  full  of  a  thick  slime  almost  like  a 
morass.  They  immediately  strove  to  get  out  of  this  place,  but  they 
had  not  time  to  turn  quick  enough  to  save  themselves  from  one  of  the 
Kraken's  horns,  which  crushed  the  head  of  the  boat,  so  that  it  was 
with  great  difficulty  they  saved  their  lives  on  the  wreck,  though  the 
weather  was  as  calm  as  possible  ;  for  these  monsters,  like  the  sea- 
snake,  never  appear  at  other  times." 

Pontoppidan  then  reviews  the  stories  of  floating  islands 
which  suddenly  appear,  and  as  suddenly  vanish,  commonly 
credited,  and  especially  mentioned  by  Luke  Debes,  in  his 
1  Description  of  Faroe.' 

"  These  islands  in  the  boisterous  ocean  could  not  be  imagined/'  he 
says,  "  to  be  of  the  nature  of  real  floating  islands,  because  they  could 
not  possibly  stand  against  the  violence  of  the  waves  in  the  ocean, 
which  break  the  largest  vessels,  and  therefore  our  sailors  have  con- 
cluded this  delusion  could  come  from  no  other  than  the  great  deceiver, 
the  devil." 

This  accusation,  the  good  bishop,  in  his  desire  to  be 
strictly  impartial,  will  not  admit  on  such  hear-say  evidence, 
but  is  determined  to,  literally,  "  give  the  devil  his  due;" 


THE  KRAKEN.  331 

for  he  warns  his  readers  that  "we  ought  not  to  charge 
that  apostate  spirit  without  a  cause ;  for,"  he  adds,  "  I 
rather  think  that  this  devil  who  so  suddenly  makes  and 
unmakes  these  floating  islands,  is  nothing  else  but  the 
Kraken." 

Referring  to  a  monster  described  by  Pliny,  he  repeats 
his  belief  that  "  This  sea-animal  belongs  to  the  Polype,  or 
Star-fish  species  ; "  but  he  becomes  very  undecided  and 
indefinite  between  the  Cephalopoda  and  the  Asterida, 
between  the  pedal  segments,  or  arms,  of  the  cuttle  radiating 
from  its  head,  and  the  rays  of  a  Star-fish  radiating  from  a 
central  portion  of  the  body.  He  evidently  inclines  strongly 
towards  a  particular  Star-fish,  the  rays  of  which  continually 
divide  and  subdivide  themselves,  or,  as  he  describes  it, 
"which  shoots  its  rays  into  branches  like  those  of  trees," 
and  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  "  Medusa's  Head,"  a  title 
by  which,  in  its  Greek  form,  Gorgonocephalus,  it  is  still 
known  to  zoologists.  "  These  Medusa's  Heads,"  he  says, 
"  are  supposed  by  some  seafaring  people  here,  to  be  the 
young  of  the  Sea-Krake ;  perhaps  they  are  its  smallest 
ovula."  After  considering  other  reports  concerning  the 
Kraken,  he  arrives  at  the  following  definite  opinion  : 

"  We  learn  from  all  this  that  the  Polype  or  Star-fish  have  amongst 
their  various  species  some  that  are  much  larger  than  others ;  and, 
according  to  all  appearance,  amongst  the  very  largest  inhabitants  of 
the  ocean.  If  the  axiom  be  true  that  greatness  or  littleness  makes  no 
change  in  the  species,  then  this  Krake  must  be  of  the  Polypus  kind, 
notwithstanding  its  enormous  size." 

His  diagnosis  is  correct ;  but  it  is  stated  with  a  modesty 
which  his  detractors  would  do  well  to  imitate  ;  and  his 
concluding  words  on  this  subject  place  him  in  a  light 
very  different  from  that  in  which  he  is  popularly  regarded. 


332  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

"  I  do  not  in  the  least  insist  on  this  conjecture  being  true,"  he  writes, 
"  but  willingly  submit  my  suppositions  in  this  and  every  other  dubious 
matter  to  the  judgment  of  those  who  are  better  experienced.  If  I  was 
an  admirer  of  uncertain  reports  and  fabulous  stories,  I  might  here  add 
much  more  concerning  this  and  other  Norwegian  sea-monsters,  whose 
existence  I  will  not  take  upon  me  to  deny,  but  do  not  chuse,  by  a 
mixture  of  uncertain  relations,  to  make  such  account  appear  doubtful 
as  I  myself  believe  to  be  true  and  well  attested.  I  shall,  therefore, 
quit  the  subject  here,  and  leave  it  to  future  writers  on  this  plan  to 
complete  what  I  have  imperfectly  sketched  out,  by  further  experience, 
which  is  always  the.  best  instructor." 

It  is  easy  to  recognise  in  Pontoppidan's  description  of 
the  Kraken,  the  form  and  habits  of  one  of  the  "  Cuttle- 
fishes," so-called.  The  appearance  of  its  numerous  arms, 
with  which  it  gathers  in  its  food,  and  which  grow  thicker 
and  thicker  as  they  rise  above  the  surface,  is  just  what 
would  take  place  in  the  case  of  one  of  the  pelagic  species 
of  these  mollusks  raising  its  head  out  of  the  sea.  The 
rendering  of  the  water  turbid  and  thick  by  the  emission  of 
a  substance  which  the  narrator  supposed  to  be  faecal 
matter,  is  exactly  that  which  occurs  when  a  cuttle  dis- 
charges the  contents  of  the  remarkable  organ  known  as 
its  ink-bag ;  and  the  strong  and  peculiar  scent  mentioned 
as  appertaining  to  it,  is  actually  characteristic  of  its  inky 
secretion.  The  musky  odour  referred  to  is  more  percep- 
tible in  some  species  than  in  others.  In  one  of  the  Octo- 
pods  (Eledone  moschatus},  it  is  so  strong,  that  the  specific 
name  of  the  animal  is  derived  from  it. 

The  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans,  v/ho  were  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  various  kinds  of  cuttles,  and  regarded 
them  all  as  excellent  food,  and  even  as  delicacies  of  the 
table,  applied  the  word  "polypus"  especially  to  the 
octopus.  But  Pontoppidan  evidently  uses  it  as  descriptive 
of  all  the  cephalopods.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however, 


THE  KRAKEN.  333 

that  when  he  wrote,  science  was  only  slowly  recovering 
from  neglect  of  many  centuries'  duration.  In  the  en- 
lightened times  of  Greece  and  Rome,  natural  history 
flourished,  and  as  in  our  day,  attracted  and  occupied  the 
attention  of  the  man  of  science,  and  afforded  recreation  to 
the  man  of  business  and  the  politician.  Aristotle  wrote 
322  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  his  works  are 
monuments  of  practical  wisdom.  When  we  consider  the 
period  during  which  he  lived,  and  the  isolated  nature  of  his 
labours,  and  compare  them  with  the  information  which  he 
possessed,  we  are  astonished  at  his  sagacity  and  the  great 
scope  and  general  accuracy  of  his  knowledge.  Pliny,  240 
years  later,  lived  in  times  more  favourable  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  science ;  but,  with  all  his  advantages,  made  little 
improvement  on  the  work  of  the  great  master.  And  then, 
later  still,  the  sun  of  learning  set ;  and  there  came  over 
Europe  the  long  night  of  the  dark  ages  which  succeeded 
Roman  greatness,  during  which  science  was  degraded  and 
ignorance  prevailed  ;  and  it  is  not  till  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  that  the  zoologist  finds  much  to  interest 
and  instruct  him.  When  we  further  reflect,  that  until 
within  the  past  five  and  twenty  years — till  our  large 
aquaria  were  constructed — Aristotle's  knowledge  of  the 
habits  and  life-history  of  marine  animals,  and  amongst  them 
the  cephalopods,  was  incomparably  greater  and  more  perfect 
than  that  possessed  by  any  man  who  had  lived  since  he 
recorded  his  observations,  we  cannot  help  feeling  that  in 
some  departments  of  knowledge  there  is  still  lost  ground 
to  be  recovered. 

In  the  old  days  of  the  Caesars,  a  Greek  or  Roman  house- 
wife who  was  accustomed  to  see  the  cuttle,  the  squid,  and 
the  octopus  daily  exposed  for  sale  in  the  markets,  would, 
of  course,  have  laughed  at  the  idea  of  mistaking  the  one  for 


334  SEA   MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

the  other  ;  but  there  are  comparatively  few  persons  in  our 
own  country,  at  the  present  day,  except  those  who  have 
made  marine  zoology  their  study,  whose  ideas  on  the  sub- 
ject are  not  exceedingly  hazy.  This  want  of  technical 
knowledge  is  not  confined  to  the  masses ;  but  is  common, 
if  not  general,  amongst  those  who  have  been  well  educated, 
and  is  frequently  apparent  even  in  leaders  in  the  daily 
papers — the  productions,  for  the  most  part,  of  men  of 
receptive  minds,  trained  discrimination,  and  great  general 
knowledge.  As  the  subject  is  one  in  which  I  have  long 
felt  especial  interest,  I  venture  to  hope  that  I  may  succeed 
in  making  clear  the  difference  between  the  eight-footed 
octopus  and  its  ten-footed  relatives,  and  thus  enable  the 
reader  to  identify  the  member  of  the  family  from  which  we 
are  to  strip  the  dress  and  "  make  up  "  in  which  it  masque- 
raded as  the  Kraken,  and  cause  it  to  appear  in  its  true 
and  natural  form. 

One  of  the  great  primary  groups  or  divisions  of  the 
animal  kingdom  is  that  of  the  soft-bodied  mollusca  ;  which 
includes  the  cuttle,  the  oyster,  the  snail,  &c.  It  has  been 
separated  into  five  "classes,"  of  which  the  one  we  have 
especially  to  notice  is  the  Cephalopoda*  or  " head-footed," 
—the  animals  belonging  to  it  having  their  feet,  or  the 
organs  which  correspond  with  the  foot  of  other  molluscs,  so 
attached  to  the  head  as  to  form  a  circle  or  coronet  round 
the  mouth.  Some  of  these  have  the  foot  divided  into  eight 
segments,  and  are  therefore  called  the  Octopoda  :\  others 
have,  in  addition  to  the  eight  feet,  lobes,  or  arms,  two 
longer  tentacular  appendages,  making  ten  in  all,  and  are 
consequently  called  the  Decapoda. 


*  From  the  Greek  words  cephale,  the  head  ;  andfoda,  feet, 
f  From  octo,  eight ;  and^ous  (poda},  feet. 


THE  KRAKEN. 


335 


Of  the  ten-footed  section  of  the  cephalopods,  there  are 
four  "  families  ;  "  two  only  of  which  exist  in  Britain — the 
Teuthida,  and  the  Sepiidce.  The  Teuthidce  are  the  Cala- 
maries,  popularly  known  as  "  Squids,"  and  are  represented 
by  the  long-bodied  Loligo  vulgaris,  that  has  internally, 
along  its  back,  a  gristly,  translucent  stiffener,  shaped  like  a 
quill-pen  ;  from  which  and  its  ink  it  derives  its  names  of 
"  calamary  "  (from  "  calamus?  a  "  pen  "),  "  pen-and-ink 
fish,"  and  "  sea-clerk."  The  Sepiida  are  generally  known 
as  the  Cuttles  proper.  As  a  type  of  them  we  may  take  the 
common  "  cuttle-fish,"  Sepia  officinalis,  the  owner  of  the 
hard,  calcareous  shell  often  thrown  up  on  the  shore,  and 
known  as  "  cuttle-bone,"  or  "  sea-biscuit" 

It  must  be  here  remarked,  that  as  these  head-footed  mol- 
lusks  are  not  "  fish,"  any  more  than  lobsters,  crabs,  oysters, 
mussels,  &c.,  which  fishmongers  call  "  shell-fish,"  are  "  fish,' 
the  word  "  fish  "  is  misleading,  and  should  be  abandoned  ; 
and  secondly,  that  the  names  "  cuttle  "  and  "  squid,"  as  dis- 
tinctive appellations,  are  unsatisfactory.  The  word  "  cuttle  " 
is  derived  from  "  cuddle,"  to  hug,  or  embrace — in  allusion 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  animal  seizes  its  prey,  and  en- 
folds it  in  its  arms  ;  and  "  squid  "  is  derived  from  "  squirt," 
in  reference  to  its  habit  of  squirting  water  or  ink.  But  as 
all  the  known  members  of  the  class,  except  the  pearly 
nautilus,  Nautilus  pompilius,  have  these  habits  in  common, 
the  distinguishing  terms  are  hardly  apposite.  As,  however, 
they  are  conventionally  accepted  and  understood,  I  prefer 
to  use  them.  As  with  other  mollusks,  so  with  the  cepha- 
lopods, some  have  shells,  and  some  are  naked,  or  have  only 
rudimentary  shells.  The  Argonaut,  or  paper  nautilus,  has 
been  regarded  as  the  analogue  of  the  snail,  which,  like  it, 
secretes  an  external  shell  for  the  protection  of  its  soft  body  ; 
and  the  octopus  as  that  of  the  garden  slug,  which,  having 


336  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

organs  like  those  of  the  snail,  as  the  octopus  has  organs 
like  those  of  the  shell-bearing  argonaut,  has  no  shell.  The 
cuttles  and  squids  may  be  compared  to  some  of  the  sea- 
slugs,  as  Aplysia  and  Bullcea,  and  to  some  land-slugs,  as 
Parmacella  and  Limax,  which  have  an  internal  shell. 

fhe  argonaut  and  the  other  families  of  the  cephalopods 
do  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this  treatise  ;  we  will  there- 
fore confine  our  attention  to  the  three  above  mentioned.  Of 
the  anatomy  and  homology  of  the  Octopus,  Sepia,  and  Cala- 
mary  we  need  say  no  more  than  will  suffice  to  show  in  what 
manner  they  resemble  each  other,  and  wherein  they  differ, 
in  order  that  we  may  the  more  clearly  perceive  to  which  of 
them  the  story  of  the  Kraken  probably  owes  its  origin. 

The  octopus,  the  sepia,  and  the  calamary  are  all  con- 
structed on  one  fundamental  plan.  A  bag  of  fleshy 
muscular  skin,  called  the  mantle-sac,  contains  the  organs 
of  the  body,  heart,  stomach,  liver,  intestines,  a  pair  of  gills 
by  which  oxygen  is  absorbed  from  the  water  for  the  puri- 
fication of  the  blood,  and  an  excurrent  tube  by  which  the 
water  thus  deprived  of  its  life-sustaining  gas  is  expelled, 
The  outrush  of  water  with  more  or  less  force,  from  this 
"  syphon-tube,"  is  also  the  principal  source  of  locomotion 
when  the  animal  is  swimming,  as  it  propels  it  backward — not 
by  the  striking  of  the  expelled  fluid  against  the  surrounding 
water,  as  is  generally  supposed ;  but  by  the  unbalanced 
pressure  of  the  fluid  acting  inside  the  body  in  the  direction 
in  which  the  creature  goes.  Into  this  syphon-tube,  or 
funnel,  opens,  by  a  special  duct,  the  ink-bag  ;  and  from  it 
is  squirted  at  will  the  intensely  black  fluid  therein  secreted. 
I  doubt  very  much  the  correctness  of  the  statement 
mentioned  by  Pontoppidan  and  others,  that  the  cuttle 
ejects  its  ink  with  a  desire  to  lie  hidden  and  in  ambush 
for  its  intended  prey,  or  with  the  intention  to  attract  fish 


THE  KRAKEN.  337 

within  its  reach  by  their  partiality  for  the  musky  odour  of 
this  secretion.  It  may  be  so,  but  during  the  long  period 
that  I  had  these  animals  under  close  observation  at  the 
Brighton  Aquarium,  I  never  witnessed  such  an  incident. 
I  believe  that  the  emission  of  the  ink  is  a  symptom 
of  fear,  and  is  only  employed  as  a  means  of  conceal- 
ment from  a  suspected  enemy.  I  have  found,  that 
when  first  taken,  the  Sepia,  of  all  its  kind,  is  the  most 
sensitively  timid.  Its  keen,  unwinking  eye  watches  for 
and  perceives  the  slightest  movement  of  its  captor ;  and  if 
even  most  cautiously  looked  at  from  above,  its  ink  is 
belched  forth  in  eddying  volumes,  rolling  over  and  over 
like  the  smoke  which  follows  the  discharge  of  a  great  gun 
from  a  ship's  port,  and  mixes  with  marvellous  rapidity  with 
the  surrounding  water.  But,  like  all  of  its  class,  the  Sepia 
is  very  intelligent.  It  soon  learns  to  discriminate  between 
friend  and  foe,  and  ultimately  becomes  very  tame,  and 
ceases  to  shoot  its  ink,  unless  it  be  teased  and  excited.  By 
means  of  the  communication  between  the  ink-bag  and  the 
locomotor  tube,  it  happens  that  when  the  ink  is  ejected, 
a  stream  of  water  is  forcibly  emitted  with  it,  and  thus  the 
very  effort  for  escape  serves  the  double  purpose  of  pro- 
pelling the  creature  away  from  danger,  and  discolouring 
the  water  in  which  it  moves.  Oppian  has  well  described 

this— 

"  The  endangered  cuttle  thus  evades  his  fears, 

And  native  hoards  of  fluids  safely  wears. 

A  pitchy  ink  peculiar  glands  supply 

Whose  shades  the  sharpest  beam  of  light  defy. 

Pursued,  he  bids  the  sable  fountains  flow, 

And,  wrapt  in  clouds,  eludes  the  impending  foe. 

The  fish  retreats  unseen,  while  self-born  night 

With  pious  shade  befriends  her  parent's  flight." 

Professor  Owen  has  remarked  that  the  ejection  of  the 

VOL.    III. — H.  Z 


338  SEA   MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

ink  of  the  cephalopods  serves  by  its  colour  as  a  means  of 
defence,  as  corresponding  secretions  in  some  of  the  mam- 
malia by  their  odour. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  pearly  nautilus  and  the 
allied  fossil  forms  are  without  this  means  of  concealment, 
which  their  strong  external  shells  render  unnecessary  for 
their  protection. 

From  the  sac-like  body  containing  the  various  organs 
protrudes  a  head,  globose  in  shape,  and  containing  a  brain, 
and  furnished  with  a  pair  of  strong,  horny  mandibles,  which 
bite  vertically,  like  the  beak  of  a  parrot.  By  these  the 
flesh  of  prey  is  torn  and  partly  masticated,  and  within 
them  lies  the  tongue,  covered  with  recurved  and  retrac- 
tile teeth,  like  that  of  its  distant  relatives,  the  whelk, 
limpet,  &c.,  by  which  the  food  is  conducted  to  the  gullet. 
Around  this  head  is,  as  I  have  said,  the  organ  which  is 
-equivalent  to  the  foot  in  other  mollusks — that  by  which 
the  slug  and  the  snail  crawl — only  that  the  head  is 
placed  in  the  centre,  instead  of  in  the  front  of  it,  and  it 
is  divided  into  segments,  which  radiate  from  this  central 
head.  These  segments  are  very  flexible,  and  capable  of 
movement  in  every  direction,  and  are  thus  developed 
into  arms,  prehensile  limbs,  by  which  their  owner  can 
seize  and  hold  its  living  prey.  That  this  may  be  more 
perfectly  accomplished,  these  arms  are  studded  along 
their  inner  surface  with  rows  of  sucking  disks,  in  each  of 
which,  by  means  of  a  retractile  piston,  a  vacuum  can 
be  produced.  The  consequent  pressure  of  the  outer  at- 
mosphere or  water,  causes  them  to  adhere  firmly  to  any 
substance  to  which  they  are  applied,  whether  stone,  fish, 
crustacean,  or  flesh  of  man. 

But,  although  in  all  these  highly-organised  head-footed 
mollusks  the  same  general  build  prevails,  it  is  admirably 


THE  KRAKEN. 


339 


modified  in  each  of  them  to  suit  certain  habits  and  neces- 
sities. Thus  the  octopus,  being  a  shore  dweller,  its  soft 
and  pliant,  but  very  tough  body,  having  merely  a  very 
small  and  rudimentary  indication  of  an  external  shell  (just 
a  little  "  style "),  is  exactly  adapted  for  wedging  itself 
amongst  crevices  of  rocks.  A  large,  rigid,  cellular  float,  or 
"  sepiostaire,"  such  as  Sepia  possesses,  or  a  long,  horny  pen 
such  as  Loligo  has,  would  be  in  the  way,  and  worse  than 
useless  in  such  places  as  the  octopus  inhabits.  Its  eight 
long  powerful  arms  or  feet  are  precisely  fitted  for  clamber- 


FIG.  I. — BEAK  AND  ARMS  OF  A  DECAPOD  CUTTLE. 

a,  the  eight  shorter  arms  ;  /,  the  tentacles  ;  f,  the  funnel,  or  locomotor  tube. 

ing  over  rocks  and  stones,  and  as  its  food,  of  course,  consists 
principally  of  the  living  things  most  abundant  in  such 
localities,  namely,  the  shore-crabs,  its  great  flexible  suckers, 
devoid  of  hooks  or  horny  armature,  are  exactly  adapted  to 
firm  and  air-tight  attachment  to  the  smooth  shells  of  the 
Crustacea. 

Unlike  the  octopus,  which  is  capable  only  of  short  flights' 
through  the  water,  the  "cuttles"  and  "squids,"  such  as 
Sepia  and  Loligo,  are  all  free  swimmers.  For  them  it  is 
necessary  for  accuracy  of  natation  that  their  soft,  and  in 
the  squids  long  bodies,  should  be  supported  by  such  a 

z  2 


340  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

framework  as  they  possess.     In  Sepia,  the  mantle-sac   is 
flattened  horizontally  all  along  its  lateral  edges  so  as  to 
form  a  pair  of  fins,  which  nearly  surround  the  trunk.    These 
fins  could  never  be  used,  as  they  are,  to  enable  the  animal 
to  poise  itself  delicately  in  the  water  by  means  of  their 
beautiful  undulations,  which   I   have   often  watched  with 
delight,  if  their  attached  edges  were  not  kept  in  a  straight 
line  on  either  side.     Then,  these  ten-footed  or  ten-armed 
genera  have  not,  because  they  need  them  not,  eight  long, 
strong  and  highly  mobile  arms  like  those  of  the  octopus,  nor 
have  they  large  suckers  upon  them.    Whereas  a  great  length 
of  reach  is  an  advantage  to  the  octopus,  animals  which  are 
purely  swimmers,  and  which  hunt  and  overtake  their  prey 
by  speed,  would  be  impeded  by  having  to  drag  after  them 
a  bundle  of  stout,  lengthy    appendages    trailing    heavily 
astern.    Their  eight  pedal  arms  are  short  and  comparatively 
weak,  though  strong  enough,  in  individuals  such   as  are 
regarded  on  our  own  coasts  as  fullgrown,  to  seize  and  hold 
a  fish  or  crustacean  as  strong  as  a  good  sized  shore-crab. 
But,  as  compensation  for  the  shortness  of  the  eight  arms,  they 
are  provided  with  two  others  more  than  three  times  the 
length  of  the  short  ones.     These  are  so  slender  that  they 
generally  lie  coiled  up  in  a  spiral  cone  in  two  pockets,  one 
on   each   side,  just  below   the   eye,  when   the   animal   is 
quiescent,  and  are  only  seen  when  it  takes  its  food.     These 
long,  slender  tentacular  arms  are  expanded  at  their  extre- 
mity, and  the  inner  surface  of  their  enlarged  part  is  studded 
with  suckers — some  of  them  larger  in  size  than  those  on 
the  eight  shorter  arms.     As  the  food  of  these  swimmers 
consists,  of  course,  chiefly  of  fish,  their  sucking  disks  are 
curiously   modified  for  the  better  retention  of  a  slippery 
captive.     A  horny  ring  with  a  sharply  serrated  edge  is  im- 
bedded in  the  outer  circumference  of  each  of  them,  and 


THE  KRAKEN.  341 

when  a  vacuum  is  formed,  the  keen,  saw-like  teeth  are 
pressed  into  the  skin  or  scales  of  the  unfortunate  prisoner, 
and  deprive  it  of  the  slightest  chance  of  escape. 

The  manner  in  which  the  eight-armed  and  ten-armed 
cephalopods  capture  their  prey  is  '  similar  in  principle  and 
plan,  but  differs  in  action  in  accordance  with  their  mode  of 
life.  The  ordinary  habit  of  the  octopus  is  either  to  rest 
suspended  to  the  side  of  a  rock  to  which  it  clings  with  the 
suckers  of  several  of  its  arms,  or  to  remain  lurking  in  some 
favourite  cranny  ;  its  body  thrust  for  protection  and  conceal- 
ment well  back  in  the  interior  of  the  recess  ;  its  bright  eyes 
keenly  on  the  watch  ;  three  or  four  of  its  limbs  firmly 
attached  to  the  walls  of  its  hiding  place — the  others  gently 
waving,  gliding,  and  feeling  about  in  the  water,  as  if  to 
maintain  its  vigilance,  and  keep  itself  always  on  the  alert, 
and  in  readiness  to  pounce  on  any  unfortunate  wayfarer 
that  may  pass  near  its  den.  To  a  shore-crab  that  comes 
within  its  reach  the  slightest  contact  with  one  of  those  lithe 
arms  is  fatal.  Instantaneously  as  pull  of  trigger  brings 
down  a  bird,  or  touch  of  electric  wire  explodes  a  torpedo 
or  a  mining  fuse,  the  pistons  of  the  series  of  suckers  are 
simultaneously  drawn  inward,  the  air  is  removed  from  the 
pneumatic  holders,  and  a  vacuum  created  in  each  :  the  crab 
tries  to  escape,  but  in  a  second  is  completely  pinioned  : 
not  a  movement,  not  a  struggle  is  possible  ;  each  leg,  each 
claw  is  grasped  all  over  by  suckers,  enfolded  in  them, 
stretched  out  to  its  fullest  extent  by  them  ;  the  back  of 
the  carapace  is  completely  covered  by  the  tenacious  disks, 
brought  together  by  the  adaptable  contractions  of  the  limb, 
and  ranged  in  close  order,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  touching 
each  other ;  and  the  pressure  of  the  air  is  so  great  that 
nothing  can  effect  the  relaxation  of  their  retentive  power  but 
the  destruction  of  the  air-pump  that  works  them  or  the 


342 


SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 


THE  KRAKEN.  343 

closing  of  the  throttle-valve  by  which  they  are  connected 
with  it.  Meanwhile  the  abdominal  plates  of  the  captive 
crab  are  dragged  towards  the  mouth  ;  the  black  tip  of  the 
hard  horny  beak  is  seen  for  a  single  instant  protruding 
from  the  circular  orifice  in  the  centre  of  the  radiation  of 
the  arms  ;  and,  the  next,  has  crushed  through  the  shell,  and 
is  buried  deep  in  the  flesh  of  the  victim. 

Unlike  the  skulking,  hiding  octopus,  its  ten-armed  rela- 
tive, the  Sepia,  loves  the  daylight  and  the  freedom  of  the 
upper  water.  Its  predatory  acts  are  not  those  of  a  con- 
cealed and  ambushed  brigand  lying  in  wait  behind  a 
rock,  or  peeping  furtively  from  within  the  gloomy  shadow 
of  a  cave  ;  but  it  may  better  be  compared  with  the  war-like 
Comanche  vidette  seated  gracefully  on  his  horse,  and  scan- 
ning from  some  elevated  knoll  a  wide  expanse  of  prairie,  in 
readiness  to  swoop  upon  a  weak  or  unarmed  foe.  Poised 
near  the  surface  of  the  water,  like  a  hawk  in  the  air,  the 
Sepia  moves  gently  to  and  fro  by  graceful  undulations  of 
its  lateral  fins, — an  exquisite  play  of  colour  occasionally 
taking  place  over  its  beautifully  barred  and  mottled  back. 
When  thus  tranquil,  its  eight  pedal  arms  are  usually 
brought  close  together,  and  droop  in  front  of  its  head,  like 
the  trunk  of  an  elephant,  shortened  ;  its  two  longer  tenta- 
cular arms  being  coiled  up  within  their  pouches,  and  unseen. 
Only  when  some  small  fish  approaches  it  does  it  arouse 
itself.  Then,  its  eyes  dilate,  and  its  colours  become  more 
bright  and  vivid.  It  carefully  takes  aim,  advancing  or 
retreating  to  such  a  distance  as  will  just  allow  the  two 
hidden  tentacles  to  reach  the  quarry  when  they  shall  be  shot 
out.  Next,  the  two  highest  or  central  feet  are  lifted  up, 
and  the  three  others  on  each  side  are  spread  aside,  so  that 
they  may  be  all  out  of  the  way  of  the  two  concealed  ten- 


344  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

tacles,  presently  to  be  launched  forth ;  and  then,  in  a 
moment — so  instantaneously  that  the  eye  of  an  observer, 
be  he  ever  so  watchful,  can  hardly  see  the  act — this  pair 
of  tentacles,  side  by  side,  are  projected  and  withdrawn,  as 
if  in  a  flash.  The  fish,  or  shrimp,  has  vanished,  the  suckers 
of  the  dilated  ends  of  the  tentacles  having  adhered  to  it, 
and  left  it,  as  they  re-entered  their  pouches,  within  the  fatal 
"cuddle,"  or  embrace,  where  it  is  torn  to  pieces  by  the 
devouring  beak.*  This  action  of  the  tentacles  of  the 
decapods  is  the  most  rapid  motion  that  I  know  of  in  the 
whole  animal  kingdom — not  excepting  even  that  of  the 
tongue  of  the  toad  and  the  lizard.  These  long  tentacles 
are  not  used  when  the  food  is  within 'reach  of  the  shorter 
arms. 

The  calamaries,  or  squids,  of  our  British  seas  seize  their 
prey  in  the  same  manner  as  Sepia,  and  the  description  of  one 
will  suffice  for  both.  But  there  exist  two  groups  of  them, 
which  are  armed  with  curved  and  sharp-pointed  hooks  or 
claws,  either  in  addition  to,  or  instead  of  suckers.  In  the 
one  group  (Onychoteuthis],  the  hooks  are  restricted  to  the 
extremities  of  the  pair  of  tentacles,  in  the  other  (Enoploteu- 
this),  both  the  tentacles  and  the  shorter  arms  have  hooks. 
Professor  Owen,  in  his  description  of  these  hook-armed 
calamaries  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  A  natomy,  notices  also 
another  structure  which  adds  greatly  to  their  prehensile 

*  See  an  excellent  article  in  the  Field,  Sept.  2,  1876,  on  the  '  Ten 
Footed  Cuttle '  (Sepia  officinalis),  by  the  late  Mr.  W.  A.  Lloyd,  an 
earnest  and  accomplished  aquatic  zoologist ;  eccentric,  but  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  construction  and  management  of  an  aquarium  a  master 
of  his  craft.  It  was  his  wish  that  in  any  future  edition  of  my  little 
book  on  the  Octopus,  or  other  writings  on  the  cephalopods,  I  should 
use  the  woodcuts  which  illustrated  his  articles  on  Sepia  and  Octopus. 
By  the  kind  permission  of  the  proprietors  of  the  Field,  I  reproduce 
them  in  suitable  size  for  these  pages. 


THE  KRAKEN. 


345 


346 


SEA   MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 


power  (Fig.  4).  "At  the  extremity  of  the  long  tentacles  a 
cluster  of  small,  simple,  unarmed 
suckers  may  be  observed  at  the 
base  of  the  expanded  part.  When 
these  latter  suckers  are  applied  to 
one  another  the  tentacles  are  se- 
curely locked  together  at  that  part, 
and  the  united  strength  of  both  the 
elongated  peduncles  can  be  applied 
to  drag  towards  the  mouth  any 
resisting  object  which  has  been 
grappled  by  the  terminal  hooks. 
There  is  no  mechanical  contrivance 
which  surpasses  this  structure  ;  art 
has  remotely  imitated  it  in  the 
fabrication  of  the  obstetrical  for- 
ceps, in  which  either  blade  can  be 
/  H\  used  separately,  or,  by  the  inter- 
locking of  a  temporary  blade,  be 
made  to  act  in  combination." 

The  cephalopods  obtain  and  eat 
their  food  very  much  like  the  rapa- 
cious birds.  They  are  the  falcons 
of  the  sea.  Some  of  them,  like 
OnychoteuthiS)  strike  their  prey  with 
talons  and  suckers  also,  others  lay 
hold  of  it  with  suckers  alone  ;  but 
they  all  tear  the  flesh  with  their 
beaks,  and  swallow  and  digest  their 
food  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
1 '  hawk  or  vulture. 

FIG.  4.— HOOKED  TENTACLES  . 

OF  Onychoteuthis.  The    Sepia,   the    owner   of    the 

broad,  flattened  bone,  has  a  decided  predilection  for  the 


THE  KRAKEN.  347 

vicinity  of  the  shore,  and  for  comparatively  shallow  water. 
It  there  attaches  its  grape-like  eggs  to  some  convenient 
stone  or  growing  alga,  and  delights  occasionally  to  sink  to 
the  bottom,  and  there  to  rest  half  covered  by  the  sand, 
a  habit  for  which  the  form  of  its  body  is  well  adapted. 
But  the  calamaries — they  of  the  horny  pen — prefer  the 
wide  waters  of  the  open  ocean ;  and  although  they,  too, 
especially  the  smaller  species,  are  common  upon  the  coasts, 
they  are  frequently  met  with  far  out  at  sea,  and  away  from 
any  land.  The  elongated  and  almost  arrow-like  shape 
of  their  bodies  enables  them  to  glide  through  the  water 
with  great  rapidity,  and  the  momentum  imparted  by  a 
vigorous  out-rush  from  their  syphon-tube  is  sometimes  so 
great  that  when  the  opposite  pressure  thus  produced  is  so 
exerted  as  to  cause  them  to  take  an  upward  direction  they 
leap  out  of  the  water  to  so  great  a  height  as  to  fall  on  the 
decks  of  ships  ;  and  are,  therefore,  called  by  sailors, 
"  flying  squids."  Their  spawn  is  very  different  from  that 
of  either  octopus,  or  sepia.  It  consists  of  dozens  of  semi- 
transparent,  gelatinous,  slender,  cylindrical  sheaths,  about 
four  or  five  inches  long,  each  containing  many  ova  imbedded 
in  it  (making  a  total  number  of  about  40,000  embryos),  all 
springing  from  a  common  centre  and  resembling  a  mop 
without  a  handle.  I  have  never  seen  any  of  these  "  sea- 
mops  "  attached  to  anything,  and  the  pelagic  habits  of  the 
calamaries  render  it  probable  that  they  are  left  floating  on 
the  surface  of  the  sea. 

Having  made  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  structure 
and  habits  of  these  three  divisions  of  the  eight-footed  and 
ten-footed  mollusks,  let  us  take  evidence  as  to  the  size  to 
which  they  are  respectively  known  to  attain,  and  the  degree 
in  which  they  may  be  regarded  as  dangerous  to  man. 

An  octopus  from  our  own  coasts  having  arms  two  feet  in 


348  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

length  may  be  considered  a  rather  large  specimen  ;  and 
Dr.  J.  E.  Gray,  who  was  always  most  kindly  ready  to  place 
at  the  disposal  of  any  sincere  inquirer  the  vast  store  of 
knowledge  laid  up  in  his  wonderful  memory,  told  me  that 
"  there  is  not  one  in  the  British  Museum  which  exceeds 
this  size,  or  which  would  not  go  into  a  quart  pot — body, 
arms  and  all."  The  largest  British  specimen  I  have  hitherto 
seen  had  arms  2  ft.  6  in.  long.  We  have  sufficient  evidence, 
however,  that  it  exceeds  this  in  the  South  of  France,  and 
along  the  Spanish  and  Italian  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  ; 
and  my  deceased  friend  John  Keast  Lord  tells  us  in  his 
book,  '  The  Naturalist  in  British  Columbia/  that  he  saw 
and  measured,  in  Vancouver's  Island,  an  octopus  which 
had  arms  five  feet  long. 

I  have  often  been  asked  whether  an  octopus  of 
the  ordinary  size  can  really  be  dangerous  to  bathers. 
Decidedly,  "Yes,"  in  certain  situations.  The  holding 
power  of  its  numerous  suckers  is  enormous.  It  is 
almost  impossible  forcibly  to  detach  it  from  its  adhesion 
to  a  rock  or  the  flat  bottom  of  a  tank  ;  and  if  a  large  one 
happened  to  fix  one  or  more  of  its  strong,  tough  arms  on 
the  leg  of  a  swimmer  whilst  the  others  held  firmly  to  a  rock, 
I  doubt  if  the  man  could  disengage  himself  under  water 
by  mere  strength,  before  being  exhausted.  Fortunately 
the  octopus  can  be  made  to  relax  its  hold  by  grasping  it 
tightly  round  the  "  throat,"  (if  I  may  so  call  it),  and  it  may 
be  well  that  this  should  be  known. 

That  men  are  occasionally  drowned  by  these  creatures 
is,  unhappily,  a  fact  too  well  attested.  I  have  else- 
where *  related  several  instances  of  this  having  occurred. 
Omitting  those,  I  will  give  two  or  three  others  which  have 

*  See  '  The  Octopus  ;  or,  the  Devil-fish  of  Fiction  and  of  Fact.' 
1873.  Chapman  and  Hall. 


THE  KRAKEN.  349 

since  come  under  my  notice.  Sir  Grenville  Temple,  in  his 
1  Excursions  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea,'  tells  how  a  Sardinian 
captain,  whilst  bathing  at  Jerbeh,  was  seized  and  drowned 
by  an  octopus.  When  his  body  was  found,  his  limbs  were 
bound  together  by  the  arms  of  the  animal ;  and  this  took 
place  in  water  only  four  feet  deep. 

Mr.  J.  K.  Lord's  account  of  the  formidable  strength  of 
these  creatures  in  Oregon  is  confirmed  by  an  incident 
recorded  in  the  Weekly  Oregonian  (the  principal  paper  of 
Oregon)  of  October  6th,  1877.  A  few  days  before  that 
date  an  Indian  woman,  whilst  bathing,  was  held  beneath 
the  surface  by  an  octopus,  and  drowned.  The  body  was 
discovered  on  the  following  day  in  the  horrid  embrace  of 
the  creature.  Indians  dived  down,  and  with  their  knives 
severed  the  arms  of  the  octopus  and  recovered  the  corpse. 

Mr.  Clemens  Laming,  in  his  book,  *  The  French  in  Al- 
giers,' writes : — 

"  The  soldiers  were  in  the  habit  of  bathing  in  the  sea  every  evening, 
and  from  time  to  time  several  of  them  disappeared — no  one  knew 
how.  Bathing  was,  in  consequence,  strictly  forbidden  ;  in  spite  of 
which  several  men  went  into  the  water  one  evening.  Suddenly  one  of 
them  screamed  for  help,  and  when  several  others  arushed  to  his  assist- 
ance they  found  that  an  octopus  had  seized  him  by  the  leg  by  four 
of  its  arms,  whilst  it  clung  to  the  rock  with  the  rest.  The  soldiers 
brought  the  'monster'  home  with  them,  and  out  of  revenge  they 
boiled  it  alive  and  ate  it.  This  adventure  accounted  for  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  other  soldiers." 

The  Rev.  W.  Wyatt  Gill,  who  for  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  has  resided  as  a  missionary  amongst  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Hervey  Islands,  and  with  whom  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  conversing  on  this  subject  when  he  was  in 
England  in  1875,  described  in  the  Leisure  Hour  of  April 
2Oth,  1 872,  another  mode  of  attack  by  which  an  octopus  might 
deprive  a  man  of  life.  A  servant  of  his  went  diving  for 


350  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

"  poulpes "  (octopods),  leaving  his  son  in  charge  of  the 
canoe.  After  a  short  time  he  rose  to  the  surface,  his  arms 
free,  but  his  nostrils  and  mouth  completely  covered  by  a 
large  octopus.  If  his  son  had  not  promptly  torn  the 
living  plaister  from  off  his  face  he  must  have  been  suffo- 
cated— a  fate  which  actually  befel,  some  years  previously,  a 
man  who  foolishly  went  diving  alone. 

In  Appleton's  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Art, 
January  3ist,  1874,  a  correspondent  describes  an  attack 
by  an  octopus  on  a  diver  who  was  at  work  on  the  wreck  of 
a  sunken  steamer  off  the  coast  of  Florida.  The  man,  a  power- 
ful Irishman,  was  helpless  in  its  grasp,  and  would  have  been 
drowned  if  he  had  not  been  quickly  brought  to  the  surface  ; 
for,  when  dragged  on  to  the  raft  from  which  he  had 
descended,  he  fainted,  and  his  companions  were  unable  to 
pull  the  creature  from  its  hold  upon  him  until  they  had 
dealt  it  a  sharp  blow  across  its  baggy  body. 

A  similar  incident  occurred  to  the  Government  diver  of 
the  Colony  of  Victoria,  Australia.  Whilst  pursuing  his 
avocation  in  the  estuary  of  the  river  Moyne  he  was  seized 
by  an  octopus.  He  killed  it  by  striking  it  with  an  iron 
bar,  and  brought  to  shore  with  him  a  portion  of  it  with  the 
arms  more  than  three  feet  long. 

Mr.  Laurence  Oliphant,  in  his  *  China  and  Japan,'  describes 
a  Japanese  show,  which  consisted  of  "  a  series  of  groups 
of  figures  carved  in  wood,  the  size  of  life,  and  as  cleverly 
coloured  as  Madame  Tussaud's  wax-works.  One  of  these 
was  a  group  of  women  bathing  in  the  sea.  One  of  them 
had  been  caught  in  the  folds  of  a  cuttle-fish  ;  the  others, 
in  alarm,  were  escaping,  leaving  their  companion  to  her 
fate.  The  cuttle-fish  was  represented  on  a  huge  scale,  its 
eyes,  eyelids,  and  mouth  being  made  to  move  simultane- 
ously by  a  man  inside  the  head." 


THE  KRAKEN.  351 

An  attack  of  this  kind  is  most  artistically  represented 
in  a  small  Japanese  ivory-carving  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  Bartlett,  of  the  Zoological  Gardens.*  A  Japanese 
woman  has  been  seized  by  an  octopus  whilst  bathing — for 
as  my  friend  Mr.  Frank  Buckland 
remarked  when  he  examined  this 
work  of  art,  the  lady  wears  a  bath- 
ing-dress. One  arm  of  the  octopus 
is  in  the  act  of  coiling  round  the 
woman's  neck,  and  she  is  en- 
deavouring to  pull  it  off  with  her 
right  hand  ;  another  arm  is  en- 
twined around  her  left  wrist  ;  and 

FIG,     5. — JAPANESE     WOMAN 

the    rest    of    the    eight    writhing        SEIZED   BY   AN    OCTOPUS 

WHILST   BATHING. 

thongs    encircle     her     body    and 

waist.  With  her  left  hand  she  is  trying  to  force  away  from 
her  the  mouth  of  her  formidable  assailant,  which  is  evidently 
overpowering  her.  The  arms  of  the  octopus  and  their 
sucking  disks  are  admirably  carved,  but,  as  in  almost  all 
Japanese  portraits  of  the  octopus,  the  animal  is  incorrectly 
depicted  as  having  a  long  snout — the  funnel,  or  syphon 
tube,  being  misrepresented  as  the  mouth. 

The  Japanese  are  well  acquainted  with  the  octopus  ;  for 
it  is  commonly  depicted  on  their  ornaments,  and  forms  no 
unimportant  item  in  their  fisheries. 

I  have  recently  had  an  opportunity  of  inspecting  a  most 
curious  Japanese  book,  in  the  possession  of  my  friend  Mr. 
W.  B.  Tegetmeier,  which  is  chiefly  devoted  to  the  repre- 


*  A  wood  engraving  of  this  carving  was  figured  in  illustration  of  an 
interesting  paper  by  Professor  Owen,  C.B.,  F.R.S.,  &c.,  "  On  some 
new  and  rare  Cephalopoda,"  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Zoological 
Society,  April  20,  1880.  With  the  cordial  consent  of  the  distinguished 
author  I  reproduce  it  here. 


352  SEA    MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

sentations  of  the  fisheries  and  fish-curing  processes  of  the 
country.     It  is  in  three  volumes,  and  is  entitled,  *  Land  and 
Sea  Products,'  by  Ki  Kone.     It  is  evidently  ancient,  for  it 
is  slightly  worm-eaten,  but  the  plates,  each  1 2  inches  by 
8  inches,  are  full  of  vigour.     Two  of  these  illustrate  in  a 
very  interesting  manner  the  subject  before  us,  and  by  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Tegetmeier  I  am  able  to  give  facsimiles  of 
them,  which  appeared  with  an  article  by  him  on  this  book 
in  the  Field 'of  March  I4th,  1874.    Fig.  6  represents  a  fisher- 
man in  a  boat  out  at  sea  :  a  gigantic  octopus  has  thrown 
one  of  its  arms  over  the  side  of  the  boat ;  the  man,  who  is 
alone,  has  started  forward  from  the  stern  of  the  boat,  and 
has  succeeded,  by  means  of  a  large  knife  attached  to  a  long 
handle,  in  lopping  off  the  dangerous  limb  of  his  enemy. 
As  Mr.  Tegetmeier  says,  "  From  the  extreme  matter  of  fact 
manner  in  which  all  these  engravings  are  made,  and  the  total 
absence  of  exaggeration  in  any  other  representation,  I  can- 
not but  regard  the  relative  sizes  of  the  man,  the  boat,  and 
the   octopus,   as   correctly  given,   in  which   case  we  have 
evidence    of   the   existence   of    gigantic    cephalopods    in 
Japanese  waters."     The  only  doubt  I  have  is  whether  the 
fisherman  correctly  described  his  assailant  as  an  octopus, 
and  whether   it  was   not   a   calamary.     Fig.  7  is  a  vivid 
picture  of  a  fishmonger's  shop  in  a  market,  under  the  awn- 
ing of  which  may  be  seen  two  arms  of  a  gigantic  cuttle  hung 
up  for  sale  as  food.     These  are  evidently  of  most  unusual 
size,  judging  from  the  action  of  the  lookers  on  ;  the  one 
to  the  left,  with  a  tall  stand  or  case  on  his  back,  like  a 
Parisian   cocoa-vendor,  is  holding   out   his   hand  in  mute 
astonishment ;  whilst  the  attention  of  the  smaller  personage 
in  the  right-hand  corner  is  directed  to  the  suspended  arms 
of  the  cuttle  by  the  man  nearest  to  him,  who  is  pointing  to 
them  with  upraised  hand.     In  another  plate  in  this  most 


THE  KRAKEN. 


353 


FIG.   6.— JAPANESE   FISHERMAN    ATTACKED    BY   A   CUTTLE. 


FIG.  7. — ARMS  OF  A  GREAT  CUTTLE  EXHIBITED  IN  A  JAPANESE 
FISHMONGER'S  SHOP. 


VOL.    III. — H. 


2    A 


354  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

interesting  work  a  Japanese  mode  of  fishing  for  cuttles  is 
delineated.  A  man  in  a  boat  is  tossing  crabs,  one  at  a 
time,  into  the  sea,  and  when  a  cuttle  rises  at  the  bait  he 
spears  it  with  a  trident  and  tosses  it  into  the  boat. 

The  octopus,  therefore,  though  not  abundant  on  our  own 
coasts,  is  found  in  every  sea  in  the  temperate  zone  ;  and  in 
so  far  that  it  secretes  an  ink  with  which  it  can  render 
the  water  turbid,  and  has  many  radiating  arms  with  which 
it  can  seize  and  drown  a  man,  it  possesses  certain  attri- 
butes of  the  Kraken  :  but  we  have  no  authentic  knowledge 
of  its  ever  attaining  to  greater  dimensions  than  I  have 
stated,  nor  does  it  bask  on  the  surface  of  the  sea.  It  is  not 
amongst  the  Octopidcz  therefore  that  we  must  look  for  a 
solution  of  the  mystery. 

The  basking  condition  is  fulfilled  by  the  Sepia ;  and  its 
flattened  back,  supported  and  rendered  hard  and  firm  to 
the  touch  by  the  calcareous  sepiostaire  beneath  the  skin,  is 
broader  in  proportion  than  that  of  the  octopus  or  the  squid. 
Thus  Sepia  might  pass  as  a  microscopic  miniature  of  the 
great  Scandinavian  monster.  But  it  lacks  the  character  of 
size.  We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  any  true  Sepia 
exists,  as  the  family  is  now  understood,  that  has  a  body 
more  than  eighteen  inches  long.  If  it  were  otherwise  it 
would  be  more  likely  to  be  known  of  this  family  than  of  its 
relatives,  for  its  lightly  constructed  and  well  known  "  cuttle- 
bone  "  would  float  on  the  surface  for  many  weeks  after  the 
death  of  its  owner,  and  large  specimens  of  it  would  be  seen 
and  recognised  from  passing  ships. 

As  we  can  find  no  species  of  the  Octopida  or  Sepiidc? 
which  can  furnish  a  pretext  for  the  stories  told  of  the 
Kraken,  we  must  try  to  ascertain  how  far  a  similitude  to  it 
may  be  traced  in  the  third  family  we  have  discussed,  the 
Teuthida. 


THE  KRAKEN.  355 

The  belief  in  the  existence  of  gigantic  cuttles  is  an 
ancient  one.  Aristotle  mentions  it,  and  Pliny  tells  of  an 
enormous  polypus  which  at  Carteia,  in  Grenada — an  old 
and  important  Roman  colony  near  Gibraltar  —  used  to 
come  out  of  the  sea  at  night,  and  carry  off  and  devour 
salted  tunnies  from  the  curing  depots  on  the  shore ;  and 
adds  that  when  it  was  at  last  killed,  the  head  of  it  (they 
used  to  call  the  body  the  head,  because  in  swimming  it 
goes  in  advance)  was  found  to  weigh  700  Ibs.  ^Elian  re- 
cords a  similar  incident,  and  describes  his  monster  as 
crushing  in  its  arms  the  barrels  of  salt  fish  to  get  at  the 
contents.  These  two  must  have  been  octopods,  if  they 
were  anything ;  the  word  "  polypus "  .  thus  especially 
designates  it,  and  moreover,  the  free-swimming  cuttles  and 
squids  would  be  helpless  if  stranded  on  the  shore.  Some 
of  the  old  writers  seem  to  have  aimed  rather  at  making  their 
histories  sensational  than  at  carefully  investigating  the 
credibility  or  the  contrary  of  the  highly  coloured  reports 
brought  to  them.  These  were,  of  course,  gross  exaggera- 
tions, but  there  was  generally  a  substratum  of  truth  in 
them.  They  were  based  on  the  rare  occurrence  of  speci- 
mens, smaller  certainly,  but  still  enormous,  of  some  known 
species,  and  in  most  cases  the  worst  that  can  be  said  of 
their  authors  is  that  they  were  culpably  careless  and  fool- 
ishly credulous. 

Unhappily,  so  lenient  a  judgment  cannot  be  passed  on 
some  comparatively  recent  writers.  Denys  de  Montfort, 
half  a  century  later  than  Pontoppidan,  not  only  professed 
to  believe  in  the  Kraken,  but  also  in  the  existence  of 
another  gigantic  animal  distinct  from  it ;  a  colossal  poulpe, 
or  octopus,  compared  with  which  Pliny's  was  a  mere 
pigmy.  In  a  drawing  fitter  to  decorate  the  outside  of  a 
showman's  caravan  at  a  fair  than  seriously  to  illustrate  a 

2  A  2 


356  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

work  on  natural  history,*  he  depicted  this  tremendous 
cuttle  as  throwing  its  arms  over  a  three-masted  vessel, 
snapping  off  its  masts,  tearing  down  the  yards,  and  on  the 
point  of  dragging  it  to  the  bottom,  if  the  crew  had  not  suc- 
ceeded in  cutting  off  its  immense  limbs  with  cutlasses  and 
hatchets.  De  Montfort  had  good  opportunities  of  obtain- 
ing information,  for  he  was  at  one  time  an  assistant  in  the 
geological  department  of  the  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
in  Paris ;  and  wrote  a  work  on  conchology,f  besides  that 
already  referred  to.  But  it  appears  to  have  been  his  de- 
liberate purpose  to  cajole  the  public  ;  for  it  is  reported 
that  he  exclaimed  to  M.  Defrance :  "  If  my  entangled 
ship  is  accepted,  I  will  make  my  '  colossal  poulpe '  over- 
throw a  whole  fleet."  Accordingly  we  find  him  gravely 
declaring  J  that  one  of  the  great  victories  of  the  British 
navy  was  converted  into  a  disaster  by  the  monsters 
which  are  the  subject  of  his  history.  He  boldly  asserted 
that  the  six  men-of-war  captured  from  the  French  by 
Admiral  Rodney  in  the  West  Indies  on  the  I2th  of  April, 
1782,  together  with  four  British  ships  detached  from  his 
fleet  to  convoy  the  prizes,  were  all  suddenly  engulphed  in 
the  waves  on  the  night  of  the  battle  under  such  circum- 
stances as  showed  that  the  catastrophe  was  caused  by 
colossal  cuttles,  and  not  by  a  gale  or  any  ordinary  casualty. 
Unfortunately  for  De  Montfort,  the  inexorable  logic  of 
facts  not  only  annihilates  his  startling  theory,  but  demon- 
strates the  reckless  falsity  of  his  plausible  statements.  The 
captured  vessels  did  not  sink  on  the  night  of  the  action, 
but  were  all  sent  to  Jamaica  to  refit,  and  arrived  there 


*  Histoire  Naturelle  gdntrale  et par  ticu  Here  des Mollusques,  vol.  ii., 
p.  256. 

t  Conchy liologie  Systtmatique. 

\  Hist.  Nat.  des  Moll.,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  358  to  368. 


THE   KRAKEN. 


357 


FIG.    8.— FACSIMILE   OF    DE    MONTFORT's    "Foulpe  colossal" 


35»  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

safely.  Five  months  afterwards,  however,  a  convoy  of  nine 
line-of-battle  ships  (amongst  which  were  Rodney's  prizes), 
one  frigate,  and  about  a  hundred  merchantmen,  were  dis- 
persed, whilst  on  their  voyage  to  England,  by  a  violent 
storm,  during  which  some  of  them  unfortunately  foundered. 
The  various  accidents  which  preceded  the  loss  of  these 
vessels  was  related  in  evidence  to  the  Admiralty  by  the 
survivors,  and  official  documents  prove  that  De  Montfort's 
fleet-destroying  poulpe  was  an  invention  of  his  own,  and 
had  no  part  whatever  in  the  disaster  that  he  attributed 
to  it* 

*  De  Montfort  endeavoured  to  support  his  statements  by  so  many 
inaccurate  details,  which  by  a  considerable  number  of  ill-informed 
persons  of  his  own  nation  have  been  accepted  as  true,  that  I  think 
some  particulars  of  the  events  above  referred  to  may  be  interesting. 
My  information  is  obtained  from  Rodney's  despatches,  and  paragraphs 
of  contemporary  naval  news  published  in  the  Gentlemarfs  Magazine 
of  1782  and  1783  ;  from  the  Annual  Register  of  1783  ;  and  from  Capt. 
J.  N.  Inglefield's  own  account  of  the  loss  of  his  ship  the  "  Centaur," 
in  a  rare  pamphlet  of  thirty-nine  pages,  "  published  by  authority,"  and 
dated  "  Fayall,  October  I3th,  1782." 

In  Sir  G.  B.  Rodney's  action  with  the  French  fleet  under  the  Count 
de  Grasse,  off  St.  Domingo,  on  the  I2th  of  April,  1782,  the  manoeuvre 
of  breaking  the  enemy's  line,  and  separating  some  of  his  ships  from 
the  remainder,  was  for  the  first  time  successfully  put  in  practice.  The 
following  captures  were  made  by  the  British,  viz. : — The  admiral's 
ship,  Ville  de  Paris,  104,  which  was  a  splendid  present  from  the  City 
of  Paris  to  Louis  XV. ;  the  Glorieux,  74  ;  Casar,  74  ;  Hector •,  64 ; 
Caton,  64;  Jason,  64;  Aimable,  32;  and  Ceres,  18  ;  besides  one 
ship  of  74  guns,  sunk  during  the  engagement.  The  Ccesar,  one  of  the 
best  ships  in  the  French  fleet,»took  fire  on  the  night  of  the  action, 
and,  before  the  prisoners  could  be  removed  from  her,  blew  up.  By 
this  accident  a  lieutenant,  the  boatswain,  and  fifty  Englishmen  belong- 
ing to  the  "  Centaur,"  together  with  about  four  hundred  Frenchmen, 
perished.  The  remainder  of  the  prizes  were  sent  into  Port  Royal, 
Jamaica,  to  repair  damages,  and  on  the  $th  of  May,  1782,  Rodney 
wrote  to  the  Admiralty  announcing  their  safe  arrival  in  that  harbour. 

On  the  26th  of  July  following,  a  fleet  and  convoy,  amongst  which 


THE  KRAKEN.  359 

I  have  been  told,  but  cannot  vouch  for  the  truth  of 
the  report,  that  De  Montfort's  propensity  to  write  that 
which  was  not  true  culminated  in  his  committing  forgery, 
and  that  he  died  in  the  galleys.  But  he  records  a  state- 
ment of  Captain  Jean  Magnus  Dens,  said  to  have  been 


were  these  ships,  left  Port  Royal  for  England,  under  the  command  of 
Admiral  Graves  in  the  "  Ramilies."    They  encountered  several  very 
heavy  gales  of  wind,  and  on  the  i6th  of  September,  in  lat.  42°  15', 
long.  48°  55',  a  storm  set  in  which  lasted  several  days.     About  3  A.M. 
on  the  1 7th,  the  wind,  which  had  been  blowing  from  S.E.,  suddenly 
shifted,  and  a  brief  lull  was  succeeded  by  a  most  violent  squall,  with 
furious  rain  from  N.N.W.,  which  is  described  as  "  exceeding  in  degree 
everything  of  the  kind  that  the  oldest  seaman  in  the  fleet  had  ever 
seen,  or  had  any  conception  of."    The  "  Ramilies  "  went  to  the  bottom 
soon  after  4  P.M.  on  the  2ist.     Most  of  her  crew  were  saved.     The 
"  Centaur  "  foundered  on  the  night  of  the  23rd,  in  lat.  48°  32',  long.  43°  20'. 
Her  captain,  Inglefield,  and  eleven  of  her  people,  in  the  pinnace,  left 
her  in  a  sinking  state  about  rive  o'clock  on  that  evening,  and,  after 
suffering  severely  for  sixteen  days,  in  the  course  of  which  one  man, 
Thomas  Matthews,  quartermaster,  died  from  cold  and  exposure,  they 
landed  at  Fayall  in  an  exhausted  condition,  having  made  a  voyage  of 
more  than  750  miles  in  an  open  boat.     The  Glorieux  and  the  Ville  de 
Paris  also  sank  during  the  gale,  and  only  one  man  of  the  crew  of  the 
latter  vessel  was  saved,  having  been  picked  up  on  some  floating  wreck. 
His  name  was  John  Wilson,  and  he  gave  evidence  at  Portsmouth 
concerning  the  disaster  on  the  22nd  of  March,  1783.     The  Caton, 
Canada,  Ardent,  and  Jason,  escaped  with  loss  of  spars  and  other 
damage.     The  "  Hector  "  was  attacked  by  two  French  frigates,  left  by 
them  in  a  crippled  condition,  and  sank — many  of  the  crew  being  saved 
by  the  "  Hawkesnow,"  letter  of  marque.    These  are  well-attested  facts. 
De  Montfort's  fabulous  statement  was,  that  on  the  night  following  the 
battle,  the  Ville  de  Paris  fired  minute  guns,  and  made  other  signals  of 
extreme  distress,  and  that  in  consequence  of  this  nine  other  men-of- 
war  bore  down  to  her  assistance,  converging  on  her  as  a  common 
focus,  and  were  all  simultaneously  involved  in  her  mournful  fate — 
that  of  being  dragged  beneath  the  yawning  waves  by  enormous  poulpes. 
His  pretended  history,  as  well  as  his  ingenious,  but  disingenuous  theory, 
was  drawn  from  his  imagination  ;  and  the  one  is  as  false  as  the  other 
is  absurd. 


360  SEA  MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

a  respectable  and  veracious  man,  who,  after  having  made 
several  voyages  to  China  as  a  master  trader,  retired  from  a 
seafaring  life  and  lived  at  Dunkirk.  He  told  De  Montfort 
that  in  one  of  his  voyages,  whilst  crossing  from  St.  Helena 
to  Cape  Negro,  he  was  becalmed,  and  took  advantage  of 
the  enforced  idleness  of  the  crew  to  have  the  vessel  scraped 
and  painted.  Whilst  three  of  his  men  were  standing  on 
planks  slung  over  the  side,  an  enormous  cuttle  rose  from 
the  water,  and  threw  one  of  its  arms  around  two  of  the 
sailors,  whom  it  tore  away,  with  the  scaffolding  on  which 
they  stood.  With  another  arm  it  seized  the  third  man,  who 
held  on  tightly  to  the  rigging,  and  shouted  for  help.  His 
shipmates  ran  to  his  assistance,  and  succeeded  in  rescuing 
him  by  cutting  away  the  creature's  arm  with  axes  and 
knives,  but  he  died  delirious  on  the  following  night.  The 
captain  tried  to  save  the  other  two  sailors  by  killing  the 
animal,  and  drove  several  harpoons  into  it ;  but  they  broke 
away,  and  the  men  were  carried  down  by  the  monster. 

The  arm  cut  off  was  said  to  have  been  twenty-five  feet 
long,  and  as  thick  as  the  mizen-yard,  and  to  have  had  on  it 
suckers  as  big  as  saucepan-lids.  I  believe  the  old  sea- 
captain's  narrative  of  the  incident  to  be  true  ;  the  dimensions 
given  by  De  Montfort  are  wilfully  and  deliberately  false. 
The  belief  in  the  power  of  the  cuttle  to  sink  a  ship  and 
devour  her  crew  is  as  widely  spread  over  the  surface  of  the 
globe,  as  it  is  ancient  in  point  of  time.  I  have  been  told 
by  a  friend  that  he  saw  in  a  shop  in  China  a  picture  of  a 
cuttle  embracing  a  junk,  apparently  of  about  300  tons 
burthen,  and  helping  itself  to  the  sailors,  as  one  picks 
gooseberries  off  a  bush. 

Traditions  of  a  monstrous  cuttle  attacking  and  destroying 
ships  arc  current  also  at  the  present  day  in  the  Polynesian 
Islands.  Mr.  Gill,  the  missionary  previously  quoted,  tells 


THE  KRAKEN.  361 

us  *  that  the  natives  of  Aitutaki,  in  the  Hervey  group,  have 
a  legend  of  a  famous  explorer,  named  Rata,  who  built  a 
double  canoe,  decked  and  rigged  it,  and  then  started  off  in 
quest  of  adventures.  At  the  prow  was  stationed  the  daunt- 
less Nganaoa,  armed  with  a  long  spear  and  ready  to  slay 
all  monsters.  One  day  when  speeding  pleasantly  over  the 
ocean,  the  voice  of  the  ever  vigilant  Nganaoa  was  heard  : 
"  O  Rata !  yonder  is  a  terrible  enemy  starting  up  from 
ocean  depths."  It  proved  to  be  an  octopus  (query,  squid  ?) 
of  extraordinary  dimensions.  Its  huge  tentacles  encircled 
the  vessel  in  their  embrace,  threatening  its  instant  destruc- 
tion. At  this  critical  moment  Nganaoa  seized  his  spear,  and 
fearlessly  drove  it  through  the  head  of  the  creature.  The 
tentacles  slowly  relaxed,  and  the  dead  monster  floated  off 
on  the  surface  of  the  ocean. 

Passing  from  the  early  records  of  the  appearance  of 
cuttles  of  unusual  size,  and  the  current  as  well  as 
the  traditional  belief  in  their  existence  by  the  inhabitants 
of  many  countries,  let  us  take  the  testimony  of  travellers 
and  naturalists  who  have  a  right  to  be  regarded  as  com- 
petent observers.  In  so  doing  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
until  Professor  Owen  propounded  the  very  clear  and  con- 
venient classification  now  universally  adopted,  the  squids, 
as  well  as  the  eight-footed  Octopidcz,  were  all  grouped 
under  the  title  of  Sepia, 

Pernetty,  describing  a  voyage  made  by  him  in  the  years 
1763-4,1  mentions  gigantic  cuttles  met  with  in  the  Southern 
Seas. 

Shortly  afterwards,  during  the  first  week  in  March,  1769, 
Banks  and  Solander,  the  scientific  fellow-voyagers  with 
Lieutenant  Cook  (afterwards  the  celebrated  Captain  Cook), 

*  Leisure  Hour,  October,  1875,  p.  636. 
f    Voyage  aux  lies  Malouines. 


362  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

in  H.M.S.  Endeavour,  found  in  the  North  Pacific,  in  lati- 
tude 38°  44'  S.  and  longitude  110°  33'  W.,  a  large  calamary 
which  had  just  been  killed  by  the  birds,  and  was  floating  in 
a  mangled  condition  on  the  water.  Its  arms  were  furnished, 
instead  of  suckers,  with  a  double  row  of  very  sharp  talons, 
which  resembled  those  of  a  cat,  and,  like  them,  were  retract- 
able into  a  sheath  of  skin  from  which  they  might  be  thrust 
at  pleasure.  Of  this  cuttle  they  say,  with  evident  pleasur- 
able remembrance  of  a  savoury  meal,  they  made  one  of  the 
best  soups  they  ever  tasted.  Professor  Owen  tells  us,  in  the 
paper  already  referred  to,  that  when  he  was  curator  of  the 
Hunterian  Museum  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  and 
preparing,  in  1829,  his  first  catalogue  thereof,  he  was  struck 
with  the  number  of  oceanic  invertebrates  which  Hunter  had 
obtained.  He  learned  from  Mr.  Clift  that  Hunter  had  sup- 
plied Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  Joseph)  Banks  with  stoppered 
bottles  containing  alcohol,  in  which  to  preserve  the  new 
marine  animals  that  he  might  meet  with  during  the  circum- 
navigatory  voyage  about  to  be  undertaken  by  Cook. 
Thinking  it  probable  that  Banks  might  have  stowed  some 
parts  of  this  great  hook-armed  squid  in  one  of  these  bottles  for 
his  anatomical  friend,  he  searched  for,  and  found  in  a  bottle 
marked  "  J.  B.,"  portions  of  its  arms,  the  beak  with  tongue,  a 
heart  ventricle,  &c.,  and,  amongst  the  dry  preparations,  the 
terminal  part  of  the  body,  with  an  attached  pair  of  rhom- 
boidal  fins.  The  remainder  had  furnished  Cook  and  his 
companions  Banks  and  Solander  with  a  welcome  change  of 
diet  in  the  commander's  cabin  of  the  Endeavour.  As  the 
inner  surface  of  the  arms  of  the  squid,  as  well  as  the 
terminals  of  its  tentacles,  were  studded  with  hooks,  Professor 
Owen  named  it  Enoploteuthis  CookiL  He  estimates  the 
diameter  of  the  tail  fin  at  15  inches,  the  length  of  its  body 
3  feet,  of  its  head  10  inches,  of  the  shorter  arms  16  inches, 


THE  KRAKEN.  363 

and  of  the  longer  tentacles  about  the  same  as  its  body- 
thus  giving  a  total  length  of  about  6  ft.  9  in.  Although 
individuals  of  other  species,  of  larger  dimensions,  are  known 
to  have  existed,  this  is  the  largest  specimen  of  the  hook- 
armed  calamaries  that  has  been  scientifically  examined. 
It  would  have  been  a  formidable  antagonist  to  a  man  under 
circumstances  favourable  to  the  exertion  of  its  strength,  and 
the  use  of  its  prehensile  and  lacerating  talons. 

Peron,*  the  well-known  French  zoologist,  mentions  having 
seen  at  sea,  in  1801,  not  far  from  Van  Diemen's  Land,  at  a 
very  little  distance  from  his  ship,  Le  Gtographe^  a  "  Sepia," 
of  the  size  of  a  barrel,  rolling  with  noise  on  the  waves  ;  its 
arms,  between  6  and  7  feet  long,  and  6  or  7  inches  in 
diameter  at  the  base,  extended  on  the  surface,  and  writhing 
about  like  great  snakes.  He  recognised  in  this,  and  no 
doubt  correctly,  one  of  the  calamaries.  The  arms  that  he 
saw  were  evidently  the  animal's  shorter  ones,  as  under  such 
circumstances,  with  neither  enemy  to  combat  nor  prey  to 
seize  at  the  moment,  the  longer  tentacles  would  remain 
concealed. 

Quoy  and  Gaimardf  report  that  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
near  the  Equator,  they  found  the  remains  of  an  enormous 
calamary,  half  eaten  by  the  sharks  and  birds,  which  could 
not  have  weighed  less,  when  entire,  than  200  Ibs.  A  por- 
tion of  this  was  secured,  and  is  preserved  in  the  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  Paris. 

Captain  Sander  Rang  %  records  having  fallen  in  with,  in 
mid-ocean,  a  species  distinct  from  the  others,  of  a  dark 
red  colour,  having  short  arms,  and  a  body  the  size  of  a 
hogshead. 

*   Voyage  de  Decouvertes  aux  Tcrres  A  us tr ales. 

f   Voyage  de  VUranie  :  Zoologie,  vol.  i.,  part  2,  p.  411.     1824. 

%  Manuel  des  Mollusques,  p.  86. 


364  SEA   MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 

In  a  manuscript  by  Paulsen  (referred  to  by  Professor 
Steenstrup,  at  a  meeting  of  Scandinavian  naturalists  at 
Copenhagen  in  1847)  ls  a  description  of  a  large  calamary, 
cast  ashore  on  the  coast  of  Zeeland,  which  the  latter  named 
Architeuthis  monachus.  Its  body  measured  21  feet,  and  its 
tentacles  18  feet,  making  a  total  of  39  feet. 

In  1854  another  was.  stranded  at  the  Skag  in  Jutland, 
which  Professor  Steenstrup  believed  to  belong  to  the  same 
genus  as  the  preceding,  but  to  be  of  a  different  species,  and 
called  it  Architeuthis  dux.  The  body  was  cut  in  pieces  by 
the  fishermen  for  bait,  and  furnished  many  wheelbarrow 
loads.  Mr.  Gwyn  Jeffreys  *  says  Dr.  Morch  informed  him 
that  the  beak  of  this  animal  was  nine  inches  long.  He  adds 
that  another  huge  cephalopod  was  stranded  in  1860  or 
1 86-1,  between  Hillswick  and  Scalloway,  on  the  west  of 
Shetland.  From  a  communication  received  by  Professor 
Allman,  it  appears  that  its  tentacles  were  16  feet  long,  the 
pedal  arms  about  half  that  length,  and  the  mantle  sac  7 
feet.  The  largest  suckers  examined  by  Professor  Allman 
were  three-quarters  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

We  have  also  the  statement  of  the  officers  and  crew  of 
the  French  despatch  steamer,  Alecton,  commanded  by  Lieu- 
tenant Bouyer,  describing  their  having  met  with  a  great 
calamary  on  the  3Oth  of  November,  1861,  between  Madeira 
and  Teneriffe.  It  was  seen  about  noon  on  that  day  floating 
on  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  the  vessel  was  stopped  with 
a  view  to  its  capture.  Many  bullets  were  aimed  at  it,  but 
they  passed  through  its  soft  flesh  without  doing  it  much 
injury,  until  at  length  "the  waves  were  observed  to  be 
covered  with  foam  and  blood."  It  had  probably  dis- 
charged the  contents  of  its  ink-bag ;  for  a  strong  odour  of 
musk  immediately  became  perceptible — a  perfume  which  I 
*  '  British  Conchology,'  vol.  v.,  p.  124. 


THE   KRAKEN. 


365 


FIG.    9. — GIGANTIC   CALAMARY    CAUGHT    BY   THE    FRENCH    DESPATCH 
VESSEL   Ahcton,    NEAR   TENERIFFE. 


366  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

have  already  mentioned  as  appertaining  to  the  ink  of  many 
of  the  cephalopoda,  and  also  as  being  one  of  the  reputed 
attributes  of  the  Kraken.  Harpoons  were  thrust  into  it, 
but  would  not  hold  in  the  yielding  flesh  ;  and  the  animal 
broke  adrift  from  them,  and,  diving  beneath  the  vessel, 
came  up  on  the  other  side.  The  crew  wished  to  launch 
a  boat  that  they  might  attack  it  at  closer  quarters,  but  the 
commander  forbade  this,  not  feeling  justified  in  risking  the 
lives  of  his  men.  A  rope  with  a  running  knot  was,  however, 
slipped  over  it,  and  held  fast  at  the  junction  of  the  broad 
caudal  fin  ;  but  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  hoist  it  on 
deck  the  enormous  weight  caused  the  rope  to  cut  through 
the  flesh,  and  all  but  the  hinder  part  of  the  body  fell  back  into 
the  sea  and  disappeared.  M.  Berthelot,  the  French  consul  at 
TenerifTe,  saw  the  fin  and  posterior  portion  of  the  animal  on 
board  the  Alecton  ten  days  afterwards,  and  sent  a  report 
of  the  occurrence  to  the  Paris  Academy  of  Sciences.  The 
body  of  this  great  squid,  which,  like  Rang's  specimen,  was 
of  a  deep-red  colour,  was  estimated  to  have  been  from 
1 6  feet  to  1 8  feet  long,  without  reckoning  the  length  of  its 
formidable  arms.* 

These  are  statements  made  by  men  who,  by  their  intelli- 
gence, character,  and  position,  are  entitled  to  respect  and 
credence ;  and  whose  evidence  would  be  accepted  without 
question  or  hesitation  in  any  court  of  law.  There  is,  more- 
over, a  remarkable  coincidence  of  particulars  in  their  several 
accounts,  which  gives  great  importance  to  their  combined 
testimony. 

But,  fortunately,  we  are  not  left  dependent  on  docu- 
mentary evidence  alone,  nor  with  the  option  of  accepting 
or  rejecting,  as  caprice  or  prejudice  may  prompt  us,  the 

*  In  the  accompanying  illustration,  the  size  of  the  squid  is  exagge- 
rated, but  not  so  much  as  has  been  supposed. 


THE  KRAKEN.  -367 

narratives  of  those  who  have  told  us  they  have  seen  what 
we  have  not.  Portions  of  cuttles  of  extraordinary  size  are 
preserved  in  several  European  museums.  In  the  collection 
of,  the  Faculty  of  Sciences  at  Montpellier  is  one  six  feet 
long,  taken  by  fishermen  at  Cette,  which  Professor  Steen- 
striip  has  identified  as  Ommastrephes  pteropus.  One  of  the 
same  species,  which  was  formerly  in  the  possession  of  M. 
Eschricht,  who  received  it  from  Marseilles,  may  be  seen  in 
the  museum  at  Copenhagen.  The  body  of  another, 
analogous  to  these,  is  exhibited  in  the  Museum  of  Trieste  : 
it  was  taken  on  the  coast  of  Dalmatia.  At  the  meeting  of 
the  British  Association  at  Plymouth  in  1841,  Colonel  Smith 
exhibited  drawings  of  the  beak  and  other  parts  of  a  very 
large  calamary  preserved  at  Haarlem  ;  and  M.  P.  Harting, 
in  1860,  described  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Royal  Scientific 
Academy  of  Amsterdam  portions  of  two  extant  in  other 
collections  in  Holland,  one  of  which  he  believes  to  be  Steen- 
strup's  Architeuthis  dux>  a  species  which  he  regards  as 
identical  with  Ommastrephes  todarus  of  D'Orbigny. 

Still  there  remained  a  residuum  of  doubt  in  the  minds  of 
naturalists  and  the  public  concerning  the  existence  of 
gigantic  cuttles  until,  towards  the  close  of  the  year  1873, 
two  specimens  were  encountered  on  the  coast  of  New- 
foundland, and  a  portion  of  one  and  the  whole  of  the  other 
were  brought  ashore,  and  preserved  for  examination  by 
competent  zoologists. 

The  circumstances  under  which  the  first  was  seen,  as 
sensationally  described  by  the  Rev.  Moses  Harvey,  Presby- 
terian minister  of  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  in  a  letter  to 
Principal  Dawson,  of  McGill  College,  were,  briefly  and 
soberly,  as  follows : — Two  fishermen  were  out  in  a  small 
punt  on  the  26th  of  October,  1873,  near  the  eastern  end  of 
Belle  Isle,  Conception  Bay,  about  nine  miles  from  St.  John's. 


368  '  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

Observing  some  object  floating  on  the  water  at  a  short 
distance,  they  rowed  towards  it,  supposing  it  to  be  the  dttris 
of  a  wreck.  On  reaching  it  one  of  them  struck  it  with  his 
"  gaff,"  when  immediately  it  showed  signs  of  life,  and  shot 
out  its  two  tentacular  arms,  as  if  to  seize  its  antagonists. 
The  other  man,  named  Theophilus  Picot,  though  naturally 
alarmed,  severed  both  arms  with  an  axe  as  they  lay  on  the 
gunwale  of  the  boat,  whereupon  the  animal  moved  off,  and 
ejected  a  quantity  of  inky  fluid  which  darkened  the  sur- 
rounding water  for  a  considerable  distance.  The  men  went 
home,  and,  as  fishermen  will,  magnified  their  lost  "  fish." 
They  "  estimated  "  the  body  to  have  been  60  feet  in  length, 
and  10  feet  across  the  tail  fin  ;  and  declared  that  when 
the  "  fish "  attacked  them  "  it  reared  a  parrot-like  beak 
which  was  as  big  as  a  six-gallon  keg." 

All  this,  in  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  Mr.  Harvey 
appears  to  have  been  willing  to  believe,  and  related  without 
the  expression  of  a  doubt.  Fortunately,  he  was  able  to 
obtain  from  the  fishermen  a  portion  of  one  of  the  tentacular 
arms  which  they  had  chopped  off  with  the  axe,  and  by  so 
doing  rendered  good  service  to  science.  This  fragment 
(Fig.  10),  as  measured  by  Mr.  Alexander  Murray,  provincial 
geologist  of  Newfoundland,  and  Professor  Verrill,  of  Yale 
College,  Connecticut,  is  17  feet  IcTng  and  3^  feet  in  circum- 
ference. It  is  now  in  St.  John's  Museum.  By  careful  calcu- 
lation of  its  girth,  the  breadth  and  circumference  of  the 
expanded  sucker-bearing  portion  at  its  extremity,  and  the 
diameter  of  the  suckers,  Professor  Verrill  has  computed  its 
dimensions  to  have  been  as  follows : — Length  of  body  10  feet ; 
diameter  of  body  2  feet  5  inches.  Long  tentacular  arms 
32  feet ;  head  2  feet ;  total  length  about  44  feet.  The  upper 
mandible  of  the  beak,  instead  of  being  "  as  large  as  a  six- 
gallon  keg "  would  be  about  3  inches  long,  and  the  lower 


THE  KRAKEN.  369 

mandible  \\  inch  long.     From  the  size  of  the  large  suckers 
relatively   to   those   of  another  specimen  to  be  presently 


FIG.  10. — TENTACLE  OF  A  GREAT   CALAMARY    (ArckiteuthlS  princeps)    TAKEN 
IN   CONCEPTION   BAY,   NEWFOUNDLAND,  OCT.  26,   1873. 

described,  he  regards  it  as  probable  that  this  individual  was 
a  female. 

In  November,  1873 — about  three  weeks  after  the  occur- 
rence in  Conception  Bay — another  calamary  somewhat 
smaller  than  the  preceding,  but  of  the  same  species,  also 
came  into  Mr.  Harvey's  possession.  Three  fishermen,  when 
hauling  their  herring-net  in  Logic  Bay,  about  three  miles 
from  St.  John's,  found  the  huge  animal  entangled  in  its  folds. 
With  great  difficulty  they  succeeded  in  despatching  it  and 
bringing  it  ashore,  having  been  compelled  to  cut  off  its  head 
before  they  could  get  it  into  their  boat. 

The  body  of  this  specimen  was  over  7  feet  long ;  the 
caudal  fin  22  inches  broad  ;  the  two  long  tentacular  arms 
24  feet  in  length ;  the  eight  shorter  arms  each  6  feet  long, 
the  largest  of  the  latter  being  10  inches  in  circumference  at 
the  base  ;  total  length  of  this  calamary  32  feet.  Professor 
Verrill  considers  that  this  and  the  Conception  Bay  squid 
are  both  referable  to  one  species — Steenstrup's  Architen- 
this  dux. 

VOL.  III. — H.  2    B 


370 


SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 


Excellent  woodcuts  from  photographs  of  these  two  speci- 
mens were  given  in  the  Field  of  December  isth,  1873,  and 
January  3ist,  1874,  respectively,  and  I  am  indebted  to  the 


FIG.    II.— HEAD    AND    TENTACLES    OF    A   GREAT   CALAMARY    (ArchiteuthlS 
princeps)  TAKEN   IN   LOGIE  BAY,  NEWFOUNDLAND,   NOV.    1873. 

proprietors  of  that  journal  for  their  kind  and  courteous  per- 
mission to  copy  them  in  reduced  size  for  the  illustration  of 
this  little  work. 

For   the   preservation   of  both  of  the   above  described 


THE  KRAKEN.  37 1 

specimens  we  have  to  thank  Mr.  Harvey,  and  he  produces 
additional  evidence  of  other  gigantic  cuttles  having  been 
previously  seen  on  the  coast  of  Newfoundland.  He  men- 
tions two  especially,  which,  as  stated  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Gabriel,  were  cast  ashore  in  the  winter  of  1870-71,  near 
Lamaline  on  the  south  coast  of  the  island,  which  measured 
respectively  40  feet  and  47  feet  in  length  ;  and  he  also  tells 
of  another  stranded  two  years  later,  the  total  length  of 
which  was  80  feet.  . 

In  the  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts ',  of  March, 
1875,  Professor  Verrill  gives  particulars  and  authenticated 
testimony  of  several  other  examples  of  great  calamaries, 
varying  in  total  length  from  30  feet  to  52  feet,  which  have 
been  taken  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Newfoundland  since 
the  year  1870.  One  of  these  was  found  floating,  apparently 
dead,  near  the  Grand  Banks  in  October,  1871,  by  Captain 
Campbell,  of  the  schooner  B.  D.  Hoskins,  of  Gloucester, 
Mass.  It  was  taken  on  board,  and  part  of  it  used  for  bait. 
The  body  is  stated  to  have  been  1 5  feet  long,  and  the  pedal 
or  shorter  arms  between  9  feet  and  IO  feet.  The  beak  was 
forwarded  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

Another  instance  given  by  Professor  Verrill  is  of  a  great 
squid  found  alive  in  shallow  water  in  Coomb's  Cove, 
Fortune  Bay,  in  the  year  1872.  Its  measurements,  taken  by 
the  Hon.  T.  R.  Bennett,  of  English  Harbour,  Newfoundland, 
were,  length  of  body  10  feet ;  length  of  tentacles  42  feet  ; 
length  of  one  of  the  ordinary  arms  6  feet :  the  cups  on  the 
tentacles  were  serrated.  Professor  Verrill  also  mentions  a 
pair  of  jaws  and  two  suckers  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
as  having  been  received  from  the  Rev.  A.  Munn,  with  a 
statement  that  they  were  taken  from  a  calamary  which 
went  ashore  in  Bonavista  Bay,  and  which  measured  32  feet 
in  total  length. 

2  B  2 


372  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

On  the  22nd  of  September,  1877,  another  gigantic  squid 
was  stranded  at  Catalina,  on  the  north  shore  of  Trinity 
Bay,  Newfoundland,  during  a  heavy  equinoctial  gale.  It 
was  alive  when  first  seen,  but  died  soon  after  the  ebbing  of 
the  tide,  and  was  left  high  and  dry  upon  the  beach.  Two 
fishermen  took  possession  of  it,  and  the  whole  settlement 
gathered  to  gaze  in  astonishment  at  the  monster.  Formerly 
it  would  have  been  converted  into  manure,  or  cut  up  as 
food  for  dogs,  but,  thanks  to  the  diffusion  of  intelligence, 
there  were  some  persons  in  Catalina  who  knew  the  import- 
ance of  preserving  such  a  rarity,  and  who  advised  the 
fishermen  to  take  it  to  St.  John's.  After  being  exhibited 
there  for  two  days,  it  was  packed  in  half-a-ton  of  ice  in 
readiness  for  transmission  to  Professor  Verrill,  in  the  hope 
that  it  would  be  placed  in  the  Peabody  or  Smithsonian 
Museum  ;  but  at  the  last  moment  its  owners  violated  their 
agreement,  and  sold  it  to  a  higher  bidder.  The  final 
purchase  was  made  for  the  New  York  Aquarium,  where  it 
arrived  on  the  7th  of  October,  immersed  in  methylated 
spirit  in  a  large  glass  tank.  Its  measurements  were  as  fol- 
lows : — length  of  body  10  feet ;  length  of  tentacles  30  feet  ; 
length  of  shorter  arm  1 1  feet ;  circumference  of  body  7  feet  ; 
breadth  of  caudal  fin  2  feet  9  inches  ;  diameter  of  largest 
tentacular  sucker  I  inch ;  number  of  suckers  on  each  of 
the  shorter  arms  250. 

The  appearance  of  so  many  of  these  great  squids  on 
the  shores  of  Newfoundland  during  the  term  of  seven  years, 
and  after  so  long  a  period  of  popular  uncertainty  as  to 
their  very  existence  had  previously  elapsed,  might  lead  one 
to  suppose  that  the  waters  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean 
which  wash  the  north-eastern  coasts  of  the  American  Con- 
tinent were,  at  any  rate,  temporarily,  their  principal  habitat, 
especially  as  a  smaller  member  of  their  family,  Omma- 


THE  KRAKEN.  373 

strephes  sagittatus,  is  there  found  in  such  extraordinary 
numbers  that  it  furnishes  the  greater  part  of  the  bait  used 
in  the  Newfoundland  cod  fisheries.  But  that  they  are  by 
no  means  confined  to  this  locality  is  proved  by  recent 
instances,  as  well  as  by  those  already  cited. 

Dr.  F.  Hilgendorf  records  *  observations  of  a  huge  squid 
exhibited  for  money  at  Yedo,  Japan,  in  1873,  and  of  another 
of  similar  size,  which  he  saw  exposed  for  sale  in  the  Yedo 
fish  market. 

When  the  French  expedition  was  sent  to  the  Island  of 
St.  Paul,  in  1874,  for  the  purpose  of  observing  the  transit 
of  Venus,  which  occurred  on  the  Qth  of  December  in  that 
year,  it  was  fortunately  accompanied  by  an  able  zoologist, 
M.  Ch.  Velain.  He  reports  f  that  on  the  2nd  of  November 
a  tidal  wave  cast  upon  the  north  shore  of  the  island  a  great 
calamary  which  measured  in  total  length  nearly  23  feet, 
namely  :  length  of  body  7  feet  ;  length  of  tentacles  1 6  feet. 
There  are  several  points  of  interest  connected  with  its 
generic  characters,  and  M.  Velain's  grounds  for  regard- 
ing it  as  being  of  a  previously  unknown  species,  but  they 
are  too  technical  for  discussion  here.  This  specimen  was 
photographed  as  it  lay  upon  the  beach  by  M.  Cazin,  the 
photographer  to  the  expedition. 

The  following  account  of  the  still  more  recent  capture  of 
a  large  squid  off  the  west  coast  of  Ireland  was  given  in  the 
Zoologist  of  June,  1875,  by  Sergeant  Thomas  O'Connor,  of 
the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  : — 

"On  the  26th  of  April,  1875,  a  very  large  calamary  was  met  with 
on  the  north-west  of  Boffin  Island,  Connemara.  The  crew  of  a 


*  Sitzungsberichte  der  Gesellschaft  naturforschenden  Frcundc 
Berlin,  pp.  65-67,  quoted  by  Professor  Owen,  op.  cit. 
t  Comptes  Rendus,  t.  80,  1875,  p.  998- 


374  SEA   MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 

1  curragh  '  (a  boat  made  like  the  '  coracle,'  with  wooden  ribs  covered 
with  tarred  canvas)  observed  to  seaward  a  large  floating  mass,  sur- 
rounded by  gulls.  They  pulled  out  to  it,  believing  it  to  be  wreck,  but 
to  their  astonishment  found  it  was  an  enormous  cuttle-fish,  lying  per- 
fectly still,  as  if  basking  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  Paddling  up 
with  caution,  they  lopped  off  one  of  its  arms.  The  animal  immediately 
set  out  to  sea,  rushing  through  the  water  at  a  tremendous  pace.  The 
men  gave  chase,  and,  after  a  hard  pull  in  their  frail  canvas  craft,  came 
up  with  it,  five  miles  out  in  the  open  Atlantic,  and  severed  another  of 
its  arms  and  the  head.  These  portions  are  now  in  the  Dublin  Museum. 
The  shorter  arms  measure,  each,  eight  feet  in  length,  and  fifteen  inches 
round  the  base  :  the  tentacular  arms  are  said  to  have  been  thirty  feet 
long.  The  body  sank." 

Finally,  there  is  in  our  own  national  collection,  preserved 
in  spirit  in  a  tall  glass  jar,  a  single  arm  of  a  huge  cephalopod, 
which,  by  the  kindness  and  courtesy  of  the  officers  of  the 
department,  I  was  permitted  to  examine  and  measure  when 
I  first  described  it,  in  May,  1873.  It  is  9  feet  long,  and  12 
inches  in  circumference  at  the  base,  tapering  gradually  to  a 
fine  point.  It  has  about  300  suckers,  pedunculated,  or  set 
on  tubular  footstalks,  placed  alternately  in  two  rows,  and 
having  serrated,  horny  rings,  but  no  hooks  ;  the  diameter 
of  the  largest  of  these  rings  is  half  an  inch  ;  the  smallest  is 
not  larger  than  a  pin's  head.  This  is  one  of  the  eight 
shorter,  or  pedal,  and  not  one  of  the  long,  or  tentacular, 
arms  of  the  calamary  to  which  it  belonged.  The  relative 
length  of  the  arms  to  that  of  the  body  and  tentacles 
varies  in  different  genera  of  the  Teuthidce,  and  it  is  not 
impossible  that  this  may  be  the  case  even  in  individuals 
of  the  same  species.  But,  judging  from  the  proportions  of 
known  examples,  I  estimate  the  length  of  the  tentacles 
at  36  feet,  and  that  of  the  body  at  from  10  to  n  feet: 
total  length  47  feet.  The  beak  would  probably  have  been 
about  5  inches  long  from  hinge  socket  to  point,  and  the 
diameter  of  the  largest  suckers  of  the  tentacles  about 


THE  KRAKEN.  375 

I  inch.  So  much  for  De  Montfort's  "  suckers  as  big  as 
saucepan-lids."  From  a  well-defined  fold  of  skin  which 
spreads  out  from  each  margin  of  that  surface  of  the  arm 
over  which  the  suckers  are  situated,  Professor  Owen  has 
given  to  this  calamary  the  generic  name  of  Plectoteuthis^ 
with  the  specific  title  of  grandis  to  indicate  its  enormous 
size.  No  history  relating  to  this  interesting  specimen  has 
been  preserved.  No  one  knows  its  origin,  nor  when  it  was 
received,  but  Dr.  Gray  told  me  that  he  believed  it  came 
from  the  east  coast  of  South  America.  It  has,  however, 
long  formed  part  of  the  stores  of  the  British  Museum,  and, 
although  previously  open  to  public  view,  was  more  recently 
for  many  years  kept  in  the  basement  chambers  of  the  old 
building  in  Bloomsbury,  which  were  irreverently  called  by 
the  initiated  "the  spirit  vaults  and  bottle  department," 
because  fishes,  mollusca,  &c.,  preserved  in  spirits  were  there 
deposited.  I  hope  the  public  will  have  greater  facility  of 
access  to  it  in  the  new  Museum  of  Natural  History. 

Here,  then,  in  our  midst,  and  to  be  seen  by  all  who  ask 
permission  to  inspect  it,  is,  and  has  long  been,  a  limb  of  a 
great  cephalopod  capable  of  upsetting  a  boat,  or  of  hauling 
a  man  out  of  her,  or  of  clutching  one  engaged  in  scraping 
a  ship's  side,  and  dragging  him  under  water,  as  described 
by  the  old  master-mariner  Magnus  Dens.  The  tough 
supple  tentacles,  shot  forth  with  lightning  rapidity,  would 
be  long  enough  to  reach  him  at  a  distance  of  a  dozen  yards, 
and  strong  enough  to  drag  him  within  the  grasp  of  the 
eight  shorter  arms,  a  helpless  victim  to  the  mandibles  of  a 
beak  sufficiently  powerful  to  tear  him  in  pieces  and  crush 
some  of  his  smaller  bones.  For,  once  within  that  dreadful 
embrace,  his  escape,  unaided,  would  be  impossible.  The 
clinging  power  of  this  Plectoteuthis  is  so  enormously  aug- 
mented by  the  additional  surface  given  by  the  expanded 


376  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

folds  to  the  under  side  of  the  arms,  that  I  doubt  if  even 
one  of  the  smaller  whales,  such  as  the  "  White  Whale,"  or 
the  "  Pilot  Whale,"  could  extricate  itself  from  their  com- 
bined hold,  if  those  eight  supple,  clammy,  adhesive  arms, 
each  9  feet  long,  and  5  inches  in  diameter  at  the  base 
on  the  flat  under  surface,  and  armed  with  a  battery  of 
2400  suckers,  were  once  fairly  lapped  around  it 

Ought  it  to  surprise  us,  then,  that  an  uneducated  sea- 
faring '  population,  such  as  the  fishermen  of  Fridrichstad, 
mentioned  by  Pontoppidan,  absolutely  ignorant  of  the 
habits  and  affinities,  and  even  unacquainted  with  the  real 
external  form  of  such  a  creature,  should  exaggerate  its 
dimensions  and  invest  it  with  mystery?  All  that  they 
knew  of  it  was  that  whilst  their  friends  and  neighbours, 
whom  we  will  call  Eric  Paulsen,  Hans  Ohlsen,  and  Olaf 
Bruhn  were  out  fishing  one  calm  day,  a  shapeless  "  some- 
thing "  rose  just  above  the  surface  of  the  tranquil  sea  not 
far  from  their  boat.  They  could  see  that  there  was  much 
more  of  its  bulk  under  water,  but  how  far  it  extended  they 
could  not  ascertain.  Mistrusting  its  appearance,  and  with 
foreboding  of  danger,  they  were  about  to  get  up  their 
anchor,  when,  suddenly,  from  thirty  feet  away,  a  rope  was 
shot  on  board  which  fastened  itself  on  Hans ;  he  was 
dragged  from  amongst  them  towards  the  strange  floating 
mass ;  there  was  a  commotion  ;  from  the  foaming  sea 
upreared  themselves,  as  it  seemed  to  Eric  and  Olaf,  several 
writhing  serpents,  which  twined  themselves  around  Hans  ; 
and  as  they  gazed,  helpless,  in  horror  and  bewilderment, 
the  monsters  sank,  and  with  a  mighty  swirl  the  waters 
closed  for  ever  over  their  unfortunate  companion.  The 
men  would  naturally  hasten  home,  and  describe  the  dread- 
ful incident — their  imagination  excited  by  its  mysterious 
nature  ;  the  talc  would  spread  through  the  district,  .losing 


THE  KRAKEN.  377 

nothing  by  repetition,  and  within  a  week  the  fabled  Kraken 
would  be  the  result. 

The  existence,  in  almost  every  sea,  of  calamaries  capable 
of  playing  their  part  in  such  a  scene  has  been  fully  proved, 
and  this  vexed  question  of  marine  zoology  set  at  rest  for 
ever.  The  "  much  greater  light  on  this  subject "  which,  as 
Pontoppidan  sagaciously  foresaw,  was  "reserved  for  pos- 
terity," has  been  thrown  upon  it  by  the  discoveries  of  the 
last  few  years ;  and  the  "  further  experience  which  is 
always  the  best  instructor,"  and  which  he  correctly  antici- 
pated would  be  possessed  by  the  "  future  writers,"  to  whom 
he  bequeathed  the  completion  of  his  "sketch,"  has  been 
obtained.  Viewed  by  their  aid,  and  seen  in  the  clearer 
atmosphere  of  our  present  knowledge,  the  great  sea  monster 
which  loomed  so  indefinitely  vast  in  the  mist  of  ignorance 
and  superstition,  stands  revealed  in  its  true  form  and 
proportions — its  magnitude  reduced,  its  outline  distinct, 
and  its  mystery  gone — and  we  recognise  in  the  supposed 
Kraken,  as  the  Norwegian  bishop  rightly  conjectured  that 
we  should,  an  "  animal  of  the  Polypus  (or  cuttle)  kind,  and 
amongst  the  largest  inhabitants  of  the  ocean." 


378  SEA    MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 


THE   GREAT   SEA   SERPENT. 

THE  belief  in  the  existence  of  sea  serpents  of  formidable, 
dimensions  is  of  great  antiquity.  Aristotle,  writing  about 
B.C.  340,  says*  : — "  The  serpents  of  Libya  are  of  an  enor- 
mous size.  Navigators  along  that  coast  report  having  seen 
a  great  quantity  of  bones  of  oxen,  which  they  believe, 
without  doubt,  to  have  been  devoured  by  the  serpents. 
These  serpents  pursued  them  when  they  left  the  shore,  and 
upset  one  of  their  triremes " — a  vessel  of  a  large  class, 
having  three  banks  of  oars. 

Pliny  tells  us  |  that  a  squadron  sent  by  Alexander  the 
Great  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  under  the  command  of 
Onesicritus  and  Nearchus,  encountered,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  some  islands  in  the  Persian  Gulf,  sea  serpents 
thirty  feet  long,  which  filled  the  fleet  with  terror. 

Valerius  Maximus,J  quoting  Livy,  describes  the  alarm 
into  which,  during  the  Punic  wars,  the  Romans,  under 
Attilius  Regulus  (who  was  afterwards  so  cruelly  put  to 
death  by  the  Carthaginians),  were  thrown  by  an  aquatic, 
though  not  marine,  serpent  which  had  its  lair  on  the 
banks  of  the  Bagrados,  near  Ithaca.  It  is  said  to  have 
swallowed  many  of  the  soldiers,  after  crushing  them  in 
its  folds,  and  to  have  kept  the  army  from  crossing  the 
river,  till  at  length,  being  invulnerable  by  ordinary  weapons, 
it  was  destroyed  by  heavy  stones  hurled  by  balistas, 
catapults,  and  other  military  engines  used  in  those  days 
for  casting  heavy  missiles,  and  battering  the  walls  of 

'  History  of  Animals,'  book  8,  cha-.  28. 
t  Naturalis  Historic,   lib.  vi.,  cap.  23. 
\  De  Factis,  Dictisque  Memorabtlibus,    lib.  i.,  cap.  8,  1st  century. 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT,          379 

fortified  towns.  According  to  the  historian,  the  annoyance 
caused  by  it  to  the  army  did  not  cease  with  its  death,  for 
the  water  was  polluted  with  its  gore,  and  the  air  with  the 
noxious  fumes  from  its  corrupted  carcase,  to  such  a  degree 
that  the  Romans  were  obliged  to  remove  their  camp.  They, 
however  secured  the  animal's  skin  and  skull,  which  were  pre- 
served in  a  temple  at  Rome  till  the  time  of  the  Numantine 
war.  This  combat  has  been  described,  to  the  same  effect, 
by  Florus  (lib.  ii.),  Seneca  (litt.  82),  Silvius  Italicus  (1.  vi.), 
Aulus  Gellius  (lib.  vi.,  cap.  3),  Orosius,  Zonaras,  &c.,  and  is 
referred  to  by  Pliny  (lib.  viii.,  cap.  14)  as  an  incident  known 
to  every  one.  Diodorus  Siculus  also  tells  of  a  great  serpent, 
sixty  feet  long,  which  lived  chiefly  in  the  water,  but  landed 
at  frequent  intervals  to  devour  the  cattle  in  its  neighbour- 
hood. A  party  was  'collected  to  capture  it ;  but  their  first 
attempt  failed,  and  the  monster  killed  twenty  of  them.  It 
was  afterwards  taken  in  a  strong  net,  carried  alive  to 
Alexandria,  and  presented  to  King  Ptolemy  II.,  the  founder 
of  the  Alexandrian  Library  and  Museum,  who  was  a  great 
collector  of  zoological  and  other  curiosities.  This  snake 
was  probably  one  of  the  great  boas. 

The  "  Serpens  marinus "  is  figured  and  referred  to  by 
many  other  writers,  but  as  they  evidently  allude  to  the 
Conger  and  the  Murena,  we  will  pass  over  their  descrip- 
tions. 

The  sea  serpents  mentioned  by  Aristotle,  Pliny,  and 
Diodorus  were,  doubtless,  real  sea-snakes,  true  marine 
ophidians,  which  are  more  common  in  tropical  seas  than  is 
generally  supposed.  They  are  found  most  abundantly  in 
the  Indian  Ocean  ;  but  they  have  an  extensive  geographical 
range,  and  between  forty  and  fifty  species  of  them  are 
known.  They  are  all  highly  poisonous,  and  some  are  so 
ferocious  that  they  more  frequently  attack  than  avoid  man. 


38o  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

The  greatest  length  to  which  they  are  authentically  known 
to  attain  is  about  twelve  feet.  The  form  and  structure  of 
these  hydrophides  are  modified  from  those  of  land  serpents, 
to  suit  their  aquatic  habits.  The  tail  is  compressed  ver- 
tically, flattened  from  the  sides,  so  as  to  form  a  fin  like  the 
tail  of  an  eel,  by  which  they  propel  themselves  ;  but  instead 
of  tapering  to  a  point,  it  is  rounded  off  at  the  end,  like  the 
blade  of  a  paper-knife,  or  the  scabbard  of  a  cavalry  sabre. 
Like  other  lung-breathing  animals  which  live  in  water,  they 
are  also  provided  with  a  respiratory  apparatus  adapted  to 
their  circumstances  and  requirements — their  nostrils,  which 
are  very  small,  being  furnished,  like  those  of  the  seal, 
manatee,  &c.,  with  a  valve  opening  at  will  to  admit  air,  and 
closing  perfectly  to  exclude  water. 

Leaving  these  water-snakes  of  the  tropics,  we  come, 
next  in  order  of  date,  upon  some  very  remarkable  evidence 
that  there  was  current  amongst  a  community  where  we 
should  little  expect  to  find  it,  the  idea  of  a  marine  monster 
corresponding  in  many  respects  with  some  of  the  descrip- 
tions given  several  centuries  later  of  the  sea  serpent.  In 
an  interesting  article  on  the  Catacombs  of  Rome  in  the 
Illustrated  London  News  of  February  3rd,  1872,  allusion 
is  made  by  the  author  to  the  collection  of  sarcophagi  or 
coffins  of  the  early  Christians,  removed  from  the  Catacombs, 
and  preserved  in  the  museum  of  the  Lateran  Palace,  where 
they  were  arranged  by  the  late  Padre  Marchi  for  Pope 
Pius  IX.  There  are  more  than  twenty  of  these,  sculptured 
with  various  designs— the  Father  and  the  Son,  Adam  and 
Eve  and  the  Serpent,  the  Sacrifice  of  Abraham,  Moses 
striking  the  Rock,  Daniel  and  the  Lions,  and  other  Scripture 
themes.  Amongst  them  also  is  Jonah  and  the  "whale." 
A  facsimile  of  this  sculpture  (Fig.  12)  is  one  of  the  illustra- 
tions of  the  article  referred  to.  It  will  be  seen  that  Jonah 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  381 

is  being  swallowed  feet  foremost,  or  possibly  being  ejected 
head  first,  by  an  enormous  sea  monster,  having  the  chest 
and  fore-legs  of  a  horse,  a  long  arching  neck,  with  a  mane 
at  its  base,  near  the  shoulders,  a  head  like  nothing  in 
nature,  but  having  hair  upon  and  beneath  the  cheeks,  the 
hinder  portion  of  the  body  being  that  of  a  serpent  of 
prodigious  length,  undulating  in  several  vertical  curves. 
This  sculpture  appears  to  have  been  cut  between  the 
beginning  and  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  about 


FIG.    12. — JONAH  AND  THE   SEA  MONSTER. 
From  the  Catacombs  of  Rome. 

A.D.    230,   but   it   probably   represents  a   tradition   of  far 
greater  antiquity. 

We  will  now  consider  the  accounts  given  by  Scandinavian 
historians,  of  the  sea  serpent  having  been  seen  in  northern 
waters.  Here,  I  suppose,  I  ought  to  indulge  in  the  usual 
flippant  sneer  at  Bishop  Pontoppidan.  I  know  that  in  ab- 
staining from  doing  so  I  am  sadly  out  of  the  fashion;  but  I 
venture  to  think  that  the  dead  lion  has  been  kicked  at  too 
often  already,  and  undeservedly.  Whether  there  be,  or  be  not, 
a  huge  marine  animal,  not  necessarily  an  ophidian,  answering 
to  some  of  the  descriptions  of  the  sea  serpent — so  called — 
Pontoppidan  did  not  invent  the  stories  told  of  its  appear- 
ance. Long  before  he  was  born  the  monster  had  been 
described  and  figured ;  and  for  centuries  previously  the 
Norwegians,  Swedes,  Danes,  and  Fins  had  believed  in  its 


382  SEA   MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 

existence  as  implicitly  as  in  the  tenets  of  their  religious 
creed.  Olaus  Magnus,  Archbishop  of  Upsala,  in  Sweden, 
wrote  of  it  in  A.D.  1555  as  follows  :* — 

"  They  who  in  works  of  navigation  on  the  coasts  of  Norway  employ 
themselves  in  fishing  or  merchandize  do  all  agree  in  this  strange  story, 
that  there  is  a  serpent  there  which  is  of  a  vast  magnitude,  namely 
200  foot  long,  and  moreover,  20  foot  thick ;  and  is  wont  to  live  in 
rocks  and  caves  towards  the  sea-coast  about  Berge  :  which  will  go 
alone  from  his  holes  on  a  clear  night  in  summer,  and  devour  calves, 
lambs,  and  hogs,  or  else  he  goes  into  the  sea  to  feed  on  polypus 
(octopus),  locusts  (lobsters),  and  all  sorts  of  sea-crabs.  He  hath 
commonly  hair  hanging  from  his  neck  a  cubit  long,  and  sharp  scales, 
and  is  black,  and  he  hath  flaming,  shining  eyes.  This  snake  disquiets 
the  shippers  ;  and  he  puts  up  his  head  on  high  like  a  pillar,  and 
catcheth  away  men,  and  he  devours  them ;  and  this  happeneth  not 
but  it  signifies  some  wonderful  change  of  the  kingdom  near  at  hand  ; 
namely,  that  the  princes  shall  die,  or  be  banished ;  or  some  tumul- 
tuous wars  shall  presently  follow.  There  is  also  another  serpent  of 
an  incredible  magnitude  in  an  island  called  Moos  in  the  diocess  of 
Hammer ;  which,  as  a  comet  portends  a  change  in  all  the  world,  so 
that  portends  a  change  in  the  kingdom  of  Norway,  as  it  was  seen 
anno  1522  ;  that  lifts  himself  high  above  the  waters,  and  rolls  himself 
round  like  a  sphere. f  This  serpent  was  thought  to  be  fifty  cubits  long 
by  conjecture,  by  sight  afar  off :  there  followed  this  the  banishment  of 
King  Christiernus,  and  a  great  persecution  of  the  Bishops ;  and  it 
shewed  also  the  destruction  of  the  country." 

The  Gothic  Archbishop,  amongst  other  signs  and  omens, 
also  attributes  this  power  of  divination  to  the  small  red 
ants  which  are  sometimes  so  troublesome  in  houses,  and 
declares  that  they  also  portended  the  downfall,  A.D.  1523, 
of  the  abominably  cruel  Danish  king,  Christian  II.,  above 
mentioned.  His  curious  work  is  full  of  wild  improbabili- 
ties and  odd  superstitions,  most  of  which  he  states  with  a 
calm  air  of  unquestioning  assent ;  but  as  he  wrote  in  the 

*  Historia  de  Gentibus  Septentrionalibus,  lib.  xxi.,  cap.  43. 
t  "  Coils  itself  in  spherical  convolutions  "  is  a  better  translation  of 
the  original  Latin. 


THE   GREA  T  SEA  SERPENT.  383 

time  of  our  Henry  VI I L,  long  before  the  belief  in  witches 
and  warlocks,  fairies  and  banshees,  had  died  out  in  our  own 
country,  we  can  hardly  throw  stones  at  him  on  that  score. 
It  is  a  most  amusing  and  interesting  history,  and  gives  a 
wonderful  insight  of  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  northern 
nations  in  his  day. 

Amongst  his  illustrations  of  the  sea  monsters  he  describes 
are  the  two  of  which  I  give  facsimiles  on  the  next  page.  In 
Fig.  13  a  sea  serpent  is  seen  writhing  in  many  coils  upon 
the  surface  of  the  water,  and  having  in  its  mouth  a  sailor, 
whom  it  has  seized  from  the  deck  of  a  ship.  The  poor 
fellow  is  trying  to  grasp  the  ratlins  of  the  shrouds,  but  is 
being  dragged  from  his  hold  and  lifted  over  the  bulwarks 
by  the  monster.  His  companions,  in  terror,  are  endeavour- 
ing to  escape  in  various  directions.  One  is  climbing  aloft 
by  the  stay,  in*  the  hope  of  getting  out  of  reach  in  that 
way,  whilst  two  others  are  hurrying  aft  to  obtain  the  shelter 
of  a  little  castle  or  cabin  projecting  over  the  stern.  I  am 
strongly  of  the  opinion  that  this  is  but  the  fallacious  repre- 
sentation of  an  actual  occurrence.  Read  by  the  light  of 
recent  knowledge,  these  old  pictures  convey  to  a  practised 
eye  a  meaning  as  clear  as  that  of  hieroglyphics  to  an 
Egyptologist,  and  my  translation  of  this  is  the  following. 
The  crew  of  a  ship  have  witnessed  the  dreadful  sight  of  a 
serpent-like  form  issuing  from  the  sea,  rising  over  the 
bulwarks  of  their  vessel,  seizing  one  of  their  messmates 
from  amongst  them,  and  dragging  him  overboard  and 
under  water.  Awe-stricken  by  the  mysterious  disappear- 
ance of  their  comrade,  and  too  frightened  and  anxious  for 
their  own  safety  to  be  able,  during  the  short  space  of  time 
occupied  by  an  affair  which  all  happened  in  a  few  seconds 
to  observe  accurately  their  terrible  assailant,  they  naturally 
conjecture  that  it  must  have  been  a  snake.  It  was  pro- 


SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 


FIG.    13. — A   SEA   SERPENT   SEIZING   A  MAN    ON    BOARD   SHIP. 

AJter  OLAUS  MAGNUS. 


FIG.    14. — A  GIGANTIC   LOBSTER  DRAGGING  A  MAN    FROM   A  SHIP. 

After  OLAUS  MAGNUS. 


THE   GREA  T  SEA   SERPENT,  385 

bably  a  gigantic  calamary,  such  as  we  now  know  exist, 
and  the  dead  carcases  of  which  have -been  found  in  the 
locality  where  the  event  depicted  is  supposed  to  have  taken 
place.  The  presumed  body  of  the  serpent  was  one  of  the 
arms  of  the  squid,  and  the  two  rows  of  suckers  thereto 
belonging  are  indicated  in  the  illustration  by  the  medial 
line  traversing  its  whole  length  (intended  to  represent  a 
dorsal  fin)  and  the  double  row  of  transverse  septa,  one  on 
each  side  of  it. 

In  Fig.  14  an  enormous  lobster  is  in  the  act  of  similarly 
dragging  overboard  from  a  vessel  a  man  whom  it  has  seized 
by  the  arm  with  one  of  its  great  claws.  From  the  crude 
image  of  a  lobster  having  eight  minor  claws  and  two  larger 
ones,  to  that  of  a  cuttle  having  eight  minor  arms  and  two 
longer  ones,  the  transition  is  not  great ;  and  I  believe  that 
this  also  is  a  pictorial  misrepresentation  of  a  casualty  by 
the  attack  of  a  calamary  similar  to  that  above  described, 
possibly  another  view  of  the  same  incident.  The  idea 
is  that  of  a  sea  animal  capable  of  suddenly  seizing  and 
grasping  a  man,  and  we  must  remember  that  we  have 
evidence,  in  the  writings  of  Pontoppidan  and  others,  that, 
even  two  centuries  later  than  Olaus  Magnus,  the  Norse- 
men's knowledge  of  the  cuttles  was  exceedingly  vague  and 
indistinct.  Any  one  who  has  seen,  as  I  frequently  have  at 
the  Brighton  Aquarium,  and  as  they  doubtless  had  whilst 
lobster-catching,  the  threatening  and  ferocious  manner  in 
which  a  lobster  will  brandish,  and,  if  I  may  use  the  term, 
"  gnash  "  its  claws  at  an  intruding  hand,  even  if  held  above 
the  surface  of  the  water,  can  well  imagine  a  party  of  fisher- 
men discussing  such  a  tragic  occurrence  as  the  foregoing, 
and  differing  in  opinion  as  to  the  identity  of  the  creature 
which  had  caused  the  catastrophe,  some  maintaining  that 
it  must  have  been  a  sea  serpent,  and  others  shaking  their 

VOL.  in.— H.-  2  c 


386  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

heads  and  asserting   that   nothing  but  a  colossal   lobster 
could  have  done  it> 

Pontoppidan,  in  writing  his  history  of  Norway,  of  course 
had  before  him  the  statements  of  Olaus  Magnus ;  but, 
though  their  author  was  an  archbishop,  he  did  not  accept 
them  with  the  childlike  simplicity  generally  ascribed  to  him. 
Quoting,  and,  singularly  enough,  misquoting,  the  Swedish 
prelate  as  referring  to  a  sea  serpent,  when  he  is  describing, 
incorrectly,  one  of  the  Acalepha,  or  sea-nettles,  Pontoppidan 
says : — 

"  I  have  never  heard  of  this  sort,  and  should  hardly  believe  the 
good  Olaus  if  he  did  not  say  that  he  affirmed  this  from  his  own 
experience.  The  disproportion  makes  me  think  there  must  be  some 
error  of  the  press  ...  He  mixes  truth  and  fable  together  according 
to  the  relations  of  others  ;  but  this  was  excusable  in  that  dark  age 
when  that  author  wrote.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  we,  in  the  present 
more  enlightened  age,  are  much  obliged  to  him  for  his  industry  and 
judicious  observations." 

Of  the  sea  serpent  Pontoppidan  writes  : — 

"I  have  questioned  its  existence  myself,  till  that  suspicion  was 
removed  by  full  and  sufficient  evidence  from  creditable  and  expe- 
rienced fishermen  and  sailors  in  Norway,  of  which  there  are  hundreds 
who  can  testify  that  they  have  annually  seen  them.  All  these  persons 
agree  very  well  in  the  general  description ;  and  others  who  acknow- 
ledge that  they  only  know  it  by  report  or  by  what  their  neighbours 
have  told  them,  still  relate  the  same  particulars.  In  all  my  inquiry 
about  these  affairs  I  have  hardly  spoke  with  any  intelligent  person 
born  in  the  manor  of  Nordland  who  was  not  able  to  give  a  pertinent 
answer,  and  strong  assurances  of  the  existence  of  this  fish  ;  and  some 
of  our  north  traders  that  come  here  every  year  with  their  merchandize 
think  it  a  very  strange  question  when  they  are  seriously  asked  whether 
there  be  any  such  creature  :  they  think  it  as  ridiculous  as  if  the 
question  was  put  to  them  whether  there  be  such  fish  as  eel  or  cod." 

The  worthy  Bishop  of  Bergen  did  his  best  to  sift  truth 
from  fable,  but  he  could  not  always  succeed  in  separating 
them.  Many  stupendous  falsehoods  were  brought  to  him, 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.         387 

and  some  of  them  passed  through  his  sieve  in  spite  of  his 
care.  Of  these  are  the  accounts  of  the  "  spawning  times  " 
of  the  sea  serpent,  its  dislike  of  certain  scents,  &c.  We 
must  pass  over  all  this,  and  confine  ourselves  to  the 
evidence  offered  by  him  of  its  having  been  seen. 

The  first  witness  he  adduces  is  Captain  Lawrence  de 
Ferry,  of  the  Norwegian  navy,  and  first  pilot  in  Bergen, 
who,  premising  that  he  had  doubted  a  great  while  whether 
there  were  any  such  creature  till  he  had  ocular  demonstra- 
tion of  it,  made  the  following  statement,  addressed  formally 
and  officially  to  the  procurator  of  Bergen  : — 

"  Mr.  JOHN  REUTZ — 

"  The  latter  end  of  August,  in  the  year  1746,  as  I  was  on  a  voyage, 
on  my  return  from  Trundhiem,  on  a  very  calm  and  hot  day,  having  a 
mind  to  put  in  at  Molde,  it  happened  that  when  we  were  arrived  with 
my  vessel  within  six  English  miles  of  the  aforesaid  Molde,  being  at  a 
place  called  Jule-Nasss,  as  I  was  reading  in  a  book,  I  heard  a  kind  of 
a  murmuring  voice  from  amongst  the  men  at  the  oars,  who  were  eight 
in  number,  and  observed  that  the  man  at  the  helm  kept  off  from  the 
land.  Upon  this  I  inquired  what  was  the  matter,  and  was  informed 
that  there  was  a  sea-snake  before  us.  I  then  ordered  the  man  at  the 
helm  to  keep  to  the  land  again,  and  to  come  up  with  this  creature  of 
which  I  had  heard  so  many  stories.  Though  the  fellows  were  under 
some  apprehension,  they  were  obliged  to  obey  my  orders.  In  the 
meantime  the  sea-snake  passed  by  us,  and  we  were  obliged  to  tack 
the  vessel  about  in  order  to  get  nearer  to  it.  As  the  snake  swam 
faster  than  we  could  row,  I  took  my  gun,  that  was  ready  charged,  and 
fired  at  it ;  on  this  he  immediately  plunged  under  the  water.  We 
rowed  to  the  place  where  it  sunk  down  (which  in  the  calm  might  be 
easily  observed)  and  lay  upon  our  oars,  thinking  it  would  come  up 
again  to  the  surface ;  however  it  did  not.  Where  the  snake  plunged 
down,  the  water  appeared  thick  and  red ;  perhaps  some  of  the  shot 
might  wound  it,  the  distance  being  very  little.  The  head  of  this 
snake,  which  it  held  more  than  two  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  water 
resembled  that  of  a  horse.  It  was  of  a  greyish  colour,  and  the  mouth 
was  quite  black,  and  very  large.  It  had  black  eyes,  and  a  long  white 
mane,  that  hung  down  from  the  neck  to  the  surface  of  the  water, 

2   C   2 


388  SEA   MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 

Besides  the  head  and  neck,  we  saw  seven  or  eight  folds,  or  coils,  of 
this  snake,  which  were  very  thick,  and  as  far  as  we  could  guess  there 
was  about  a  fathom  distance  between  each  fold.  I  related  this  affair 
in  a  certain  company,  where  there  was  a  person  of  distinction  present 
who  desired  that  I  would  communicate  to  him  an  authentic  detail  of 
all  that  happened ;  and  for  this  reason  two  of  my  sailors,  who  were 
present  at  the  same  time  and  place  where  I  saw  this  monster,  namely, 
Nicholas  Pederson  Kopper,  and  Nicholas  Nicholsen  Anglewigen, 
shall  appear  in  court,  to  declare  on  oath  the  truth  of  every  particular 
herein  set  forth ;  and  I  desire  the  favour  of  an  attested  copy  of  the 

said  descriptions. 

"  I  remain,  Sir,  your  obliged  servant, 

"  L.  DE  FERRY. 
•'  Bergen,  2ist  February,  1751. 

"  After  this  the  before-named  witnesses  gave  their  corporal  oaths, 
and,  with  their  finger  held  up  according  to  law,  witnessed  and  con- 
firmed the  aforesaid  letter  or  declaration,  and  every  particular  set 
forth  therein  to  be  strictly  true.  A  copy  of  the  said  attestation  was 
made  out  for  the  said  Procurator  Reutz,  and  granted  by  the  Recorder. 
That  this  was  transacted  in  our  court  of  justice  we  confirm  with  our 
hand  and  seals.  Actum  Bergis  die  et  loco,  ut  supra. 

"A.  C.  DASS  (Chief  Advocate}. 
"  H.  C.  GARTNER  (Recorder}." 

The  figure  of  the  sea  serpent  (Fig.  15)  given  by  Pontop- 
pidan  was  drawn,  he  tells  us,  under  the  inspection  of  a 
clergyman,  Mr.  Hans  Strom,  from  descriptions  given  of  it 
by  two  of  his  neighbours,  Messrs.  Reutz  and  Teuchsen,  of 
Herroe ;  and  was  declared  to  agree  in  every  particular 
with  that  seen  by  Captain  de  Ferry,  and  another  subse- 
quently observed  by  Governor  Benstrup.  The  supposed 
coils  of  the  serpent's  body  present  exactly  the  appearance 
of  eight  porpoises  following  each  other  in  line.  This  is  a 
well-known  habit  of  some  of  the  smaller  cetacea.  They 
are  often  met  with  at  sea  thus  proceeding  in  close  single 
file,  part  only  of  their  rotund  forms  being  visible  as  they 
raise  their  backs  above  the  surface  of  the  water  to  inhale 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT. 


389 


air  through  their  "  blow-holes."  Under  these  circum- 
stances they  have  been  described  by  naturalists  and 
seamen  as  resembling  a  long  string 
of  casks  or  buoys,  often  extending 
for  sixty,  eighty,  or  a  hundred 
yards.  This  is  just  such  a  spec- 
tacle as  that  described  by  Olaus 
Magnus — his  "  long  line  of  spheri- 
cal convolutions,"  and  also  as  one 
reported  to  Pontoppidan  as  being 
descriptive  of  the  sea-serpent :  — 

"  '  I  have  been  informed,'  he  says,  '  by 
some  of  our  sea-faring  men  that  a  cable  * 
would  not  be  long  enough  to  measure  the 
length  of  some  of  them  when  they  are 
observed  on  the  surface  of  the  water  in 
an  even    line.      They   say   those    round 
lumps  or  folds  sometimes   lie   one   after 
another  as  far  as  a  man  can  see.     I  con- 
fess, if  this  be  true,  that  we  must  suppose 
most  probably  that  it  is  not  one   snake, 
but  two  or  more  of  these  creatures  lying 
in  a  line  that  exhibit  this  phenomenon,' 
In   a  foot-note  he   adds  :    'If   any  one 
enquires  how  many  folds  may  be  counted 
on   a  sea-snake,   the  anwer  is   that  the 
number    is    not    always    the    same,  but 
depends  upon  the  various  sizes  of  them  : 
five  and  twenty  is  the  greatest  number 
that  I  find  well  attested.'    Adam  Olearius, 
in  his  Gottorf  Museum,  w .  ites  of  it  thus  : 
'A   person  of   distinction  from   Sweden 
related  here  at  Gottorf  that  he  had  heard 
the    burgomaster    of    Malmoe,    a     very 
worthy  man,   say  that   as   he  was  once 
standing  on  the  top  of  a  very  high  hill, 
towards  the  North  Sea,  he  saw  in  the  water,  which  was  very  calm,  a 

*  Six  hundred  feet. 


FIG.  15. — PONTOPPIDAN'S 
"SEA  SERPENT." 


390  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

snake,  which  appeared  at  that  distance  to  be  as  thick  as  a  pipe  of 
wine,  and  had  twenty-five  folds.  Those  kind  of  snakes  only  appear 
at  certain  times,  and  in  calm  weather.' " 

I  believe  that  in  every  case  so  far  cited  from  Pontoppidan, 
as  well  as  that  given  by  Olaus  Magnus,  the  supposed  coils 
or  protuberances  of  the  serpent's  body  were  only  so  many 
porpoises  swimming  in  line  in  accordance  with  their  habit 
before  mentioned.  If  an  upraised  head,  like  that  of  a 
horse,  was  seen  preceding  them,  it  was  either  unconnected 
with  them,  or  it  certainly  was  not  that  of  a  snake ;  for  no 
serpent  could  throw  its  body  into  those  vertical  undulations. 
The  form  of  the  vertebrae  in  the  ophidians  renders  such  a 
movement  impossible.  All  their  flexions  are  horizontal ; 
the  curving  of  their  body  is  from  side  to  side,  not  up  and 
down. 

The  sea  monster  seen  by  Egede  was  of  an  entirely 
different  kind  ;  and  his  account  of  it — let  sceptics  deride  it 
as  they  may — is  worthy  of  attention  and  careful  considera- 
tion. The  Rev.  Hans  Egede,  known  as  "  The  Apostle  of 
Greenland,"  was  superintendent  of  the  Christian  missions 
to  that  country.  He  was  a  truthful,  pious,  and  single- 
minded  man,  possessing  considerable  powers  of  observa- 
tion, and  a  genuine  love  of  natural  history.  He  wrote  two 
books  on  the  products,  people,  and  natural  history  of 
Greenland,*  and  his  statements  therein  are  modest,  ac- 
curate, and  free  from  exaggeration.  His  illustrations  are 
little,  if  at  all,  superior  in  style  of  art  to  the  two  Japanese 
wood-cuts  shown  on  page  353,  but  they  bear  the  same 
unmistakable  signs  of  fidelity  which  characterise  those  of 
the  Japanese. 

*  '  Des  alien  Gronlands  neue  perlustration]  8vo.,  Frankfurt,  1730, 
and  *  Del  Gamle  Gronlands  nye  perlustratione  eller  Naturel  Historie? 
4to.,  Copenhagen,  1741. 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT.  391 

In  his  '  Journal  of  the  Missions  to  Greenland '  this  author 
tell  us  that— 

"  On  the  6th  of  July,  1734,  there  appeared  a  very  large  and  frightful 
sea  monster,  which  raised  itself  so  high  out  of  the  water  that  its  head 
reached  above  our  main-top.  It  had  a  long,  sharp  snout,  and  spouted 
water  like  a  whale  ;  and  very  broad  flappers.  The  body  seemed  to  be 
covered  with  scales,  and  the  skin  was  uneven  and  wrinkled,  and  the 
lower  part  was  formed  like  a  snake.  After  some  time  the  creature 
plunged  backwards  into  the  water,  and  then  turned  its  tail  up  above 
the  surface,  a  whole  ship-length  from  the  head.  The  following  evening 
we  had  very  bad  weather." 

The  high  character  of  the  narrator  would  lead  us  to 
accept  his  statement  that  he  had  seen  something  previously 
unknown  to  him  (he  does  not  say  it  was  a  sea-serpent) 
even  if  we  could  not  explain  or  understand  what  it  was 
that  he  saw.  Fortunately,  however,  the  sketch  made  by 
Mr.  Bing,  one  of  his  brother  missionaries,  has  enabled  us 
to  do  this.  We  must  remember  that  in  his  endeavour  to 
portray  the  incident  he  was  dealing  with  an  animal  with 
the  nature  of  which  he  was  unacquainted,  and  which  was 
only  partially,  and  for  a  very  short  time,  within  his  view. 
He  therefore  delineated  rather  the  impression  left  on  his 
mind  than  the  thing  itself.  But  although  he  invested  it 
with  a  character  that  did  not  belong  to  it,  his  drawing  is  so 
far  correct  that  we  are  able  to  recognise  at  a  glance  the 
distorted  portrait  of  an  old  acquaintance,  and  to  say  unhesi- 
tatingly that  Egede's  sea  monster  was  one  of  the  great 
calamaries  which  have  since  been  occasionally  met  with, 
but  which  have  only  been  believed  in  and  recognised  within 
the  last  few  years.  That  which  Mr.  Egede  believed  to  be 
the  creature's  head  was  the  tail  part  of  the  cuttle,  which 
goes  in  advance  as  the  animal  swims,  and  the  two  side 
appendages  represent  very  efficiently  the  two  lobes  of  the 
caudal  fin.  In  propelling  itself  to  the  surface  the  squid 


392 


SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT. 


393 


raised  this  portion  of  its  body  out  of  the  water  to  a 
considerable  height,  an  occurrence  which  I  have  often 
witnessed,  and  which  I  have  elsewhere  described  (see 
p.  347).  The  supposed  tail,  which  was  turned  up  at  some 


FIG.    iy.— THE  ANIMAL  WHICH   EGEDE   PROBABLY   SAW. 

distance  from  the  other  visible  portion  of  the  body,  after 
the  latter  had  sunk  back  into  the  sea,  was  one  of  the 
shorter  arms  of  the  cuttle,  and  the  suckers  on  its  under 
side  are  clearly  and  conspicuously  marked.  Egede  was,  of 
course,  in  error  in  making  the  "  spout "  of  water  to  issue 
from  the  mouth  of  his  monster.  The  out-pouring  jet, 
which  he,  no  doubt,  saw,  came  from  the  locomotor  tube, 
and  the  puff  of  spray  which  would  accompany  it  as  the 
orifice  of  the  tube  rose  to  the  surface  of  the  water  is 
sketched  with  remarkable  truthfulness.  In  quoting  Egede, 
Pontoppidan  gives  a  copy  (so-called)  of  this  engraving,  but 
his  artist  embellished  it  so  much  as  to  deprive  it  of  its 


394  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

original   force  and   character,  and  of  the  honestly  drawn 
points  which  furnish  proofs  of  its  identity. 

Pontoppidan  records  other  supposed  appearances  of  the 
sea  serpent,  but  from  the  date  of  his  history  I  know  of  no 
other  account  of  such  an  occurrence  until  that  of  an  animal 
"  apparently  belonging  to  this  class,"  which  was  stranded 
on  the  Island  of  Stronsa,  one  of  the  Orkneys,  in  the  year 
1808:— 

"  According  to  the  narrative,  it  was  first  seen  entire,  and  measured 
by  respectable  individuals.  It  measured  fifty-six  feet  in  length,  and 
twelve  in  circumference.  The  head  was  small,  not  being  a  foot  long 
from  the  snout  to  the  first  vertebra ;  the  neck  was  slender,  extending 
to  the  length  of  fifteen  feet.  All  the  witnesses  agree  in  assigning  it 
blow-holes,  though  they  differ  as  to  the  precise  situation.  On  the 
shoulders  something  like  a  bristly  mane  commenced  which  extended 
to  near  the  extremity  of  the  tail.  It  had  three  pairs  of  fins  or  paws 
connected  with  the  body;  the  anterior  were  the  largest,  measuring 
more  than  four  feet  in  length,  and  their  extremities  were  something 
like  toes  partially  webbed.  The  skin  was  smooth  and  of  a  greyish 
colour;  the  eye  was  of  the  size  of  a  seal's.  When  the  decaying 
carcass  was  broken  up  by  the  waves,  portions  of  it  were  secured  (such 
as  the  .skull,  the  upper  bones  of  the  swimming  paws,  &c.)  by  Mr. 
Laing,  a  neighbouring  proprietor,  and  some  of  the  vertebrae  were 
preserved  and  deposited  in  the  Royal  University  Museum,  Edinburgh, 
and  in  the  Museum  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  London.  An 
able  paper,"  says  Dr.  Robert  Hamilton,  in  his  account  of  it,*  "on 
these  latter  fragments  and  on  the  wreck  of  the  animal  was  read  by  the 
late  Dr.  Barclay  to  the  Wernerian  Society,  and  will  be  found  in  Vol.  I. 


\ 

FIG.  18.— THE  "SEA  SERPENT"  OF  THE  WERNERIAN  SOCIETY.     (Facsimile.) 

of  its  Transactions,  to  which  we  refer.    We  have  supplied  a  wood-cut 
of  the  sketch  "  (of  which  I  give  a  facsimile  here)  "which  was  taken  at 

*  Jardine's  Naturalists'  Library:  'Marine  Amphibia,'  p.  314. 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.         395 

the  time,  and  which,  from  the  many  affidavits  proffered  by  respectable 
individuals,  as  well  as  from  other  circumstances  narrated,  leaves  no 
manner  of  doubt  as  to  the  existence  of  some  such  animal." 

Well!  one  would  think  so.  It  looks  convincing,  and 
there  is  a  savour  of  philosophy  about  it  that  might  lull 
the  suspicions  of  a  doubting  zoologist.  What  more  could 
be  required  ?  We  have  accurate  measurements  and  a 
sketch  taken  of  the  animal  as  it  lay  upon  the  shore,  minute 
particulars  of  its  outward  form,  characteristic  portions  of 
its  skeleton  preserved  in  well-known  museums,  and  any 
amount  of  affidavits  forthcoming  from  most  respectable 
individuals  if  confirmation  be  required.  And  yet, 

"  Tis  true,  'tis  pity; 
And  pity  'tis  'tis  true," 

the  whole  fabric  of  circumstances  crumbled  at  the  touch 
of  science.  When  the  two  vertebrae  in  the  Museum  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons  were  examined  by  Sir  Everard 
Home  he  pronounced  them  to  be  those  of  a  great  shark  of 
the  genus  Selache,  and  as  being  undistinguishable  from 
those  of  the  species  called  .the  "  basking  shark,"  of  which 
individuals  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  feet  in  length  have 
been  from  time  to  time  captured  or  stranded  on  our  coasts. 
Professor  Owen  has  confirmed  this.  Any  one  who  feels 
inclined  to  dispute  the  identification  by  this  distinguished 
comparative  anatomist  of  a  bone  which  he  has  seen  and 
handled  can  examine  these  vertebras  for  himself.  If  they 
had  not  been  preserved,  this  incident  would  have  been  cited 
for  all  time  as  among  the  most  satisfactorily  authenticated 
instances  on  record  of  the  appearance  of  the  sea  serpent. 
As  it  is,  it  furnishes  a  valuable  warning  of  the  necessity  for 
the  most  careful  scrutiny  of  the  evidence  of  well-meaning 
persons  to  whom  no  intentional  deception  or  exaggeration 
can  be  imputed. 


396  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

In  1809, Mr-  Maclean,  the  minister  of  Eigg,  in  the  Western 
Isles  of  Scotland,  informed  Dr.  Neill,  the  secretary  of  the 
Wernerian  Society,  that  he  had  seen,  off  the  Isle  of  Canna, 
a  great  animal  which  chased  his  boat  as  he  hurried  ashore 
to  escape  from  it ;  and  that  it  was  also  seen  by  the  crews 
of  thirteen  fishing-boats,  who  were  so  terrified  by  it  that 
they  fled  from  it  to  the  nearest  creek  for  safety.  His 
description  of  it  is  exceedingly  vague,  but  is  strongly 
indicative  of  a  great  calamary. 

In  1817  a  large  marine  animal,  supposed  to  be  a  serpent, 
was  seen  at  Gloucester  Harbour,  near  Cape  Ann,  Massa- 
chusetts, about  thirty  miles  from  Boston.  The  Linnaean 
Society  of  New  England  investigated  the  matter,  and  took 
much  trouble  to  obtain  evidence  thereon.  The  depositions 
of  eleven  credible  witnesses  were  certified  on  oath  before 
magistrates,  one  of  whom  had  himself  seen  the  creature, 
and  who  confirmed  the  statements.  All  agreed  that  the 
animal  had  the  appearance  of  a  serpent,  but  estimated  its 
length,  variously,  at  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  feet.  Its  head 
was  in  shape  like  that  of  a  turtle,  or  snake,  but  as  large 
as  the  head  of  a  horse.  There  was  no  appearance  of  a 
mane.  Its  mode  of  progressing  was  by  vertical  undula- 
tions ;  and  five  of  the  witnesses  described  it  as  having  the 
hunched  protuberances  mentioned  by  Captain  de  Ferry 
and  others.  Of  this,  I  can  offer  no  zoological  explanation. 
The  testimony  given  was  apparently  sincere,  but  it  was 
received  with  mistrust ;  for,  as  Mr.  Gosse  says,  "  owing  to  a 
habit  prevalent  in  the  United  States  of  supposing  that 
there  is  somewhat  of  wit  in  gross  exaggeration  or  hoaxing 
invention,  we  do  naturally  look  with  a  lurking  suspicion 
on  American  statements  when  they  describe  unusual  or 
disputed  phenomena." 

On  the   1 5th  of  May,   1833,  a  party  of  British  officers, 


THE   GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  397 

consisting  of  Captain  Sullivan,  Lieutenants  Maclachlan  and 
Malcolm  of  the  Rifle  Brigade,  Lieutenant  Lister  of  the 
Artillery,  and  Mr.  Ince  of  the  Ordnance,  whilst  crossing 
Margaret's  Bay  in  a  small  yacht,  on  their  way  from  Halifax 
to  Mahone  Bay,  "  saw,  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
to  two  hundred  yards,  the  head  and  neck  of  some  denizen 
of  the  deep,  precisely  like  those  of  a  common  snake  in  the 
act  of  swimming,  the  head  so  far  elevated  and  thrown 
forward  by  the  curve  of  the  neck,  as  to  enable  them  to  see 
the  water  under  and  beyond  it.  The  creature  rapidly 
passed,  leaving  a  regular  wake,  from  the  commencement  of 
which  to  the  fore  part,  which  was  out  of  water,  they  judged 
its  length  to  be  about  eighty  feet."  They  "  set  down  the 
head  at  about  six  feet  in  length  (considerably  larger  than 
that  of  a  horse),  and  that  portion  of  the  neck  which  they 
saw  at  the  same."  "  There  could  be  no  mistake — no  delu- 
sion," they  say  ;  "  and  we  were  all  perfectly  satisfied  that  we 
had  been  favoured  with  a  view  of  the  true  and  veritable 
sea  serpent."  This  account  was  published  in  the  Zoologist, 
in  1847  (p.  1715),  and  at  that  date  all  the  officers  above 
named  were  still  living. 

The  next  incident  of  the  kind  in  point  of  date  that  we 
find  recorded  carries  us  back  to  the  locality  of  which 
Pontoppidan  wrote,  and  in  which  was  seen  the  animal 
vouched  for  by  Captain  de  Ferry.  In  1847  there  appeared 
in  a  London  daily  paper  a  long  account  translated  from 
the  Norse  journals  of  fresh  appearances  of  the  sea  serpent. 
The  statement  made  was,  that  it  had  recently  been  fre- 
quently seen  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Christiansand  and 
Molde.  In  the  large  bight  of  the  sea  at  Christiansand  it 
had  been  seen  every  year,  only  in  the  warmest  weather, 
and  when  the  sea  was  perfectly  calm,  and  the  surface  of 
the  water  unruffled.  The  evidence  of  three  respectable 


398  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

persons  was  taken,  namely,  Nils  Roe,  a  workman  at  Mr. 
William  Knudtzon's,  who  saw  it  twice  there,  John  Johnson, 
merchant,  and  Lars  Johnoen,  fisherman  at  Smolen.  The 
latter  said  he  had  frequently  seen  it,  and  that  one  afternoon 
in  the  dog-days,  as  he  was  sitting  in  his  boat,  he  saw  it 
twice  in  the  course  of  two  hours,  and  quite  close  to  him. 
It  came,  indeed,  to  within  six  feet  of  him,  and,  becoming 
alarmed,  he  commended  his  soul  to  God,  and  lay  down  in 
the  boat,  only  holding  his  head  high  enough  to  enable  him 
to  observe  the  monster.  It  passed  him,  disappeared,  and 
returned  ;  but,  a  breeze  springing  up,  it  sank,  and  he  saw 
it  no  more.  He  described  it  as  being  about  six  fathoms 
long,  the  body  (which  was  as  round  as  a  serpent's)  two  feet 
across,  the  head  as  long  as  a  ten-gallon  cask,  the  eyes 
large,  round,  red,  sparkling,  and  about  five  inches  in 
diameter:  close  behind  the  head  a  mane  like  a  fin  com- 
menced along  the  neck,  and  spread  itself  out  on  both  sides, 
right  and  left,  when  swimming.  The  mane,  as  well  as  the 
head,  was  of  the  colour  of  mahogany.  The  body  was 
quite  smooth,  its  movements  occasionally  fast  and  slow. 
It  was  serpent-like,  and  moved  up  and  down.  The  few 
undulations  which  those  parts  of  the  body  and  tail  that 
were  out  of  water  made,  were  scarcely  a  fathom  in  length. 
These  undulations  were  not  so  high  that  he  could  see 
between  them  and  the  water. 

In  confirmation  of  this  account  Mr.  Soren  Knudtzon, 
Dr.  Hoffmann,  surgeon  in  Molde,  Rector  Hammer,  Mr. 
Kraft,  curate,  and  several  other  persons,  testified  that  they 
had  seen  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Christiansand  a  sea 
serpent  of  considerable  size. 

Mr.  William  Knudtzon,  and  Mr.  Bochlum,  a  candidate 
for  holy  orders,  also  gave  their  account  of  it,  much  to  the 
same  purport ;  but  some  of  these  remarks  are  worthy  of 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.         399 

note  for  future  comment.  They  say,  "  its  motions  were  in 
undulations,  and  so  strong  that  white  foam  appeared  before 
it,  and  at  the  side,  which  stretched  out  several  fathoms.  It 
did  not  appear  very  high  out  of  the  water ;  the  head  was 
long  and  small  in  proportion  to  the  throat :  as  the  latter 
appeared  much  greater  than  the  former,  probably  it  was 
furnished  with  a  mane." 

Sheriffe  Gottsche  testified  to  a  similar  effect.  "  He 
could  not  judge  of  the  animal's  entire  length  ;  he  could 
not  observe  its  extremity.  At  the  back  of  the  head  there 
was  a  mane,  which  was  the  same  colour  as  the  rest  of  the 
body." 

We  must  take  one  more  Norwegian  account,  for  it  is  a 
very  important  one.  The  venerable  P.  W.  Deinbolt,*  Arch- 
deacon of  Molde,  gives  the  following  account  of  an  incident 
that  occurred  there  on  the  28th  of  July,  1845  : 

"  J.  C.  Lund,  bookseller  and  printer ;  G.  S.  Krogh,  merchant ; 
Christian  Flang,  Lund's  apprentice,  and  John  Elgenses,  labourer,  were 
out  on  Romsdal-fjord,  fishing.  The  sea  was,  after  a  warm,  sunshiny 
day,  quite  calm.  About  seven  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  shore,  near  the  ballast  place  and  Molde  Hooe,  they 
saw  a  long  marine  animal,  which  slowly  moved  itself  forward,  as  it 
appeared  to  them,  with  the  help  of  two  fins,  on  the  fore-part  of  the 
body  nearest  the  head,  which  they  judged  by  the  boiling  of  the  water 
on  both  sides  of  it.  The  visible  part  of  the  body  appeared  to  be 
between  forty  and  fifty  feet  in  length,  and  moved  in  undulations,  like 
a  snake.  The  body  was  round  and  of  a  dark  colour,  and  seemed  to  be 
several  ells  in  thickness.  As  they  discerned  a  waving  motion  in  the 
water  behind  the  animal,  they  concluded  that  part  of  the  body  was 
concealed  under  water.  That  it  was  one  continuous  animal  they  saw 
plainly  from  its  movement.  When  the  animal  was  about  one  hundred 
yards  from  the  boat,  they  noticed  tolerably  correctly  its  fore  parts, 
which  ended  in  a  sharp  snout ;  its  colossal  head  raised  itself  above 
the  water  in  the  form  of  a  semi-circle  ;  the  lower  part  was  not  visible. 
The  colour  of  the  head  was  dark-brown  and  the  skin  smooth ;  they 


Hitherto  erroneously  printed  "  Deinboll." 


400  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

did  not  notice  the  eyes,  or  any  mane  or  bristles  on  the  throat.  When 
the  serpent  came  about  a  musket-shot  near,  Lund  fired  at  it,  and  was 
certain  the  shots  hit  it  in  the  head.  After  the  shot  it  dived,  but  came 
up  immediately.  It  raised  its  neck  in  the  air,  like  a  snake  preparing 
to  dart  on  his  prey.  After  he  had  turned  and  got  his  body  in  a 
straight  line,  which  he  appeared  to  do  with  great  difficulty,  he  darted 
like  an  arrow  against  the  boat.  They  reached  the  shore,  and  the 
animal,  perceiving  it  had  come  into  shallow  water,  dived  immediately 
and  disappeared  in  the  deep.  Such  is  the  declaration  of  these  four 
men,  and  no  one  has  cause  to  question  their  veracity,  or  imagine  that 
they  were  so  seized  with  fear  that  they  could  not  observe  what  took 
place  so  near  them.  There  are  not  many  here,  or  on  other  parts  of 
the  Norwegian  coast,  who  longer  doubt  the  existence  of  the  sea 
serpent.  The  writer  of  this  narrative  was  a  long  time  sceptical,  as  he 
had  not  been  so  fortunate  as  to  see  this  monster  of  the  deep  ;  but  after 
the  many  accounts  he  has  read,  and  the  relations  he  has  received  from 
credible  witnesses,  he  does  not  dare  longer  to  doubt  the  existence  of 

the  sea  serpent 

"P.  W.  DEINBOLT. 
"Molde,  29th  Nov.,  1845." 

We  may  at  once  accept  most  fully  and  frankly  the 
statements  of  all  the  worthy  people  mentioned  in  this 
series  of  incidents.  There  is  no  room  for  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt  that  they  all  recounted  conscientiously  that  which 
they  saw.  The  last  quoted  occurrence,  especially,  is  most 
accurately  and  intelligently  described — so  clearly,  indeed, 
that  it  furnishes  us  with  a  clue  to  the  identity  of  the 
strange  visitant. 

Here  let  me  say — and  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  under- 
stood— that  I  do  not  deny  the  possibility  of  the  existence 
of  a  great  sea  serpent,  or  other  great  creatures  at  present 
unknown  to  science,  and  that  I  have  no  inclination  to 
explain  away  that  which  others  have  seen,  because  I 
myself  have  not  witnessed  it.  "  Seeing  is  believing,"  it  is 
said,  and  it  is  not  agreeable  to  have  to  tell  a  person  that,  in 
common  parlance,  he  "  must  not  trust  his  own  eyes."  It 
seems  presumptuous  even  to  hint  that  one  may  know 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.         401 

better  what  was  seen  than  the  person  who  saw  it.  And 
yet  I  am  obliged  to  say,  reluctantly  and  courteously,  but 
most  firmly  and  assuredly,  that  these  perfectly  credible 
eye-witnesses  did  not  correctly  interpret  that  which  they 
saw.  In  these  cases,  it  is  not  the  eye  which  deceives,  nor 
the  tongue  which  is  untruthful,  but  the  imagination  which 
is  led  astray  by  the  association  of  the  thing  seen  with 
an  erroneous  idea.  I  venture  to  say  this,  not  with  any 
insolent  assumption  of  superior  acumen,  but  because  we 
now  possess  a  key  to  the  mystery  which  Archdeacon 
Deinbolt  and  his  neighbours  had  not  access  to,  and  which 
has  only  within  the  last  few  years  been  placed  in  our 
hands.  The  movements  and  aspect  of  their  sea  monster 
are  those  of  an  animal  with  which  we  are  now  well 
acquainted,  but  of  the  existence  of  which  the  narrators 
of  these  occasional  visitations  were  unaware ;  namely,  the 
great  calamary,  the  same  which  gave  rise  to  the  stories  of 
the  Kraken,  and  which  has  probably  been  a  denizen  of  the 
Scandinavian  seas  and  fjords  from  time  immemorial.  It 
must  be  remembered,  as  I  have  elsewhere  said,  that  until 
the  year  1873,  notwithstanding  the  adventure  of  the  Alecton 
in  1 86 1,  a  cuttle  measuring  in  total  length  fifty  or  sixty 
feet  was  generally  looked  upon  as  equally  mythical  with 
the  great  sea  serpent.  Both  were  popularly  scoffed  at,  and 
to, express  belief  in  either  was  to  incur  ridicule.  But  in 
the  year  above  mentioned,  specimens  of  even  greater 
dimensions  than  those  quoted  were  met  with  on  the  coasts 
of  Newfoundland,  and  portions  of  them  were  deposited  in 
museums,  to  silence  the  incredulous  and  interest  zoologists. 
When  Archdeacon  Deinbolt  published  in  1846  the  declara- 
tion of  Mr.  Lund  and  his  companions  of  the  fishing  ex- 
cursion, he  and  they  knew  nothing  of  there  being  such  an 
animal.  They  had  formed  no  conception  of  it,  nor  had 
VOL.  III. — H.  2  D 


402 


SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 


they  the  instructive  privilege,  possessed  of  late  years  by  the 
public  in  England,  of  being  able  to 
watch  attentively,  and  at  leisure,  the 
habits  and  movements  of  these  strangely 
modified  mollusks  living  in  great  tanks 
of  sea-water  in  aquaria.  If  they  had 
been  thus  acquainted  with  them,  I  be- 
lieve they  would  have  recognised  in  their 
:  supposed  snake  the  elongated  body  of  a 
giant  squid. 

When  swimming,  these  squids  propel 
themselves  backwards   by  the   out-rush 
of  a  stream  of  water  from  a  tube  pointed 
j      in  a  direction  contrary  to  that  in  which 
3      the  animal  is  proceeding.     The  tail  part, 
therefore,  goes  in  advance,  and  the  body 
tapers  towards  this,  almost  to  a  blunt 
|      point.      At    a    short  distance  from  the 
;      actual   extremity   two   flat   fins   project 
\     from   the   body,  one   on   each   side,   as 
!     shown  in  Figs.   17  and  19,  so  that  this 
i     end  of  the  squid's  body  somewhat  re- 
sembles    in     shape      the     government 
"broad  arrow."     It 'is  a  habit  of  these 
:     squids,  the   small   species  of  which  are 
met  with  in  some  localities  in  teeming 
abundance,  to  swim  on  the  smooth  sur- 
face of  the    water    in    hot    and    calm 
weather.     The  arrow-headed  tail  is  then 
raised  out  of  water,  to  a  height  which 
in  a  large  individual  might  be  three  feet 
or  more  ;  and,  as  it  precedes  the  rest  of 
the  body,  moving  at  the  rate  of  several  miles  an  hour,  it 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT.  403 

of  course  looks,  to  a  person  who  has  never  heard  of  an 
animal  going  tail  first  at  such  a  speed,  like  the  creature's 
head.  The  appearance  of  this  "  head  "  varies  in  accordance 
with  the  lateral  fins  being  seen  in  profile  or  in  broad 
expanse.  The  elongated,  tubular-looking  body  gives  the 
idea  of  the  neck  to  which  the  "  head "  is  attached  ;  the 
eight  arms  trailing  behind  (the  tentacles  are  always  coiled 
away  and  concealed)  supply  the  supposed  mane  floating 
on  each  side  ;  the  undulating  motion  in  swimming,  as  the 
water  is  alternately  drawn  in  and  expelled,  accords  with 
the  description,  and  the  excurrent  stream  pouring  aft  from 
the  locomotor  tube,  causes  a  long  swirl  and  swell  to  be  left 
in  the  animal's  wake,  which,  as  I  have  often  seen,  may 
easily  be  mistaken  for  an  indefinite  prolongation  of  its 
body.  The  eyes  are  very  large  and  prominent,  and  the 
general  tone  of  colour  varies  through  every  tint  of  brown, 
purple,  pink,  and  grey,  as  the  creature  is  more  or  less 
excited,  and  the  pigmentary  matter  circulates  with  more  or 
less  vigour  through  the  curiously  moving  cells. 

Here  we  have  the  "  long  marine  animal  "  with  "  two  fins 
on  the  forepart  of  the  body  near  the  head,"  the  "  boiling  of 
the  water,"  the  "  moving  in  undulations,"  the  "  body  round 
and  of  a  dark  colour,"  the  "  waving  motion  in  the  water 
behind  the  animal,  from  which  the  witnesses  concluded 
that  part  of  the  body  was  concealed  under  water,"  the 
"  head  raised,  but  the  lower  part  not  visible,"  "  the  sharp 
snout,"  the  "  smooth  skin,"  and  the  appearance  described 
by  Mr.  William  Knudtzon,  and  Candidatus  Theologian 
Bochlum,  of  "  the  head  being  long  and  small  in  proportion 
to  the  throat,  the  latter  appearing  much  greater  than  the 
former,"  which  caused  them  to  think  "it  was  probably 
furnished  with  a  mane."  Not  that  they  saw  any  mane,  but 
as  they  had  been  told  of  it,  they  thought  they  ought  to  have 
seen  it.  Less  careful  and  conscientious  persons  would  have 

2    D    2 


404  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

persuaded  themselves,  and  declared  on  oath,  that  they  did 
see  it. 

I  need  scarcely  point  out  how  utterly  irreconcileable  is 
the  proverbially  smooth,  gliding  motion  of  a  serpent,  with 
the  supposition  of  its  passage  through  the  water  causing 
such  frictional  disturbance  that  "white  foam  appeared 
before  it,  and  at  the  side,  which  stretched  out  several 
fathoms,"  and  of  "  the  water  boiling  around  it  on  both  sides 
of  it."  The  cuttle  is  the  only  animal  that  I  know  of  that 
would  cause  this  by  the  effluent  current  from  its  "  syphon 
tube."  I  have  seen  a  deeply  laden  ship  push  in  front  of 
her  a  vast  hillock  of  water,  which  fell  off  on  each  side  in 
foam  as  it  was  parted  by  her  bow  ;  but  that  was  of  man's 
construction.  Nature  builds  on  better  lines.  No  swimming 
creature  has  such  unnecessary  friction  to  overcome.  Even 
the  seemingly  unwieldy  body  of  a  porpoise  enters  and 
passes  through  the  water  without  a  splash,  and  nothing  can 
be  more  easy  and  graceful  than  the  feathering  action  of  the 
flippers  of  the  awkward-looking  turtle. 

We  now  come  to  an  incident  which,  from  the  character 
of  those  who  witnessed  it,  immediately  commanded  atten- 
tion, and  excited  popular  curiosity.  In  the  Times  of  the 
9th  of  October,  1848,  appeared  a  paragraph  stating  that  a 
sea  serpent  had  been  met  with  by  the  Dcsdalus  frigate, 
on  her  homeward  voyage  from  the  East  Indies.  The 
Admiralty  immediately  inquired  of  her  commander,  Captain 
M'Quhae,  as  to  the  truth  of  the  report ;  and  his  official 
reply,  as  follows,  addressed  to  Admiral  Sir  W.  H.  Gage, 
G.C.H.,  Dcvonport,  was  printed  in  the  Times  of  the  I3th  of 
October,  1848. 

"  H.M.S.  Dcedalus,  Hamoaze, 
"October  nth,  1848. 

"  SIR,— In  reply  to  your  letter  of  this  date,  requiring  information  as 
to  the  truth  of  the  statement  published  in  the  Times  newspaper,  of  a 
sea  serpent  of  extraordinary  dimensions  having  been  seen  from  H.M.S. 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  405 

Dadalus,  under  my  command,  on  her  passage  from  the  East  Indies, 
I  have  the  honour  to  acquaint  you,  for  the  information  of  my  Lords 
Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty,  that  at  5  o'clock  P.M.  on  the  6th  of 
Aug.  last,  in  lat.  24°  44'  S.  and  long.  9°  22'  E.,  the  weather  dark  and 
cloudy,  wind  fresh  from  the  N.W.  with  a  long  ocean  swell  from  the 
W.,  the  ship  on  the  port  tack,  head  being  N.E.  by  N.,  something  very 
unusual  was  seen  by  Mr.  Sartoris,  midshipman,  rapidly  approaching 
the  ship  from  before  the  beam.  The  circumstance  was  immediately 
reported  by  him  to  the  officer  of  the  watch,  Lieut.  Edgar  Drummond, 
with  whom  and  Mr.  Wm.  Barrett,  the  Master,  I  was  at  the  time 
walking  the  quarter-deck.  The  ship's  company  were  at  supper.  On 
our  attention  being  called  to  the  object  it  was  discovered  to  be  an 
enormous  serpent,  with  head  and  shoulders  kept  about  four  feet 
constantly  above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and,  as  nearly  as  we  could 
approximate  by  comparing  it  with  what  the  length  of  our  main-topsail 
yard  would  show  in  the  water,  there  was,  at  the  very  least,  sixty  feet  of 
the  animal  hfleur  cfeau,  no  portion  of  which  was,  to  our  perception, 
used  in  propelling  it  through  the  water,  either  by  vertical  or  horizontal 
undulation.  It  passed  rapidly,  but  so  close  under  our  lee  quarter 
that  had  it  been  a  man  of  my  acquaintance  I  should  easily  have 
recognised  his  features  with  the  naked  eye  ;  and  it  did  not,  either  in 
approaching  the  ship  or  after  it  had  passed  our  wake,  deviate  in  the 
slightest  degree  from  its  course  to  the  S.W.,  which  it  held  on  at  the 
pace  of  from  twelve  to  fifteen  miles  per  hour,  apparently  on  some 
determined  purpose. 

"  The  diameter  of  the  serpent  was  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  inches 
behind  the  head,  which  was  without  any  doubt  that  of  a  snake  ;  and  it 
was  never,  during  the  twenty  minutes  it  continued  in  sight  of  our 
glasses,  once  below  the  surface  of  the  water  ;  its  colour  dark  brown, 
and  yellowish  white  about  the  throat.  It  had  no  fins,  but  something 
like  the  mane  of  a  horse,  or  rather  a  bunch  of  seaweed,  washed  about 
its  back.  It  was  seen  by  the  quartermaster,  the  boatswain's  mate, 
and  the  man  at  the  wheel,  in  addition  to  myself  and  the  officers  above 
mentioned. 

"  I  am  having  a  drawing  of  the  serpent  made  from  a  sketch  taken 
immediately  after  it  was  seen,  which  I  hope  to  have  ready  for  trans- 
mission to  my  Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  by  to-morrow's 
post. — PETER  M'QUHJE,  Captain." 

The  sketches  referred  to  in  the  captain's  letter  were 
made  under  his  supervision,  and  copies- of  them,  of  which  he 


4o6 


SEA    MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 


THE  GREA  T  SEA  SERPENT.  407 

certified  his  approbation,  were  published  in  the  Illustrated 
London  News  on  the  28th  of  October,  1848.  I  am  kindly 
permitted  by  the  proprietors  of  that  journal  to  reproduce 
two  of  them,  reduced  in  size  to  suit  these  pages — one 
showing  the  relative  positions  of  the  "serpent"  and  the 
ship  when  the  former  was  first  seen  (p.  318),  and  the 
other  (Fig.  20)  representing  the  animal  afterwards  passing 
under  the  frigate's  quarter.  An  enlarged  drawing  of  its 
head  was  also  given,  which  I  have  not  thought  it  necessary 
to  copy. 

Lieutenant  Drummond,  the  officer  of  the  watch  men- 
tioned in  Captain  M'Quhae's  report,  published  his  memo- 
randum of  the  impression  made  on  his  mind  by  the 
animal  at  the  time  of  its  appearance.  It  differs  somewhat 
from  the  captain's  description,  and  is  the  more  cautious  of 
the  two. 

"  I  beg  to  send  you  the  following  extract  from  my  journal.  H.M.S. 
Dcedalus,  August  6,  1848,  lat.  25°  Sw  long.  9°  37'  E.,  St.  Helena,  1,015 
miles.  In  the  4  to  6  watch,  at  about  5  o'clock,  we  observed  a  most 
remarkable  fish  on  our  lee-quarter,  crossing  the  stern  in  a  S.W. 
direction.  The  appearance  of  its  head,  which  with  the  back  fin  was 
the  only  portion  of  the  animal  visible,  was  long,  pointed,  and  flattened 
at  the  top,  perhaps  ten  feet  in  length,  the  upper  jaw  projecting  con- 
siderably ;  the  fin  was  perhaps  20  feet  in  the  rear  of  the  head,  and 
visible  occasionally  ;  the  captain  also  asserted  that  he  saw  the  tail,  or 
another  fin,  about  the  same  distance  behind  it ;  the  upper  part  of  the 
head  and  shoulders  appeared  of  a  dark  brown  colour,  and  beneath  the 
under-jaw  a  brownish-white.  It  pursued  a  steady  undeviating  course, 
keeping  its  head  horizontal  with  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  in  rather 
a  raised  position,  disappearing  occasionally  beneath  a  wave  for  a  very 
brief  interval,  and  not  apparently  for  purposes  of  respiration.  It  was 
going  at  the  rate  of  perhaps  from  twelve  to  fourteen  miles  an  hour, 
and  when  nearest  was  perhaps  one  hundred  yards  distant ;  in  fact  it 
gave  one  quite  the  idea  of  a  large  snake  or  eel.  No  one  in  the  ship 
has  ever  seen  anything  similar  ;  so  it  is  at  least  extraordinary.  It  was 
visible  to  the  naked  eye  for  five  minutes,  and  with  a  glass  for  perhaps 
fifteen  more.  The  weather  was  dark  and  squally  at  the  time,  with 


408  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

some  sea  running.— EDGAR  DRUMMOND,  Lieut.  H.M.S.  Dadalns; 
Southampton,  Oct.  28,  1848." 

Statements  so  interesting  and  important,  of  course, 
elicited  much  correspondence  and  controversy.  Mr.  J.  D. 
Morries  Stirling,  a  director  of  the  Bergen  Museum,  wrote  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  British  Admiralty,  Captain  Hamilton, 
R.N.,  saying  that  while  becalmed  in  a  yacht  between 
Bergen  and  Sogne,  in  Norway,  he  had  seen,  three  years 
previously,  a  large  fish  or  reptile  of  cylindrical  form  (he 
would  not  say  "  sea  serpent ")  ruffling  the  otherwise  smooth 
surface  of  the  fjord.  No  head  was  visible.  This  appears 
to  have  been,  like  the  others  from  the  same  locality,  a 
large  calamary.  Mr.  Stirling,  unaware,  doubtless,  that 
Mr.  Edward  Newman,  editor  of  the  Zoologist,  had  pre- 
viously propounded  the  same  idea,  suggested  that  the 
supposed  serpent  might  be  one  of  the  old  marine  reptiles, 
hitherto  supposed  only  to  exist  in  the  fossil  state.  This 
letter  was  published  in  the  Illustrated  News  of  October  28th, 
and  four  days  afterwards,  November  2nd,  a  letter  signed 
F.  G.  S.  appeared  in  the  Times,  in  which  the  same  idea 
was  mooted,  and  the  opinion  expressed  that  it  might  be 
the  Plesiosaurus.  This  brought  out  that  great  master  in 
physiology,  Professor  Owen,  who  in  a  long,  and  it  is 
needless  to  say,  most  able  letter,  which  was  published  in 
the  Times  of  the  nth  of  November,  1848,  set  forth  a  series 
of  weighty  arguments  against  belief  in  the  supposed  serpent, 
which  cannot  properly  be  abridged,  and  which  I  therefore 
quote  in  edtenso,  as  follows  : — 

"  The  sketch  (a  reduced  copy  of  the  animal  seen  by  Captain  M'Quha?, 
attached  to  the  submerged  body  of  a  large  seal,  showing  the  long  eddy 
produced  by  the  action  of  the  terminal  flippers)  will  suggest  the  reply 
to  your  query, '  Whether  the  monster  seen  from  the  Dcedalus  be  any- 
thing  but  a  saurian  ? '  If  it  be  the  true  answer,  it  destroys  the  romance 


THE  GREA  T  SEA  SERPENT.  409 

of  the  incident,  and  will  be  anything  but  acceptable  to  those  who 
prefer  the  excitement  of  the  imagination  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
judgment.  I  am  far  from  insensible  to  the  pleasures  of  the  discovery 
of  a  new  and  rare  animal ;  but  before  I  can  enjoy  them,  certain  con- 
ditions— e.g.,  reasonable  proof  or  evidence  of  its  existence — must  be 
fulfilled.  I  am  also  far  from  undervaluing  the  information  which 
Captain  M'Quhas  has  given  us  of  what  he  saw.  When  fairly  analysed, 
it  lies  in  a  small  compass  ;  but  my  knowledge  of  the  animal  kingdom 
compels  me  to  draw  other  conclusions  from  the  phenomena  than  those 
which  the  gallant  captain  -seems  to  have  jumped  at.  He  evidently 
saw  a  large  animal  moving  rapidly  through  the  water,  very  different 
from  anything  he  had  before  witnessed — neither  a  whale,  a  grampus 
a  great  shark,  an  alligator,  nor  any  of  the  larger  surface-swimming 
creatures  which  are  fallen  in  with  in  ordinary  voyages.  He  writes  : — 
1  On  our  attention  being  called  to  the  object,  it  was  discovered  to  be 
an  enormous  serpent '  (read  '  animal '), '  with  the  head  and  shoulders 
kept  about  four  feet  constantly  above  the  surface  of  the  sea.  The 
diameter  of  the  serpent '  (animal)  *  was  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  inches, 
behind  the  head  ;  its  colour  a  dark  brown,  with  yellowish  white  about 
the  throat.  No  fins  were  seen '  (the  captain  says  there  were  none ; 
but,  from  his  own  account,  he  did  not  see  enough  of  the  animal  to 
prove  his  negative).  i  Something  like  the  mane  of  a  horse,  or  rather 
a  bunch  of  sea-weed,  washed  about  its  back.'  So  much  of  the  body 
as  was  seen  was  not  used  in  propelling  the  animal  through  the  water, 
either  by  vertical  or  horizontal  undulation.  A  calculation  of  its  length' 
was  made  under  a  strong  preconception  of  the  nature  of  the  beast. 
The  head,  e.g.,  is  stated  to  be  '  without  any  doubt  that  of  a  snake  ' ; 
and  yet  a  snake  would  be  the  last  species  to  which  a  naturalist,  con- 
versant with  the  forms  and  characters  of  the  heads  of  animals,  would 
refer  such  a  head  as  that  of  which  Captain  M'Quhae  has  transmitted  a 
drawing  to  the  Admiralty,  and  which  he  certifies  to  have  been  accu- 
rately copied  in  the  Illustrated  London  News  for  October  the  28th, 
1848,  p.  265.  Your  Lordship  will  observe  that  no  sooner  was  the 
captain's  attention  called  to  the  object  than  it  was  discovered  to  be  an 
enormous  serpent,  and  yet  the  closest  inspection  of  as  much  of  the 
body  as  was  visible  afleur  d'eau  failed  to  detect  any  undulations  of  the 
body,  although  such  actions  constitute  the  very  character  which  would 
distinguish  a  serpent,  or  serpentiform  swimmer,  from  any  other  marine 
species.  The  foregone  conclusion,  therefore,  of  the  beast's  being  a 
sea  serpent,  notwithstanding  its  capacious  vaulted  cranium,  and  stiff 
inflexible  trunk,  must  be  kept  in  mind  in  estimating  the  value  of  the 


4io  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

approximation  made  to  the  total  length  of  the  animal  as  (at  the  very 
least)  sixty  feet.  This  is  the  only  part  of  the  description,  however, 
which  seems  to  me  to  be  so  uncertain  as  to  be  inadmissible  in  an 
attempt  to  arrive  at  a  right  conclusion  as  to  the  nature  of  the  animal, 
The  more  certain  characters  of  the  animal  are  these  :  Head  with  a 
convex,  moderately  capacious  cranium,  short  obtuse  muzzle,  gape  of 
the  mouth  not  extending  further  than  to  beneath  the  eye,  which  is 
rather  small,  round,  filling  closely  the  palpebral  aperture  ;  colour,  dark 
brown  above,  yellowish  white  beneath,  surface  smooth,  without  scales, 
scutes,  or  other  conspicuous  modifications  of  the  hard  and  naked 
cuticle.  And  the  captain  says, '  Had  it  been  a  man  of  my  acquaintance, 
I  should  have  easily  recognised  his  features  with  my  naked  eye.' 
Nostrils  not  mentioned,  but  indicated  in  the  drawing  by  a  crescentic 
mark  at  the  end  of  the  nose  or  muzzle.  All  these  are  the  characters 
of  the  head  of  a  warm-blooded  mammal,  none  of  them  those  of  a 
cold-blooded  reptile  or  fish.  Body  long,  dark  brown,  not  undulating, 
without  dorsal  or  other  apparent  fins,  but  something  like  the  mane  of 
a  horse,  or  rather  a  bunch  of  seaweed,  washed  about  its  back.  The 
character  of  the  integuments  would  be  a  most  important  one  to  the 
zoologist  in  the  determination  of  the  class  to  which  the  above  defined 
creature  belonged.  If  an  opinion  can  be  deduced  as  to  the  integu- 
ments from  the  above  indication,  it  is  that  the  species  had  hair,  which, 
if  it  was  too  short  and  close  to  be  distinguished  on  the  head,  was  visible 
where  it  usually  is  the  longest,  on  the  middle  line  of  the  shoulders  or 
advanced  part  of  the  back,  where  it  was  not  stiff  and  upright,  like  the 
rays  of  a  fin,  but  washed  about.  Guided  by  the  above  interpretation 
of  the  mane  of  a  horse  or  a  bunch  of  seaweed,  the  animal  was  not  a 
cetaceous  mammal,  but  rather  a  great  sea  seal.  But  what  seal  of  large 
size,  or  indeed  of  any  size,  would  be  encountered  in  latitude  24°  44' 
south,  and  longitude  9°  22'  east,  viz.,  about  300  miles  from  the  western 
shore  of  the  southern  end  of  Africa  ?  The  most  likely  species  to  be 
there  met  are  the  largest  of  the  seal  tribe,  e.g.,  Anson's  sea-lion,  or  that 
known  to  the  southern  whalers  by  the  name  of  the  *  sea-elephant,'  the 
Phoca  proboscidea^  which  attains  the  length  of  from  twenty  to  thirty 
feet.  These  great  seals  abound  in  certain  of  the  islands  of  the  southern 
and  antarctic  seas,  from  which  an  individual  is  occasionally  floated  off 
upon  an  iceberg.  The  sea-lion  exhibited  in  London  last  spring,  which 
was  a  young  individual  of  the  Phoca  proboscidea,  was  actually  captured 
in  that  predicament,  having  been  carried  by  the  currents  that  set 
northward  towards  the  Cape,  where  its  temporary  resting-place  was 
rapidly  melting  away.  When  a  large  individual  of  the  Phoca  pro- 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  411 

boscidea,  or  Phoca  leonina,  is  thus  borne  off  to  a  distance  from  its 
native  shore,  it  is  compelled  to  return  for  rest  to  its  floating  abode, 
after  it  has  made  its  daily  excursion  in  quest  of  fishes  or  squids  that 
constitute  its  food.  It  is  thus  brought  by  the  iceberg  into  the  latitude 
of  the  Cape,  and  perhaps  further  north,  before  the  berg  has  melted 
away.  Then  the  poor  seal  is  compelled  to  swim  as  long  as  strength 
endures  ;  and  in  such  a  predicament  I  imagine  the  creature  was  that 
Mr.  Sartoris  saw  rapidly  approaching  the  Dcedalus  from  before  the 
beam,  scanning,  probably,  its  capabilities  as  a  resting-place  as  it 
paddled  its  long  stiff  body  past  the  ship.  In  doing  so  it  would  raise 
a  head  of  the  form  and  colour  described  and  delineated  by  Captain 
M'Quhas,  supported  on  a  neck  also  of  the  diameter  given,  the  thick 
neck  passing  into  an  inflexible  trunk,  the  longer  and  coarser  hair  on 
the  upper  part  of  which  would  give  rise  to  the  idea,  especially  if  the 
species  were  the  Phoca  leonina  explained  by  the  similes  above  cited. 
The  organs  of  locomotion  would  be  out  of  sight.  The  pectoral  fins 
being  set  very  low  down,  as  in  my  sketch,  the  chief  impelling  force 
would  be  the  action  of  the  deeper  immersed  terminal  fins  and  tail, 
which  would  create  a  long  eddy  readily  mistakable  by  one  looking 
at  the  strange  phenomena,  with  a  sea  serpent  in  his  mind's  eye,  for 
an  indefinite  prolongation  of  the  body.  It  is  very  probable  that  not 
one  on  board  the  Dcedalus  ever  before  beheld  a  gigantic  seal  freely 
swimming  in  the  open  ocean.  Entering  unexpectedly  from  that  vast 
and  commonly  blank  waste  of  waters,  it  would  be  a  strange  and 
exciting  spectacle,  and  might  well  be  interpreted  as  a  marvel ;  but 
the  creative  power  of  the  human  mind  appears  to  be  really  very  limited, 
and  on  all  the  occasions  where  the  true  source  of  the  *  great  unknown  ' 
has  been  detected — whether  it  has  proved  to  be  a  file  of  sportive 
porpoises,  or  a  pair  of  gigantic  sharks — old  Pontoppidan's  sea  serpent 
with  the  mane  has  uniformly  suggested  itself  as  the  representative  of 
the  portent  until  the  mystery  has  been  unravelled. 

"  The  vertebras  of  the  sea-serpent  described  and  delineated  in  the 
'  Wernerian  Transactions,'  vol.  i.,  and  sworn  to  by  the  fishermen  who 
saw  it  off  the  Isle  of  Stronsa  (one  of  the  Orkneys)  in  1808,  two  of 
which  vertebrae  are  in  the  museum  of  the  College  of  Surgeons,  are 
certainly  those  of  a  great  shark  of  the  genus  Selache,  and  are  not 
distinguishable  from  those  of  the  species  called  basking-shark,  of 
which  individuals  from  thirty  feet  to  thirty-five  feet  in  length  have 
been  from  time  to  time  captured  or  stranded  on  our  coasts. 

"  I  have  no  unmeet  confidence  in  the  exactitude  of  my  interpretation 
of  the  phenomena  witnessed  by  the  captain  and  others  of  the  Dadalus. 


412  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

I  am  too  sensible  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  characters  which  the 
opportunity  of  a  rapidly  passing  animal  *  in  a  long  ocean  swell '  enabled 
them  to  note  for  the  determination  of  its  species  or  genus.  Giving 
due  credence  to  the  most  probably  accurate  elements  of  their  descrip- 
tion, they  do  little  more  than  guide  the  zoologist  to  the  class  which 
in  the  present  instance  is  not  that  of  the  serpent  or  the  saurian  ;  but 
I  am  usually  asked  after  each  endeavour  to  explain  Captain  M'Quhse's 
sea  serpent, '  Why  should  there  not  be  a  great  sea  serpent  ? ' — often, 
too,  in  a  tone  which  seems  to  imply, '  Do  you  think,  then,  there  are  no 
more  marvels  in  the  deep  than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy  ? ' 
And,  freely  conceding  that  point,  I  have  felt  bound  to  give  a  reason 
for  scepticism  as  well  as  faith.  If  a  gigantic  sea  serpent  actually 
exists,  the  species  must  of  course  have  been  perpetuated  through  suc- 
cessive generations,  from  its  first  creation  and  introduction  into  the 
seas  of  this  planet.  Conceive,  then,  the  number  of  individuals  that 
must  have  lived  and  died,  and  have  left  their  remains  to  attest  the 
actuality  of  the  species  during  the  enormous  lapse  of  time  from  its 
beginning  to  the  6th  of  August  last.  Now  a  serpent,  being  an  air- 
breathing  animal,  with  long  vesicular  and  receptacular  lungs,  dives 
with  an  effort,  and  commonly  floats  when  dead  ;  and  so  would  the 
sea  serpent  until  decomposition  or  accident  had  opened  the  tough 
integuments,  and  let  out  the  imprisoned  gases.  Then  it  would  sink, 
and,  if  in  deep  water,  be  seen  no  more  until  the  sea  rendered  up  its 
dead,  after  the  lapse  of  the  aeons  requisite  for  the  yielding  of  its  place 
to  dry  land— a  change  which  has  actually  revealed  to  the  present 
generation  the  old  saurian  monsters  that  were  entombed  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ocean,  of  the  secondary  geological  periods  of  our  earth's  history. 
During  life,  the  exigencies  of  the  respiration  of  the  great  sea  serpent 
would  always  compel  him  frequently  to  the  surface  ;  and,  when  dead 
and  swollen, 

1  Prone  on  the  flood,  extended  long  and  large,' 
he  would 

'  Lie  floating  many  a  rood  :  in  bulk  as  huge, 
As  whom  the  fables  name  of  monstrous  size 
Titanian  or  earth-born  that  warred  on  Jove.' 

Such  a  spectacle,  demonstrative  of  the  species  if  it  existed,  has  not 
hitherto  met  the  gaze  of  any  of  the  countless  voyagers  who  have 
traversed  the  seas  in  so  many  directions.  Considering,  too,  the  tides 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  413 

and  currents  of  the  ocean,  it  seems  still  more  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  dead  sea  serpent  would  be  occasionally  cast  ashore.  How- 
ever, I  do  not  ask  for  the  entire  carcass.  The  structure  of  the  back- 
bone of  the  serpent  tribe  is  so  peculiar,  that  a  single  vertebra  would 
be  sufficient  to  determine  the  existence  of  the  hypothetical  ophidian  ; 
and  this  will  not  be  deemed  an  unreasonable  request,  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  vertebras  are  more  numerous  in  serpents  than 
in  any  other  animals.  Such  large  blanched  and  scattered  bones  on 
any  sea-shore  would  be  likely  to  attract  even  common  curiosity,  yet 
there  is  no  vertebra  of  a  serpent  larger  than  the  ordinary  pythons  and 
boas  in  any  museum  in  Europe.  Few  sea-coasts  have  been  more 
sedulously  searched,  or  by  more  acute  naturalists  (witness  the  labours 
of  Sars  and  Loven),  than  those  of  Norway.  Krakens  and  sea  serpents 
ought  to  have  been  living  and  dying  thereabouts  from  long  before 
Pontoppidan's  time  to  our  day,  if  all  tales  were  true,  yet  they  have 
never  vouchsafed  a  single  fragment  of  the  skeleton  to  any  Scandinavian 
collector,  whilst  the  great  denizens  of  those  seas  have  been  by  no 
means  so  chary.  No  museums,  in  fact,  are  so  rich  in  skeletons, 
skulls,  bones,  and  teeth  of  the  numerous  kinds  of  whales,  cachalots, 
grampuses,  walruses,  sea-unicorns,  seals,  &c.,  as  those  of  Denmark, 
Norway,  and  Sweden,  but  of  any  large  marine  nondescript  or  in- 
determinable monster  they  cannot  show  a  trace. 

"  I  have  inquired  repeatedly  whether  the  natural  history  collections 
of  Boston,  Philadelphia,  or  other  cities  of  the  United  States,  might 
possess  any  unusually  large  ophidian  vertebrae,  or  any  of  such  peculiar 
form  as  to  indicate  some  large  and  unknown  marine  animal ;  but  they 
have  received  no  such  specimens. 

"  The  frequency  with  which  the  sea  serpent  has  been  supposed  to 
have  appeared  near  the  shores  and  harbours  of  the  United  States  has 
led  to  its  being  specified  as  the  '  American  sea  serpent,'  yet,  out  of  the 
two  hundred  vertebrae  of  every  individual  that  should  have  lived  and 
died  in  the  Atlantic  since  the  creation  of  the  species,  not  one  has  yet 
been  picked  up  on  the  shores  of  America.  The  diminutive  snake,  less 
than  a  yard  in  length,  killed  upon  the  sea-shore,  *  apparently  beaten  to 
death '  by  some  labouring  people  of  Cape  Ann,  United  States  (see  the 
8vo.  pamphlet,  1817,  Boston,  p.  38),  and  figured  in  the  Illustrated 
London  News,  October  the  28th,  1848,  from  the  original  American 
memoir,  by  no  means  satisfied  the  conditions  of  the  problem.  Neither 
does  the  Saccopharynx  of  Mitchell,  nor  the  Ophiognathus  of  Harwood 
— the  one  four  and  a  half  feet,  the  other  six  feet  long.  Both  are  sur- 
passed by  some  of  the  congers  of  our  own  coast,  and,  like  other 


414  SEA   MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 

murocnoid  fishes,  and  the  known  sea-snake  (Hydrophis),  swims  by 
undulatory  movements  of  the  body.  .  .  . 

"  The  fossil  skull  and  vertebras  which  were  exhibited  by  Mr.  Koch 
in  New  York  and  Boston  as  those  of  the  great  sea  serpent,  and  which 
are  now  in  Berlin,  belonged  to  different  individuals  of  a  species  which 
I  had  previously  proved  to  be  an  extinct  whale,  a  determination  which 
has  subsequently  been  confirmed  by  Professors  Miiller  and  Agassiz. 
Mr.  Dixon,  of  Worthing,  has  discovered  many  fossil  vertebrae  in  the 
Eocene  tertiary  clay  at  Bracklesham,  which  belong  to  a  large  species 
of  an  extinct  genus  of  serpent  (Palceophis],  founded  on  similar  vertebras 
from  the  same  formation  in  the  Isle  of  Sheppy.  The  largest  of  these 
ancient  British  snakes  was  twenty  feet  in  length,  but  there  is  no 
evidence  that  they  were  marine.  The  sea-saurians  of  the  secondary 
periods  of  geology  have  been  replaced  in  the  tertiary  and  actual  seas 
by  marine  mammals.  No  remains  of  Cetacea  have  been  found  in  lias 
or  oolite,  and  no  remains  of  Plesiosaur,  or  Ichthyosaur,  or  any  other 
secondary  reptile,  have  been  found  in  Eocene  or  later  tertiary  deposits, 
or  recent,  on  the  actual  sea-shores  ;  and  that  the  old  air-breathing 
saurians  floated  when  they  died  has  been  shown  in  the  '  Geological 
Transactions'  (vol.  v.,  Second  Series,  p.  512).  The  inference  that 
may  reasonably  be  drawn  from  no  recent  carcass  or  fragment  of  such 
having  ever  been  discovered  is  strengthened  by  the  corresponding 
absence  of  any  trace  of  their  remains  in  the  tertiary  beds. 

"  Now,  on  weighing  the  question  whether  creatures  meriting  the 
name  of  '  great  sea  serpent '  do  exist,  or  whether  any  of  the  gigantic 
marine  saurians  of  the  secondary  deposits  may  have  continued  to  live 
up  to  the  present  time,  it  seems  to  me  less  probable  that  no  part  of  the 
carcass  of  such  reptiles  should  have  ever  been  discovered  in  a  recent 
or  unfossilized  state,  than  that  men  should  have  been  deceived  by  a 
cursory  view  of  a  partly  submerged  and  rapidly  moving  animal,  which 
might  only  be  strange  to  themselves.  In  other  words,  I  regard  the 
negative  evidence  from  the  utter  absence  of  any  of  the  recent  remains 
of  great  sea  serpents,  krakens,  or  Enaliosauria,  as  stronger  against 
their  actual  existence  than  the  positive  statements  which  have  hitherto 
weighed  with  the  public  mind  in  favour  of  their  existence.  A  larger 
body  of  evidence  from  eye-witnesses  might  be  got  together  in  proof  of 
ghosts  than  of  the  sea  serpent." 

The  reasoning  of  the  most  eminent  of  living  physiolo- 
gists of  course  had  its  influence  on  those  who  could  best 
appreciate  it ;  but,  as  it  went  against  the  current  of  popular 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.          415 

opinion,  it  met  with  little  favour  from  the  public,  and  has 
been  slurred  over  much  too  superciliously  by  some  sub- 
sequent writers.  It  was  generally  felt,  however,  that, 
although  the  head  of  the  animal,  as  shown  in  the  enlarged 
drawing,  was  wonderfully  seal-like,  Professor  Owen's  sug- 
gested explanation,  that  it  might  have  been  a  great  seal, 
such  as  the  leonine  seal,  or  the  sea-elephant,  was  unsatis- 
factory and  untenable. 

Captain    M'Quhse's    reply   was    promptly   given    in    the 
Times  of  the  2ist  of  November,  1848,  as  follows  : — 

"  Professor  Owen  correctly  states  that  I  evidently  saw  a  large 
creature  moving  rapidly  through  the  water  very  different  from  anything 
I  had  before  witnessed,  neither  a  whale,  a  grampus,  a  great  shark,  an 
alligator,  nor  any  of  the  larger  surface-swimming  creatures  fallen  in 
with  in  ordinary  voyages.  I  now  assert — neither  was  it  a  common  seal 
nor  a  sea-elephant,  its  great  length  and  its  totally  differing  physio- 
gnomy precluding  the  possibility  of  its  being  a  *  Phoca  '  of  any  species. 
The  head  was  flat,  and  not  a  '  capacious  vaulted  cranium  ; '  nor  had  it 
a  stiff,  inflexible  trunk — a  conclusion  at  which  Professor  Owen  has 
jumped,  most  certainly  not  justified  by  the  simple  statement,  that  no 
portion  of  the  sixty  feet  seen  by  us  was  used  in  propelling  it  through 
the  water  either  by  vertical  or  horizontal  undulation. 

"It  is  also  assumed  that  the  '  calculation  of  its  length  was  made 
under  a  strong  preconception  of  the  nature  of  the  beast ; '  another  con- 
clusion quite  contrary  to  the  fact.  It  was  not  until  after  the  great 
length  was  developed  by  its  nearest  approach  to  the  ship,  and  until 
after  that  most  important  point  had  been  duly  considered  and  debated, 
as  well  as  such  could  be  in  the  brief  space  of  time  allowed  for  so  doing, 
that  it  was  pronounced  to  be  a  serpent  by  all  who  saw  it,  and  who  are 
too  well  accustomed  to  judge  of  lengths  and  breadths  of  objects  in  the 
sea  to  mistake  a  real  substance  and  an  actual  living  body,  coolly  and 
dispassionately  contemplated,  at  so  short  a  distance,  too,  for  the  '  eddy 
caused  by  the  action  of  the  deeper  immersed  fins  and  tail  of  a  rapidly 
moving  gigantic  seal  raising  its  head  above  the  surface  of  the  water,'  as 
Professor  Owen  imagines,  in  quest  of  its  lost  iceberg. 

"  The  creative  powers  of  the  human  mind  may  be  very  limited. 
On  this  occasion  they  were  not  called  into  requisition  ;  my  purpose 
and  desire  throughout  being  to  furnish  eminent  naturalists,  such  as  the 


416  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

learned  Professor,  with  accurate  facts,  and  not  with  exaggerated 
representations,  nor  with  what  could  by  any  possibility  proceed  from 
optical  illusion  ;  and  I  beg  to  assure  him  that  old  Pontoppidan  having 
clothed  his  sea  serpent  with  a  mane  could  not  have  suggested  the  idea 
of  ornamenting  the  creature  seen  from  the  Dcsdalus  with  a  similar 
appendage,  for  the  simple  reason  that  I  had  never  seen  his  account,  or 
even  heard  of  his  sea  serpent,  until  my  arrival  in  London.  Some  other 
solution  must  therefore  be  found  for  the  very  remarkable  coincidence 
between  us  in  that  particular,  in  order  to  unravel  the  mystery. 

"  Finally,  I  deny  the  existence  of  excitement  or  the  possibility  of 
optical  illusion.  I  adhere  to  the  statements,  as  to  form,  colour,  and 
dimensions,  contained  in  my  official  report  to  the  Admiralty,  and  I 
leave  them  as  data  whereupon  the  learned  and  scientific  may  exercise 
the  '  pleasures  of  imagination  '  until  some  more  fortunate  opportunity 
shall  occur  of  making  a  closer  acquaintance  with  the  '  great  unknown  ' 
— in  the  present  instance  most  assuredly  no  ghost. 

"  P.  M'QUH^E,  late  Captain  of  H.M.S.  Dadalus. 

Of  course  neither  Professor  Owen,  nor  any  one  else, 
doubted  the  veracity  or  bona  fides  of  the  captain  and 
officers  of  one  of  Her  Majesty's  ships  ;  and  their  testimony 
was  the  more  important  because  it  was  that  of  men  accus- 
tomed to  the  sights  of  the  sea.  Their  practised  eyes  would, 
probably,  be  able  to  detect  the  true  character  of  anything 
met  With  afloat,  even  if  only  partially  seen,  as  intuitively  as 
the  Red  Indian  reads  the  signs  of  the  forest  or  the  trail ; 
and  therefore  they  were  not  likely  to  be  deceived  by  any  of 
the  objects  with  which  sailors  are  familiar.  They  would 
not  be  deluded  by  seals,  porpoises,  trunks  of  trees,  or 
Brobdingnagian  stems  of  algae  ;  but  there  was  one  animal 
with  which  they  were  not  familiar,  of  the  existence  of 
which  they  were  unaware,  and  which,  as  I  have  said,  at 
that  date  was  generally  believed  to  be  as  unreal  as  the  sea 
serpent  itself— namely,  the  great  calamary,  the  elongated 
form  of  which  has  certainly  in  some  other  instances  been 
mistaken  for  that  of  a  sea-snake.  One  of  these  seen 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.         417 

swimming  in  the  manner  I  have  described,  and  endeavoured 
to  portray  (p.  402),  would  fulfil  the  description  given  by 
Lieutenant  Drummond,  and  would  in  a  great  measure 
account  for  the  appearances  reported  by  Captain  M'Quhae. 
"  The  head  long,  pointed  and  flat  on  the  top"  accords  with 
the  pointed  extremity  and  caudal  fin  of  the  squid.  "  Head 
kept  horizontal  with  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  in  rather  a 
raised  position,  disappearing  occasionally  beneath  a  wave  for 
a  very  brief  interval,  and  not  apparently  for  purposes  of 
respiration"  A  perfect  description  of  the  position  and 
action  of  a  squid  swimming.  "  No  portion  of  it  perceptibly 
used  in  propelling  it  through  the  water,  either  by  vertical  or 
horizontal  undulations?  The  mode  of  propulsion  of  a 
squid — the  outpouring  stream  of  water  from  its  locomotor 
tube — would  be  unseen  and  unsuspected,  because  sub- 
merged. Its  effect,  the  swirl  in  its  wake,  would  suggest  a 
prolongation  of  the  creature's  body.  The  numerous  arms 
trailing  astern  at  the  surface  of  the  water  would  give  the 
appearance  of  a  mane.  I  think  it  not  impossible  that  if 
the  officers  of  the  Dcedalus  had  been  acquainted  with  this 
great  sea-creature  the  impression  on  their  mind's  eye  would 
not  have  taken  the  form  of  a  serpent.  I  offer  this,  with 
much  diffidence,  as  a  suggestion  arising  from  recent  dis- 
coveries ;  and  by  no  means  insist  on  its  acceptance ;  for 
Captain  M'Quhae,  who  had  a  very  close  view  of  the  animal, 
distinctly  says  that  "  the  head  was,  without  any  doubt,  that 
of  a  serpent,"  and  one  of  his  officers  subsequently  declared 
that  the  eye,  the  mouth,  the  nostril,  the  colour,  and  the 
form  were  all  most  distinctly  visible. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  the  Bombay  Times, 
and  dated  "  Kamptee,  January  3rd,  1849,"  Mr.  R.  Davidson, 
Superintending  Surgeon,  Nagpore  Subsidiary  Force,  de- 
scribes a  great  sea  animal  seen  by  him  whilst  on  board 

VOL.  III. — H.  2    E 


4i8  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

the  ship  Royal  Saxon,  on  a  voyage  to  India,  in  1829.  The 
features  of  this  incident  are  consistent  with  his  having  seen 
one  of  the,  then  unknown,  great  calamaries. 

Dr.  Scott,  of  Exeter,  sent  to  the  Editor  of  the  Zoologist 
(p.  2459),  an  extract  from  the  memorandum-book  of  Lieu- 
tenant Sandford,  R.N.,  written  about  the  year  1820,  when 
he  was  in  command  of  the  merchant  ship  Lady  Combermere. 
In  it  he  mentions  his  having  met  with,  in  lat.  46,  long.  3 
(Bay  of  Biscay),  an  animal  unknown  to  him,  an  immense 
body  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  spouting,  not  unlike  the 
blowing  of  a  whale,  and  the  raising  up  of  a  triangular  ex- 
tremity, and  subsequently  of  a  head  and  neck  erected  six 
feet  above  the  surface  of  the  water.  This  was  evidently  a 
great  squid  seen  under  circumstances  similar  to  those 
described  by  Hans  Egede  (p.  393). 

In  the  Sun  Newspaper  of  July  9th,  1849,  was  published 
the  following  statement  of  Captain  Herriman,  of  the  ship 
Brazilian : 


"  On  the  morning  of  the  24th  February,  the  ship  being  becalmed  in 
lat.  26°  S.,  long.  8°  E.  (about  forty  miles  from  the  place  where  Captain 
M'Quhae  is  said  to  have  seen  the  serpent),  the  captain  perceived  some- 
thing right  astern,  stretched  along  the  water  to  a  length  of  twenty-five 
or  thirty  feet,  and  perceptibly  moving  from  the  ship,  with  a  steady 
sinuous  motion.  The  head,  which  seemed  to  be  lifted  several  feet 
above  the  water,  had  something  resembling  a  mane  running  down  to  the 
floating  portion,  and  within  about  six  feet  of  the  tail.  Of  course  Captain 
Herriman,  Mr.  Long,  his  chief  officer,  and  the  passengers  who  saw 
this,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  must  be  the  sea-serpent.  As  the 
Brazilian  was  making  no  headway,  to  bring  all  doubts  to  an  issue,  the 
captain  had  a  boat  lowered,  and  himself  standing  in  the  bow,  armed 
with  a  harpoon,  approached  the  monster.  It  was  found  to  be  an 
immense  piece  of  sea-weed,  drifting  with  the  current,  which  sets  con- 
stantly to  the  westward  in  this  latitude,  and  which,  with  the  swell 
left  by  the  subsidence  of  a  previous  gale,  gave  it  the  sinuous  snake- 
like  motion." 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  419 

Captain  Harrington,  of  the  ship  Castilian,  reported  in 
the  Times  of  February  5th,  1858,  that : 

"  On  the  1 2th  of  December,  1857,  N.E.  end  of  St.  Helena  distant 
ten  miles,  he  and  his  officers  were  startled  by  the  sight  of  a  huge 
marine  animal  which  reared  its  head  out  of  the  water  within  twenty 
yards  of  the  ship.  The  head  was  shaped  like  a  long  nun-buoy,*  and 
they  supposed  it  to  have  been  seven  or  eight  feet  in  diameter  in  the 
largest  part,  with  a  kind  of  scroll  or  tuft  of  loose  skin,  encircling  it 
about  two  feet  from  the  top.  The  water  was  discoloured  for  several 
hundred  feet  from  its  head,  so  much  so  that  on  its  first  appearance  my 
impression  was  that  the  ship  was  in  broken  water." 

Evidently,  again,  a  large  calamary  raising  its  caudal 
extremity  and  fin  above  the  surface,  and  discolouring  the 
water  by  discharging  its  ink. 

This  was  immediately  followed  by  a  letter  from  Captain 
Frederick  Smith,  of  the  ship  Pekin,  who  stated  that : 

"On  December  28th,  1848,  being  then  in  lat.  26°  S.,  long.  6° 
E.  (about  half-way  between  the  Cape  and  St.  Helena),  he  saw  a  very 
extraordinary -looking  thing  in  the  water,  of  considerable  length.  With 
the  telescope,  he  could  plainly  discern  a  huge  head  and  neck,  covered 
with  a  shaggy -looking  kind  of  mane,  which  it  kept  lifting  at  intervals 
out  of  water.  This  was  seen  by  all  hands,  and  was  declared  to  be  the 
great  sea  serpent.  A  boat  was  lowered ;  a  line  was  made  fast  to  the 
"  snake,'  and  it  was  towed  alongside  and  hoisted  on  board.  It  was  a 
piece  of  gigantic  sea-weed,  twenty  feet  long,  and  completely  covered 
with  snaky-looking  barnacles.  So  like  a  huge  living  monster  did  this 
appear,  that  had  circumstances  prevented  my  sending  a  boat  to  it,  I 
should  certainly  have  believed  I  had  seen  the  great  sea  serpent." 

In  September,  1872,  Mr.  Frank  Buckland  published,  in 
Land  and  Water,  an  account  by  the  late  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough,  of  a  "  sea  serpent "  having  been  seen  several  times 
within  a  few  days,  in  Loch  Hourn,  Scotland.  A  sketch  of 
it  was  given  which  almost  exactly  accorded  with  that  of 
*  See  illustration,  p.  393. 

2  E  2 


420  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

Pontoppidan's  sea-serpent,  namely,  seven  hunches  or  protu- 
berances like  so  many  porpoises  swimming  in  line,  preceded 
by  a  head  and  neck  raised  slightly  out  of  water.  Many  other 
accounts  have  been  published  of  the  appearance  of  serpent- 
like  sea  monsters,  but  I  have  only  space  for  two  or  three 
more  of  the  most  remarkable  of  them. 

On  the  10th  of  January,  1877,  the  following  affidavit  was 
made  before  Mr.  Raffles,  magistrate,  at  Liverpool : 

"  We,  the  undersigned  officers  and  crew  of  the  barque  Pauline  (of 
London),  of  Liverpool,  in  the  county  of  Lancaster,  in  the  United  King- 
dom of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  do  solemnly  and  sincerely  declare 
that,  on  July  8,  1875,  in  lat.  5°  13'  S.,  long.  35°  W.,  we  observed  three 
large  sperm  whales,  and  one  of  them  was  gripped  round  the  body  with 
two  turns  of  what  appeared  to  be  a  huge  serpent.  The  head  and  tail 
appeared  to  have  a  length  beyond  the  coils  of  about  thirty  feet,  and  its 
girth  eight  feet  or  nine  feet.  The  serpent  whirled  its  victim  round  and 
round  for  about  fifteen  minutes,  and  then  suddenly  dragged  the  whale 
to  the  bottom,  head  first. 

"GEO.  DREVAR,  Master  ;  HORATIO  THOMPSON,  JOHN  HEN- 
DERSON LANDELLS,  OWEN  BAKER,  and  WILLIAM 
LEWARN. 

"Again,  on  July  13,  a  similar  serpent  was  seen,  about  two  hundred 
yards  off,  shooting  itself  along  the  surface,  head  and  neck  being  out  of 
the  water  several  feet.  This  was  seen  only  by  the  captain  and  one 
ordinary  seaman. 

"  GEORGE  DREVAR,  Master. 

"  A  few  moments  after  it  was  seen  some  60  feet  elevated  perpendicu- 
larly in  the  air  by  the  chief  officer  and  the  following  seaman  :— Horatio 
Thompson,  Owen  Baker,  Wm.  Lewarn.  And  we  make  this  solemn 
declaration,  conscientiously  believing  the  same  to  be  true." 

In  the  Illustrated  London  News,  of  November  2Oth,  1875, 
there  had  previously  appeared  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  E.  L. 
Penny,  Chaplain  to  H.M.S.  London,  at  Zanzibar,  describing 
this  occurrence  and  also  the  representation  of  a  sketch 
(which  I  am  kindly  permitted  to  reproduce  here),  drawn  by 


THE  GREA  T  SEA  SERPENT. 


421 


422  SEA  MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

him  from  the  descriptions  given  by  the  captain  and  crew 
of  the  Pauline.  "The  whale,"  he  said,  "should  have  been 
placed  deeper  in  the  water,  but  he  would  then  have  been 
unable  to  depict  so  clearly  the  manner  in  which  the  animal 
was  attacked."  He  adds  that,  "  Captain  Drevar  is  a  singularly 
able  and  observant  man,  and  those  of  the  crew  and  officers 
with  whom  he  conversed  were  singularly  intelligent ;  nor  did 
any  of  their  descriptions  vary  from  one  another  in  the  least : 
there  were  no  discrepancies."  The  event  took  place  whilst 
their  vessel  was  on  her  way  from  Shields  to  Zanzibar,  with 
a  cargo  of  coals,  for  the  use  of  H.M.S.  London,  then  the 
guardship  on  that  station. 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt  for  a  moment  the  genuineness 
of  the  statement  made  by  Captain  Drevar  and  his  crew,  or 
their  honest  desire  to  describe  faithfully  that  which  they 
believed  they  had  seen  ;  but  the  height  to  which  the  snake  is 
said  to  have  upreared  itself  is  evidently  greatly  exaggerated  ; 
for  it  is  impossible  that  any  serpent  could  "  elevate  its  body 
some  sixty  feet  perpendicularly  in  the  air" — ^nearly  one- 
third  of  the  height  of  the  Monument  of  the  Great  Fire  of 
London.  I  have  no  desire  to  force  this  narrative  of  the 
master  and  crew  of  the  Pauline  into  conformity  with  any 
preconceived  idea.  They  may  have  seen  a  veritable  sea 
serpent ;  or,  as  has  been  suggested,  they  may  have  wit- 
nessed the  amours  of  two  whales,  and  have  seen  the  great 
creatures  rolling  over  and  over  that  they  might  breathe 
alternately  by  the  blow-hole  of  each  coming  to  the  surface 
of  the  water  ;  or  more  probably,  the  supposed  coils  of  the 
snake  may  have  been  the  arms  of  a  great  calamary,  cast 
over  and  around  the  huge  cetacean.  The  other  two  appear- 
ances— ist,  the  animal  seen  shooting  itself  along  the  surface 
with  head  and  neck  raised  "  (p.  402),  and  second,  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  body  to  a  considerable  height,  as  in  Egede's  sea 


THE   GREA  T  SEA  SERPENT.  423 

monster,  (p.  393), — would  certainly  accord  with  this  last 
hypothesis.  Captain  Drevar,  however,  adheres  firmly  to 
his  original  theory,  and  in  a  communication  which  I  have 
recently  received  from  him  he  writes  : — 

"  You  may  rely  upon  my  report  as  strictly  true,  and  in  no  way 
exaggerated.  I  called  the  second  officer  out  of  his  bed  to  witness  the 
conflict,  and  he  remarked  at  the  time  that  had  the  occurrence  been 
further  off  he  would  have  concluded  that  it  was  a  sword-fish  and  a 
thrasher  fighting  a  whale,  which  he  thought  he  saw  on  his  first  voyage 
to  sea.  Several  shipmasters  told  me  that  they  had  seen  the  same  con- 
flict near  the  locality  that  I  saw  it,  but  had  not  been  close  enough  to 
see  the  coils  ;  they  thought  it  was  two  separate  fish  fighting  the  whale, 
but  were  satisfied  that  it  might  have  been  the  head  and  tail  portion  of 
a  huge  serpent  about  the  whale." 

On  the  28th  of  January,  1879,  a  "  sea  serpent "  was  seen 
from  the  s.s.  City  of  Baltimore  (Fig.  22,  next  page),  in  the 
Gulf  of  Aden,  by  Major  H.  W.  J.  Senior,  of  the  Bengal 
Staff  Corps  The  narrator  "  observed  a  long,  black  object 
darting  rapidly  in  and  out  of  the  water,  and  advancing 
nearer  to  the  vessel.  The  shape  of  the  head  was  not  unlike 
pictures  of  the  dragon  he  had  often  seen,  with  a  bull-dog 
expression  of  the  forehead  and  eyebrows.  When  the 
monster  had  drawn  its  head  sufficiently  out  of  the  water, 
it  let  its  body  drop,  as  it  were  a  log  of  wood,  prior  to 
darting  forward  under  the  water.  This  motion  caused  a 
splash  of  about  fifteen  feet  in  length  on  either  side  of  the 
neck  much  in  the  '  shape  of  a  pair  of  wings.' "  This  last 
particular  of  its  appearance,  as  well  as  its  movements, 
suggest  a  great  calamary ;  but,  as  one  with  "  a  bull-dog 
expression  of  eyebrow,  visible  at  500  yards  distance,"  does 
not  come  within  my  ken,  I  will  not  claim  it  as  such. 

In  June  1877  Commander  Pearson  reported  to  the 
Admiralty,  that  on  the  2nd  of  that  month,  he  and  other 
officers  of  the  Royal  Yacht  Osborne,  had  seen,  off  Cape 


424 


SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 


Vito,  Sicily,  a  large  marine  animal,  of  which  the  following 
account  and  sketches  were  furnished  by  Lieutenant  Haynes, 


FIG.   22.— THE   "  SEA  SERPENT  "   AS   SEEN    FROM   THE  '  CITY   OF 
BALTIMORE.' 

and  were  confirmed  by  Commander  Pearson,  Mr.  Douglas 
Haynes,  Mr.  Forsyth,  and  Mr.  Moore,  engineer. 

Lieutenant  Haynes,  writes,  under  date,  "  Royal  Yacht 
Osborne,  Gibraltar,  June  6  :" 

"  On  the  evening  of  that  day,  the  sea  being  perfectly  smooth,  my 
attention  was  first  called  by  seeing  a  ridge  of  fins  above  the  surface 
of  the  water,  extending  about  thirty  feet,  and  varying  from  five  to  six 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT. 


425 


feet  in  height.     On  inspecting  it  by  means  of  a  telescope,  at  about 
one  and  a-half  cables'  distance,  I  distinctly  saw  a  head,  two  flappers 


FIG.  23. — THE  "SEA  SERPENT"  AS  SEEN  FROM  H.M.  YACHT  Oslorne. 

PHASE    I. 

and  about  thirty  feet  of  an  animal's  shoulder.     The  head,  as  nearly  as 
I  could  judge,  was  about  six  feet  thick,  the  neck  narrower,  about  four 


FIG.  24. — THE  "SEA  SERPENT"  AS  SEEN  FROM  H.M.  YACHT  Osborne. 

PHASE   2. 

to  five  feet,  the  shoulder  about  fifteen  feet  across,  and  the  flappers 
each  about  fifteen  feet  in  length.      The  movements  of  the  flappers 


426  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

were  those  of  a  turtle,  and  the  animal  resembled  a  huge  seal,  the 
resemblance  being  strongest  about  the  back  of  the  head.  I  could  not 
see  the  length  of  the  head,  but  from  its  crown  or  top  to  just  below  the 
shoulder  (where  it  became  immersed),  I  should  reckon  about  fifty  feet. 
The  tail  end  I  did  not  see,  being  under  water,  unless  the  ridge  of  fins 
to  which  my  attention  was  first  attracted,  and  which  had  disappeared 
by  the  time  I  got  a  telescope,  were  really  the  continuation  of  the 
shoulder  to  the  end  of  the  object's  body.  The  animal's  head  was 
not  always  above  water,  but  was  thrown  upwards,  remaining  above^ 
for  a  few  seconds  at  a  time,  and  then  disappearing.  There  was  an 
entire  absence  of  '  blowing,'  or  '  spouting.'  I  herewith  beg  to  enclose 
a  rough  sketch,  showing  the  view  of  the  '  ridge  of  fins,'  and  also  of  the 
animal  in  the  act  of  propelling  itself  by  its  two  fins." 

From  this  description,  and  the  drawings  by  which  it  was 
accompannied,  it  seemed  impossible  to  identify  the  appear- 
ance with  that  of  any  one  animal  yet  known.  The  ridge  of 
dorsal  fins  might,  possibly,  as  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Frank 
Buckland,  belong  to  four  basking  sharks,  swimming  in  line, 
in  close  order ;  but  the  combination  of  them  with  long 
flippers,  and  the  turtle-like  mode  of  swimming,  formed  a 
zoological  enigma  which,  when  the  first  edition  of  this  book 
was  written,  I  was  unable  to  solve.  Soon  after  its  publica- 
tion, however,  I  received  from  an  officer  of  H.M.S.  Monarch 
a  communication  which  throws  light  on  this  incident,  and, 
I  have  no  doubt,  furnishes  the  true  explanation  of  it.  He 
wrote  as  follows  : — 

"  H.M.S.  Monarch  sailed  from  Gibraltar  for  Spithead  on  the  6th  of 
June,  1877,  and  whilst  steaming  slowly  along  the  Portuguese  coast 
those  on  board  witnessed  a  very  unusual  spectacle,  namely,  a  number 
of  (from  ten  to  twelve)  enormous  fishes,  apparently  whales,  swimming 
on  the  surface  of  the  calm  summer  sea,  generally  in  single  file  and  close 
order,  marching  and  counter-marching  with  the  utmost  regularity,  but, 
now  and  then,  breaking  into  disorder  and  confusion.  The 'explanation 
which  occurred  to  me  was  that  they  were  '  black-fish,'  or  whales  of 
some  other  species,  swimming  in  the  track  of,  and  in  pursuit  of,  a 
single  female  of  the  same  kind.  Little  was  thought  of  this  occurrence, 
and  it  would  doubtless  soon  have  been  forgotten,  but  that  on  arriving 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  427 

at  Portsmouth  a  week  later  we  were  much  astonished  and  amused  by 
seeing  in  the  Times  a  sensational  description  of  the  sea  serpent  as  seen 
by  the  officers  of  the  Royal  yacht  Osborne  at  the  same  place  only  a  few 
hours  before  we  passed  it.  The  conclusion  is  obvious." 

We  have  only  to  place  somewhat  further  apart  the  eleven 
tips  of  the  fins  shown  in  a  row  in  Fig.  23,  to  transform  the 
picture  into  a  fairly  correct  representation  of  the  dorsal 
fins  of  so  many  whales  swimming  in  line,  as  seen  from  the 
Monarch.  Allowing  for  similar  inaccuracy  of  drawing  in 
Fig.  24,  the  probability  of  this  is  borne  out  by  the  appear- 
ance therein  depicted,  as  well  as  by  the  known  habits  of 
some  of  the  smaller  whales.  (See  p.  388.) 

I  know,  from  my  own  experience,  how  easily  one  may 
be  deceived  by  the  movements  of  some  of  these  smaller 
whales,  and  by  the  appearance  of  a  "  ridge  of  dorsal  fins," 
as  seen  from  the  Royal  yacht  Osborne.  No  one  has  been 
more  positive,  more  sincere,  or  more  mistaken  than  myself 
in  his  belief  that  he  has  seen  a  sea  serpent.  The  circum- 
stances attending  the  occurrence  referred  to  were  described 
by  me  in  a  letter  which  I  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  the 
Brighton  Gazette,  whilst  the  spectacle  of  the  supposed  sea 
monster  was  fresh  in  my  mind.  It  was  dated  February  16, 
1857,  and  was  signed  "  A  Brighton  Visitor."  I  here  append 
a  copy  of  it  with  all  its  faults  : — 

"  I  have  to  tell  you  that  which  many,  perhaps  most,  of  your  readers 
may  be  disposed  to  treat  with  ridicule  ;  but  I  pledge  my  word  that  the 
following  statement  is  strictly  true.  A  sea  serpent  passed  Brighton 
this  morning  at  about  twenty  minutes  past  eight.  I  was  walking  along 
the  beach  below  the  terrace  at  Kemp  Town,  and  as  I  approached  the 
bathing  machines  which  stand  there  (the  last  towards  Rottingdean) 
some  boys  who  were  playing  about  called  out  '  A  sea-snake  !  A  sea- 
snake  ! '  Supposing  that  they  had  probably  found  an  eel  upon  the 
beach,  I  walked  on,  and  took  no  notice,  but  as  their  continued  exclama- 
tions evinced  considerable  excitement,  I  was  induced  to  look  in  the 
direction  to  which  they  pointed.  Coming  from  the  westward,  and 


428  SEA   MONSTERS    UNMASKED. 

about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  shore,  I  saw  what  I  at  first  thought 
was  a  very  long  galley,  very  low  in  the  water ;  but  as  it  came  towards 
and  passed  in  front  of  us  I  saw  it  was  that  which  the  boys  had  pro- 
nounced it  to  be — a  veritable  sea  monster.  It  was  swimming  on  the 
surface,  against  the  tide,  at  the  rate  of  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  miles 
an  hour,  and  had  exactly  the  appearance  represented  in  one  of  the 
illustrated  newspapers  a  few  months  since.  I  should  say  that  about  forty 
or  fifty  feet  of  it  was  visible,  and  I  counted  seven  dorsal  fins,  if  such  they 
were,  standing  up  from  its  back.  It  continued  in  view  for  six  or  seven 
minutes,  and  by  the  end  of  that  time  had  got  so  far  on  its  course  to  the 
eastward  that  the  eye  could  no  longer  follow  it.  A  small  boat  was 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  outside  of  it,  and  those  on  board  may  have 
seen  it  also,  for  I  observed  that  shortly  after  it  had  passed  the  boat's 
head  was  turned  towards  the  shore.  I  hope  that  although  it  was  rather 
early  in  the  morning  my  account  of  it  may  be  confirmed  ;  but  whether 
it  be  or  not,  the  fact  remains  the  same.  There  was  no  possibility  of 
mistake.  The  sun  was  shining  brilliantly,  the  sea  was  smooth,  and  the 
creature  was,  as  I  have  before  said,  not  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  beach.  I  took  the  address  of  the  boy  who  first  saw  it,  which 
with  my  card  I  enclose  ;  but  I  decline  to  allow  my  name  to  be  pub- 
lished, for  if  the  assertions  of  the  officers  and  crew  of  one  of  Her 
Majesty's  frigates  were  considered  unworthy  of  credit,  or  at  any  rate 
explained  away,  I  can  hardly  expect  that  mine  will  meet  with  greater 
respect." 

The  above  description,  written  twenty-seven  years  ago, 
conveys  clearly  enough  the  impression  made  upon  my  mind 
at  the  time,  but  it  is  characterised  by  an  unwise  impetuosity 
of  assertion,  and  an  unwarranted  assurance  of  infallibility. 
I  hope  that,  with  greater  experience,  I  should  write  with 
less  positiveness  and  more  caution  now.  For,  by  the  irony 
of  fate,  I,  who  was  so  indignant  by  anticipation  at  the  very 
thought  of  a  suggestion  of  inaccuracy,  or  of  the  reasonable- 
ness of  explanation,  have  had  to  condemn  my  own  observa- 
tion as  erroneous,  and  to  perceive  that  others,  with  equal 
sincerity  of  intention,  may  have  been  similarly  mistaken. 
"  No  possibility  of  mistake,"  forsooth  !  I  now  know  that 
the  erect  dorsal  fins  that  I  saw  belonged  to  "  long-nosed 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT.  429 

porpoises,"  or  dolphins,  and,  by  their  shape  and  height,  am 
able  to  recognise  their  owners  as  having  been  of  the  species 
Delphinus  delphis.  My  sea  serpent  was  composed  of  seven 
of  these  cetaceans  swimming  in  line,  and,  as  is  their  wont, 
maintaining  their  relative  positions  so  accurately  that  all 
the  fins  appeared  to  belong  to  one  animal.* 

Another  curious  sea  serpent  incident  has  been  described 
since  the  first  edition  of  this  book  was  published.  The 
Times  of  October  17,  1883,  contained  the  following  letter 
from  the  Rev.  E.  Highton,  Vicar  of  Bude,  Cornwall : — 

"  Yesterday  afternoon,  about  4.30,  a  remarkable  sight  was  seen  from 
Summerleaze,  an  open  down  at  Bude,  overlooking  the  sea.  I  saw  a 
long,  low,  dark  object,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  shore,  skimming 
along  the  surface  of  the  sea,  the  back  of  the  creature  being  a  little 
above  the  top  of  the  water.  It  kept  on  its  course  at  a  rate  which  I 
calculated  to  be  about  twenty-five  miles  an  hour,  never  once  disappear- 
ing entirely  the  whole  time  it  was  in  sight.  It  was  watched  by  several 
friends  who  were  with  me  and  myself  for  about  ten  minutes,  and  by  that 
time  it  had  passed  over  a  considerable  space  of  water,  between  four 
and  five  miles,  I  should  think.  The  creature's  length  was  variously 
guessed  by  us  to  be  from  fifty  feet  to  eighty  feet.  Just  once  a  larger 
mass  appeared  out  of  the  water  than  at  any  other  time,  and  then  not 
for  more  than  a  couple  of  seconds.  This  was  at  the  end,  apparently, 
of  the  creature,  but  it  scarcely  looked  like  a  tail.  It  seemed  more  like 
a  curl  in  some  long,  thin  monster.  Can  any  of  your  scientific  readers 
suggest  what  it  was  ?  Would  a  whale  swim  for  several  miles  in  such  a 
regular  even  course  ?  One  scarcely  likes  to  suggest  a  sea  serpent ;  but 
if  these  creatures  are  really  in  existence,  that  would  be  the  best  solution 
of  the  question. 

"  October  I2th,  1883.  "  E.  HlGHTON,  Vicar  of  Bude." 

Mr.  Highton's  description  of  the  object  seen  was  so  clear 
and  unvarnished,  and  his  freedom  from  preconceived  notions 
as  to  its  nature  was  so  evident,  that  his  communication 
deservedly  attracted  attention.  In  response  to  his  invita- 

*  I  was  unable  to  record  this  incident  in  the  first  edition  of  this 
treatise,  as  I  had  temporarily  mislaid  my  memorandum  concerning  it. 


430  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

tion  of  suggestions,  I  wrote  to  him  on  the  subject,  and  the 
following  is  a  portion  of  his  courteous  and  unprejudiced 
reply  :— 

"  My  impression  is  that  the  head  did  not  resemble  the  cuttle  figured  on 
p.  78  of  your  *  Sea  Monsters  Unmasked '  [see  p.  402  of  this  volume], 
whether  the  fins  were  horizontal  or  vertical.  Of  course,  it  may  have 
been  one,  for  I  cannot  pretend  to  say  what  it  was.  My  first  idea,  when 
I  first  caught  sight  of  it,  was  that  it  was  a  long  boat,  without  any  man  in 
it.  Then  it  seemed  to  be  lower  in  the  water  as  it  came  nearer,  and  it 
looked  like  a  very  large  log  of  wood  floating  on  the  sea.  I  soon  saw,  from 
the  rate  it  was  going,  that  it  could  not  be  that.  When  it  came  nearer  to 
us,  some  dark  mass  towards  the  end  of  it  slowly  heaved  up  out  of  the 
water  and  went  down  again  as  slowly.  It  continued  on  its  course  quite 
steadily,  and  without  once  disappearing.  Its  rate  of  gliding  through  the 
water  was  a  very  noticeable  feature.  It  reminded  me  of  a  rat  swimming 
over  a  pond,  in  its  apparently  noiseless,  gliding  motion.  And  I  hear  from 
Newquay  that  some  masons  at  work  near  the  shore  say  it  made  them 
think  of  a  huge  rat.  It  is  singular  that  the  same  impression  struck 
them  and  myself.  I  had  mentioned  it  to  friends  before  I  heard  their 
view.  A  correspondent  writing  from  Newquay  (a  distance  of  at  least 
forty  miles  from  Bude)  speaks  of  it  as  appearing  like  a  huge  conger, 
and  going  at  a  great  rate.  It  must  have  done  so,  for  it  was  very  little 
more  than  an  hour  in  going  from  Bude  to  Newquay.  It  is  rather 
strange  that  it  kept  so  near  the  coast  for  so  long  a  distance,  for  you 
will  observe  if  you  look  at  the  map  that  it  had  to  pass  a  decidedly  pro- 
jecting point,  Trevose  Head,  and  thus  turn  south.  Would  this  be  more 
like  the  movements  of  a  cuttle  ?  I  should  certainly  say  that  the  two 
most  noticeable  things  about  it  were  the  thinness  of  the  part  which 
appeared  above  the  water  (it  may  have  been  two  feet  in  diameter),  and 
the  great  rate  at  which  it  was  travelling  without  any  apparent  commo- 
tion in  the  water.  I  had  no  glass,  unfortunately,  with  me.  I  wish  I 
could  give  you  more  definite  information.  But  I  thank  you  very  much 
for  your  desire  to  throw  light  on  the  object  we  saw,  which  has  certainly 
caused  a  considerable  amount  of  excitement  here." 

Amongst  the  comments  in  the  newspapers  on  Mr. 
Highton's  report  was  a  letter  in  the  Times  of  the  2Oth  of 
October,  from  Admiral  Gore-Jones,  who  wrote : 

"  In  reference  to  a  letter  which  appeared  yesterday  in  the  Times 
headed  <  The  Sea  Serpent  once  more,'  perhaps  the  following  story  will 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT. 

throw  some  light  on  what  the  Rev.  Mr.  Highton  saw,  and  on  sea 
serpents  in  general  : — In  1848  I  was  attached  to  H.M.S.  St.  Vincent, 
bearing  the  flag  of  Sir  Charles  Napier,  and  lying  at  Spithead.  One 
summer  evening,  about  six  o'clock,  just  as  the  officers  were  sitting  down 
to  dinner,  the  midshipman  of  the  watch  ran  into  the  wardroom  and 
reported  that  a  sea  serpent  was  passing  rapidly  between  the  ship  and 
the  Isle  of  Wight  (this  was  after  the  reported  appearance  of  the 
Dcedalus  sea  serpent).  We  all  got  our  glasses  and  went  on  deck,  and 
there,  sure  enough,  about  a  mile  off,  was  a  large  monster,  with  a  head 
and  shaggy  mane,  about  100  feet  long,  and  tapering  towards  the  tail ; 
it  was  going  with  the  tide,  and  had  a  rapid,  undulating  motion.  Two 
or  three  boats  were  manned,  and  some  officers  got  their  guns  and  went 
in  pursuit.  We  watched  them  from  the  ship  ;  they  gradually  got  close, 
and  guns  were  raised  and  levelled  at  the  creature's  head  ;  but  just  as 
we  thought  the  sport  was  about  to  begin,  down  went  the  guns,  and 
from  their  gestures  we  saw  something  very  laughable  had  occurred. 
On  their  return  we  found  that  the  supposed  serpent  was  a  long  line  of 
soot.  Some  steamer  in  the  Southampton  Waters  had  evidently  swept 
her  dirty  flues,  and  the  soot  from  tubes  or  flues  is  always  of  a  very  sticky 
nature,  and  as  it  was  pitched  overboard  it  went  away  with  the  tide, 
sticking  together,  and  gradually  forming  into  the  shape  of  a  long 
serpent,  the  wave  motion  giving  it  an  undulating  life-like  appearance. 
In  this  case,  if  the  boats  had  not  gone  we  should  have  all  believed  we 
had  seen  the  real  sea  serpent;  and  this  'arrangement  in  soot'  is 
evidently  what  Mr.  Highton  saw.  The  curl  he  describes  towards  the 
tail  end  arose  from  an  occasional  wave  having  a  little  more  than 
ordinary  velocity,  and  carrying  its  dusky  crest  for  a  moment  along  with 
it,  while  a  strong  tide  and  fair  wind  would  give  considerable  velocity. 
My  story  will,  I  think,  supply  a  raison  d'etre,  not  only  for  Mr.  Highton's 
sea  serpent,  but  probably  for  the  whole  brood. 

"  W.  GORE-JONES,  Vice-Admiral." 

The  foregoing  anecdote  is  interesting  and  very  instructive, 
as  showing  how  easily  even  the  observant  and  practised 
eyes  of  naval  officers  and  sailors  may  be  deceived  as  to  the 
identity  of  objects  seen  at  sea ;  but  it  certainly  does  not 
account  for  "  the  whole  brood  "  of  supposed  sea  serpents  in 
general,  nor  Mr.  Highton's  in  particular.  The  soot  from  a 
steamer's  flues,  and  her  cinders  shot  overboard,  leave  a  long 


432  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

line  in  her  wake,  but  not  one  that  will  swim  from  twenty- 
five  to  forty  miles  in  an  hour,  and  present  the  same  appear- 
ance after  travelling  that  distance. 

Amongst  the  known  living  objects  of  the  sea  met  with 
near  our  coasts  I  can  only  suggest  three,  the  appearance  of 
which  at  a  little  distance  would  accord  with  that  witnessed 
by  Mr.  Highton,  viz.,  a  great  calamary  ;  one  of  the  whales, 
or  a  flight  of  ducks.  It  might  have  been  either  of  these  ; 
but  I  will  not  presume  to  say  that  it  was  one  of  them. 
Possibly,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Osborne,  explanatory  in- 
formation concerning  this  incident  may  some  day  be 
given. 

This  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  question  :  "  Is  it  then 
so  impossible  that  there  may  exist  some  great  sea  creature, 
or  creatures,  with  which  zoologists  are  hitherto  unacquainted, 
that  it  is  necessary  in  every  case  to  regard  the  authors  of 
such  narratives  as  wilfully  untruthful,  or  mistaken  in  their 
observations,  if  their  descriptions  are  irreconcileable  with 
something  already  known  ?  "  I,  for  one,  am  of  the  opinion 
that  there  is  no  such  impossibility.  Calamaries  or  squids 
of  the  ordinary  size  have,  from  time  immemorial,  been 
amongst  the  commonest  and  best  known  of  marine 
animals  in  many  seas  ;  but  only  a  few  years  ago  any  one 
who  expressed  his  belief  in  one  formidable  enough  to  cap- 
size a  boat,  or  pull  a  man  out  of  one,  was  derided  for  his 
credulity,  although  voyagers  had  constantly  reported  that 
in  the  Indian  seas  they  were  so  dreaded  that  the  natives 
always  carried  hatchets  with  them  in  their  canoes,  with 
which  to  cut  off  the  arms  or  tentacles  of  these  creatures,  if 
attacked  by  them.  We  now  know  that  their  existence  is 
no  fiction  ;  for  individuals  have  been  captured  measuring 
more  than  fifty  feet,  and  some  are  reported  to  have 
measured  eighty  feet,  in  total  length.  As  marine  snakes 


THE  GREAT  SEA   SERPENT.  433 

some  feet  in  length,  and  having  fin-like  tails  adapted  for 
swimming,  abound  over  an  extensive  geographical  range, 
and  are  frequently  met  with  far  at  sea,  I  cannot  regard  it 
as  impossible  that  some  of  these  also  may  attain  to  an 
abnormal  and  colossal  development.  Dr.  Andrew  Wilson, 
who  has  given  much  attention  to  this  subject,  is  of  the 
opinion  that  "  in  this  huge  development  of  ordinary  forms 
we  discover  the  true  and  natural  law  of  the  production  of 
the  giant  serpent  of  the  sea.  It  goes  far,  at  any  rate, 
towards  accounting  for  its  supposed  appearance.  I  am 
convinced,  however,  that,  whilst  naturalists  have  been 
searching  amongst  the  vertebrata  for  a  solution  of  the 
problem,  the  great  unknown,  and  therefore  unrecognized 
calamaries  by  their  elongated,  cylindrical  bodies  and 
peculiar  mode  of  swimming,  have  played  the  part  of  the 
sea  serpent  in  many  a  well-authenticated  incident.  In  other 
cases,  such  as  some  of  those  mentioned  by  Pontoppidan, 
the  supposed  "  vertical  undulations  "  of  the  snake  seen  out 
of  water  have  been  the  burly  bodies  of  so  many  porpoises 
swimming  in  line — the  connecting  undulations  beneath  the 
surface  have  been  supplied  by  the  imagination.  The  dorsal 
fins  of  basking  sharks,  as  figured  by  Mr.  Buckland,  or  of 
ribbon-fishes,  as  suggested  by  Dr.  Andrew  Wilson  to 
account  for  the  appearance  seen  from  the  Osborne,  may 
have  furnished  a  "  ridge  of  fins ; "  an  enormous  conger  is 
not  an  impossibility ;  a  giant  turtle  may  have  done  duty, 
with  its  propelling  flippers  and  broad  back  ;  or  a  marine 
snake  of  enormous  size  may,  really,  have  been  seen.  But 
if  we  accept  as  accurate  the  observations  recorded  (which  I 
certainly  do  not  in  all  cases,  for  they  are  full  of  errors  and 
mistakes),  the  difficulty  is  not  entirely  met,  even  by  this 
last  admission,  for  the  instances  are  very  few  in  which  a 
ophidian  proper — a  true  serpent — is  indicated.  There  has 

VOL.  III. — H.  2   F 


434  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

seemed  to  some  writers  on  this  subject  to  be  wanting  an 
animal  having  a  long  snake-like  neck,  a  small  head  and 
a  slender  body,  and  propelling  itself  by  paddles.* 

The  similarity  of  such  an  animal  to  the  Plesiosaurus  of 
old  was  remarkable.  That  curious  compound  reptile,  which 
has  been  compared  with  "a  snake  threaded  through  the 
body  of  a  turtle,  is  described  by  Dean  Buckland,  in  his 
Bridgewater  Treatise,  as  having  "  the  head  of  a  lizard,  the 
teeth  of  a  crocodile,  a  neck  of  enormous  length  resembling 
the  body  of  a  serpent,  the  ribs  of  a  chameleon,  and  the 
paddles  of  a  whale."  In  the  number  of  its  cervical  vertebrae 
(about  thirty-three)  it  surpassed  that  of  the  longest-necked 
bird,  the  swan. 

The  form  and  probable  movements  of  this  ancient  saurian 
agree  so  markedly  with  some  of  the  accounts  given  of  the 
'  great  sea  serpent,"  that  Mr.  Edward  Newman  advanced 
the  opinion  that  the  closest  affinities  of  the  latter  would  be 
found  to  be  with  the  Enaliosauria,  or  marine  lizards,  whose 
fossil  remains  are  so  abundant  in  the  oolite  and  the  lias. 
This  view  has  also  been  taken  by  other  writers,  and  empha- 
tically by  Mr.  Gosse.  Neither  he  nor  Mr.  Newman  insist 
that  the  "  great  unknown  "  must  be  the  Plesiosaurus  itself. 
Mr.  Gosse  says,  "  I  should  not  look  for  any  species,  scarcely 
even  any  genus,  to  be  perpetuated  from  the  oolitic  period 
to  the  present.  Admitting  the  actual  continuation  of  the 
order  Enaliosauria,  it  would  be,  I  think,  quite  in  conformity 

*  It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  in  almost  every  case,  except  that 
of  the  Osborne,  the  paddles  were  supposed,  not  seen,  and  were  invented 
to  account  for  an  animal  of  great  length  progressing  at  the  surface  of 
the  water  at  the  rate  of  twelve  to  fifteen  miles  an  hour  without  its  being 
possible  to  perceive,  upon  the  closest  and  most  attentive  inspection, 
any  undulatory  movement  to  which  its  rapid  advance  could  be  ascribed. 
As  the  great  calamaries  were  unknown,  their  mode  of  swift  retrograde 
motion,  by  means  of  an  outflowing  current  of  water,  was  of  course 
unsuspected. 


THE  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT. 


435 


with   general   analogy  to    find   some    salient    features   of 
several  extinct  forms." 

The  form  and  habits  of  the  recently- 
recognized  gigantic  cuttles  account  for 
so  many  appearances  which,  without 
knowledge  of  them,  were  inexplicable 
when   Mr.    Gosse   and   Mr.  Newman 
wrote,  that  I  think  this  theory  is  not 
now  forced  upon  us.     Mr.  Gosse  well 
and  clearly  sums  up  the  evidence  as 
follows  :     "  Carefully   comparing    the 
independent     narratives    of    English 
witnesses    of    known    character    and 
position,  most  of  them  being  officers 
under  the  Crown,  we  have  a  creature 
possessing    the    following    character- 
istics:    1st.   The   general   form   of   a 
serpent.    2nd.  Great  length,  say  above 
sixty  feet.     3rd.  Head  considered  to 
resemble  that  of  a  serpent.    4th.  Neck 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  inches  in  dia- 
meter.   5th.  Appendages  on  the  head, 
neck,  or  back,  resembling  a  crest  or 
mane.     (Considerable  discrepancy  in 
details.)     6th.  Colour  dark  brown,  or 
green  streaked  or  spotted  with  white. 
7th.  Swims  at   surface   of  the  water 
with  a  rapid  or  slow  movement,  the 
head  and  neck  projected  and  elevated 
above  the  surface.     8th.  Progression, 
steady  and  uniform  ;  the  body  straight, 
but  capable  of  being  thrown  into  convolutions.    9th.  Spouts 
in  the  manner  of  a  whale.     loth.  Like  a  long  nun-buoy." 

2  F  2 


FIG.  25. 


436  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

He  concludes  with  the  question— "To  which  of  the  re- 
cognized classes  of  created  beings  can  this  huge  rover  of 
the  ocean  be  referred  ?  " 

I  reply  :  "  To  the  Cephalopoda."  There  is  not  one  of 
the  above  judiciously  summarized  characteristics  that  is 
not  supplied  by  the  great  calamary,  and  its  ascertained 
habits  and  peculiar  mode  of  locomotion. 

Only  a  geologist  can  fully  appreciate  how  enormously  the 
balance  of  probability  is  contrary  to  the  supposition  that 
any  of  the  gigantic  marine  saurians  of  the  secondary 
deposits  should  have  continued  to  live  up  to  the  present  time. 
And  yet  I  am  bound  to  say,  that  this  does  not  amount 
to  an  absolute  impossibility,  for  the  evidence  against  it  is 
entirely  negative.  Nor  is  the  conjecture  that  there  may  be 
in  existence  some  congeners  of  these  great  reptiles  entirely 
inconsistent  with  zoological  science.  Dr.  J.  E.  Gray,  late  of 
the  British  Museum,  a  strict  zoologist,  is  cited  by  Mr.  Gosse 
as  having  long  ago  expressed  his  opinion  that  some  un- 
described  form  exists  which  is  intermediate  between  the 
tortoises  and  the  serpents.* 

Professor  Agassiz,  too,  is  adduced  by  a  correspondent  of 
the  Zoologist  (p.  2395),  as  having  said  concerning  the  present 
existence  of  the  Enaliosaurian  type  that  "  it  would  be  in 
precise  conformity  with  analogy  that  such  an  animal  should 


*  Dr.  Gray  wrote  in  his  '  Synopsis  of  Genera  of  Reptiles,'  in  the 
Annals  of  Philosophy,  1825  :  "There  is  every  reason  to  believe  from 
general  structure  that  there  exists  an  affinity  between  the  tortoises  and 
the  snakes  ;  but  the  genus  that  exactly  unites  them  is  at  present 
unknown  to  European  naturalists  ;  which  is  not  astonishing  when  we 
consider  the  immense  number  of  undescribed  animals  which  are  daily 
occurring.  If  I  may  be  allowed  to  speculate  from  the  peculiarities  of 
structure  which  I  have  observed,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  union 
will  most  probably  take  place  by  some  newly  discovered  genera 
allied  to  the  marine  or  fluviatile  soft-skinned  turtles  and  the  marine 
serpent." 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT. 


437 


£ 


P       H 


X.    § 

o  3 

o     3 


438  SEA  MONSTERS  UNMASKED. 

exist  in  the  American  Seas,  as  he  had  found  numerous 
instances  in  which  the  fossil  forms  of  the  Old  World  were 
represented  by  living  types  in  the  New." 

On  this  point,  Mr.  Newman  records,  in  the  Zoologist 
(p.  2356),  an  actual  testimony  which  he  considers,  "in  all 
respects,  the  most  interesting  natural-history  fact  of  the 
present  century."  He  writes : 

"  Captain  the  Hon.  George  Hope  states  that  when  in  H.M.S.  Fly, 
in  the  Gulf  of  California,  the  sea  being  perfectly  calm  and  transparent, 
he  saw  at  the  bottom  a  large  marine  animal  with  the  head  and  general 
figure  of  the  alligator,  except  that  the  neck  was  much  longer,  and  that 
instead  of  legs  the  creature  had  four  large  flappers,  somewhat  like 
those  of  turtles,  the  anterior  pair  being  larger  than  the  posterior  ;  the 
creature  was  distinctly  visible,  and  all  its  movements  could  be  observed 
with  ease  ;  it  appeared  to  be  pursuing  its  prey  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea ; 
its  movements  were  somewhat  serpentine,  and  an  appearance  of 
annulations,  or  ring-like  divisions  of  the  body,  was  distinctly  percep- 
tible. Captain  Hope  made  this  relation  in  company,  and  as  a  matter 
of  conversation.  When  I  heard  it  from  the  gentleman  to  whom  it  was 
narrated,  I  enquired  whether  Captain  Hope  was  acquainted  with  those 
remarkable  fossil  animals  Ichthyosauri  and  Plesiosauri,  the  supposed 
forms  of  which  so  nearly  correspond  with  what  he  describes  as  having 
seen  alive,  and  I  cannot  find  that  he  had  heard  of  them  ;  the  alligator 
being  the  only  animal  he  mentioned  as  bearing  a  partial  similarity  to 
the  creature  in  question." 

Unfortunately,  the  estimated  dimensions  of  this  creature 
are  not  given. 

That  negative  evidence  alone  is  an  unsafe  basis  for  argu- 
ment against  the  existence  of  unknown  animals,  the  follow- 
ing illustrations  will  show : 

During  the  deep-sea  dredgings  of  H.M.S.  Lightning, 
Porcupine,  and  Challenger,  many  new  species  of  mollusca, 
and  others  which  had  been  supposed  to  have  been  extinct 
ever  since  the  chalk  epoch,  were  brought  to  light ;  and  by 
the  deep-sea  trawlings  of  the  last-mentioned  ship,  there  have 


THE   GREAT  SEA   SERPENT.  439 

been  brought  up  from  great  depths  fishes  of  unknown 
species,  and  which  could  not  exist  near  the  surface,  owing 
to  the  distension  and  rupture  of  their  air-bladder  when 
removed  from  the  pressure  of  deep  water. 

Mr.  Gosse  mentions  that  the  ship  in  which  he  made  the 
voyage  to  Jamaica  was  surrounded  in  the  North  Atlantic, 
for  seventeen  continuous  hours  by  a  troop  of  whales  of 
large  size  of  an  undescribed  species,  which  on  no  other 
occasion  has  fallen  under  scientific  observation.  Unique 
specimens  of  other  cetaceans  are  also  recorded. 

We  have  evidence,  to  which  attention  has  been  directed 
by  Mr.  A.  D.  Bartlett,  that  "  even  on  land  there  exists  at 
least  one  of  the  largest  mammals,  probably  in  thousands, 
of  which  only  one  individual  has  been  brought  to  notice, 
namely,  the  hairy-eared,  two-horned  rhinoceros  (R.  lasiotis), 
now  in  the  Zoological  Gardens,  London.  It  was  captured 
in  1868,  at  Chittagong,  in  India,  where  for  years  collectors 
and  naturalists  have  worked  and  published  lists  of  the 
animals  met  with,  and  yet  no  knowledge  of  this  great  beast 
was  ever  before  obtained,  nor  is  there  any  portion  of  one  in 
any  museum.  It  remains  unique." 

I  arrive,  then,  at  the  following  conclusions :  1st.  That, 
without  straining  resemblances,  or  casting  a  doubt  upon 
narratives  not  proved  to  be  erroneous,  the  various  appear- 
ances of  the  supposed  "Great  Sea  Serpent"  may  now  be 
nearly  all  accounted  for  by  the  forms  and  habits  of  known 
animals  ;  especially  if  we  admit,  as  proposed  by  Dr.  Andrew 
Wilson,  that  some  of  them,  including  the  marine  snakes, 
may,  like  the  cuttles,  attain  to  an  extraordinary  size. 

2nd.  That  to  assume  that  naturalists  have  perfect  cogni- 
zance of  every  existing  marine  animal  of  large  size,  would 
be  quite  unwarrantable.  It  appears  to  me  more  than  pro- 
bable that  many  marine  animals,  unknown  to  science,  and 


440  SEA   MONSTERS   UNMASKED. 

some  of  them  of  gigantic  size,  may  have  their  ordinary 
habitat  in  the  great  depths  of  the  sea,  and  only  occasionally 
come  to  the  surface  ;  and  I  think  it  not  impossible  that 
amongst  them  may  be  marine  snakes  of  greater  dimensions 
than  we  are  aware  of,  and  even  a  creature  having  close 
affinities  with  the  old  sea-reptiles  whose  fossil  skeletons  tell 
of  their  magnitude  and  abundance  in  past  ages. 

It  is  most  desirable  that  every  supposed  appearance  of 
the  "Great  Sea  Serpent"  shall  be  faithfully  noted  and 
described  ;  and  I  hope  that  no  truthful  observer  will  be 
deterred  from  reporting  such  an  occurrence  by  fear  of  the 
disbelief  of  naturalists,  or  the  ridicule  of  witlings. 


PRACTICAL       LESSONS 


IN   THE 


GENTLE       CRAFT. 


BY 


J.  P.  WHEELDON, 

LATE  ANGLING   EDITOR   OF    '  BELL'S   LIFE.' 


VOL.     III.— II. 


CONTENTS. 


PACK 

INTRODUCTION  .                                                                 •  443 

ROACH  FISHING  .                                                                  •  446 

BARBEL  FISHING  .                                                                  •  4$4 

TROUT  FISHING  .                                                                  •  466 
PIKE  FISHING  : 

SPINNING  ...                         .                 .        •  477 

LIVE  BAITING          .  -481 

PERCH  FISHING  ...                                                 •  4^9 

CARP  FISHING  .                                                                   •  496 

CHUB  FISHING  .'..»...                .        .  501 

TENCH  FISHING  ....                                 .        .  508 

BREAM  FISHING •  512 

DACE  FISHING  Sl% 


PRACTICAL      LESSONS 

IN  THE 

GENTLE      CRAFT. 


I  HAVE  the  honour  to  submit  for  your  approbation  a  few 
remarks  based  principally  upon  practical  knowledge,  and 
having  reference  to  the  pursuit  of  angling  for  what  are 
commonly  called  "  the  coarse  fish  "  of  this  country. 

This  class  of  sport  is,  very  deservedly,  popular  in  the 
extreme,  and  day  by  day,  I  think,  grows  in  the  public 
estimation.  The  reason  for  such  popularity  is  not  difficult 
to  find,  inasmuch  as  in  great  towns,  such  as  London,  or 
indeed  in  any  manufacturing  centre,  the  man  who  either 
inherits  or  cultivates  a  taste  for  angling,  becomes  a  student 
in  a  charming  and  health-giving  pastime,  not  necessarily 
expensive  to  one  of  limited  monetary  resources,  yet  one 
which,  followed  out  faithfully  and  observantly,  is,  I  believe, 
the  invariable  means  of  developing  any  latent  disposition 
to  good.  Coarse  fish  angling  has  also  another  distinction 
of  its  own.  It  is  particularly  the  sport  of  the  poor  man. 
Salmon  fishing,  with  all  its  gloriously  moving  incidents  by 
"flood  and  field,"  is  a  branch  of  English  sport  nearly 
entirely  confined  to  the  wealthier  classes.  Trout  fishing 
is  almost,  if  not  quite  as  exclusive.  There  is  hardly  a  yard 


444    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

of  trout  water  within  hail  of  any  large  town  but  what  is  at 
once  monopolised,  either  by  its  owner,  or  by  some  one  who 
can  afford  to  pay  a  high  price  for  the  privilege  of  fishing  it. 
In  the  case  of  the  coarse  fisher  this  state  of  affairs  takes 
an  altogether  different  aspect;  because  the  very  poorest 
amongst  the  community  can,  if  he  so  pleases,  and  thanks 
to  that  binding  law  which  is  the  result  of  long-continued 
user,  hie  him  to  the  banks  of  such  noble  rivers  as  the 
Thames  and  the  Lea,  and  there  fish  to  his  heart's  con- 
tent. I  am  not  about  to  tell  you  that  he  is  certain  to 
obtain  sport  sufficient  to  repay  him  for  his  trouble  and 
possible  outlay.  That  is  a  question  in  these  modern  days, 
and  amidst  the  riot  and  hurly-burly  caused  by  those 
angler's  pests — steam  launches — and  the  greatly  increased 
traffic  of  the  river,  which  must  always  remain  merged  in 
obscurity,  until,  at  any  rate  the  close  of  the  day.  An  acute 
mind  will  naturally  reflect  that  the  same  ratio  of  reasoning 
applies  to  all  classes  of  fishing,  and  I  am  by  no  means 
prepared  to  gainsay  it.  In  the  Thames,  however,  such  a 
reflection  comes  home  with  tenfold  force,  and  it  only  shows 
how  keenly  the  love  of  angling  is  developed  in  the  bosoms 
of  many  men,  how  patient  and  long-suffering  fishermen  are, 
as  a  race,  and  how  content  with  the  hope  even  of  small 
mercies,  when  throughout  the  season  the  great  railway 
stations  are  crowded  every  week  with  whole  battalions  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  angling  army. 

It  is,  however,  at  the  London,  Brighton,  and  South  Coast 
Railway  Station,  and  that  at  Liverpool  Street,  on  the  Great 
Eastern  Line,  that  the  most  extraordinary  sight  in 
connection  with  the  coarse  fishermen  of  London  is  to 
be  seen  on  every  Sunday  morning. 

It  may  be  that  mention  of  the  selected  day  may  offend 
the  "  unco  guid  "  section  of  polite  society  ;  but  it  must  be 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    445 

remembered,  as  a  set-off,  that  nine  out  of  every  ten  of  the 
great  crowd  gathered  round  the  Booking-Office  window 
are  recruits  from  the  still  greater  host  of  workers  with  bone, 
muscle,  thew  and  sinew,  to  whom  loss  of  time  during  the 
working  hours  of  the  week  means  not  only  loss  of  bread, 
but  perhaps  the  loss  of  some  small  delicacy  to  a  sick  and 
ailing  child.  Thus  it  would  seem  particularly  hard  to 
attempt  restraint  upon  such  men  in  the  gratification  of 
their  simple  pleasures,  nor  is  it  by  any  means  certain  that 
they  do  not  imbibe  far  more  real  good  through  their  vigil 
by  the  river's  side,  than  if  they  had  donned  the  carefully  saved 
suit  of  go-to-meeting  broadcloth,  and  dozed  drowsily  and 
drouthily  over  a  drawling,  doctrinal  dissertation,  delivered 
by  a  divine  of  the  "  Stiggins "  type.  Rest  assured  if 
there  be  a  sick  baby,  the  little  one  is  rarely  forgotten,  and 
smoke-grimed  Daddy,  all  the  better  and  healthier  in  soul 
and  body  for  his  twelve  hours'  rest  from  the  roaring  forge, 
gathers  her  or  him,  as  the  case  may  be,  a  bonny  bundle  of 
wild  blossoms  which  he  takes  home  with  him  as  the  top- 
most layer  of  the  cargo  in  his  roach  basket. 

The  approaches  to  either  of  the  lungs  of  the  great  Wen 
which  I  have  spoken  of,  are  indeed  a  wonderful  sight. 
Gathered  there  are  pale-faced  weavers  from  Spitalfields,  with 
flexible  delicate  fingers,  cane-chair  workers,  with  hard  and 
horny  hands  ;  brawny,  swart  hammermen,  and  stout-limbed 
big-muscled  strikers,  both  of  them  probably  from  some 
neighbouring  foundry.  Then  there  are  dyers  and  curriers 
with  the  stain  of  their  calling  set  indelibly  on  their  skins, 
together  with  workers,  perhaps  from  a  white  lead  factory 
with  that  tallowy,  unhealthy  complexion  inseparable  from 
such  a  life  of  toil.  Amongst  these  there  are  a  few,  but  a 
very  few,  smartly  dressed  clerks  with  their  sweethearts, 
and  these  probably  eye  the  hundreds  of  fishermen  wonder- 


446    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

ingly  as  upon  an  introduction  to  a  strange  development  of 
human  nature.  Later  on,  this  latter  section  of  the  holiday 
throng  will  be  found  tea-drinking  in  shady  Broxbourne  ar- 
bours, or  watching  the  fisherman  with  a  curiously  developed 
interest  as  he  plys  his  delicate  tackle.  Look  round  carefully 
through  the  ranks  of  thronging  piscators,  and  any  one  may 
see  for  himself  that  they  are  all  anglers  of  one  stamp.  It  is 
curiously  strange,  but  none  the  less  strange  than  true,  that 
nine  out  of  every  ten  of  the  anglers  of  London  are  all 
wedded  to  the  pursuit  of  roach  fishing.  Every  man  there 
has  a  long  i8-ft  rod  in  its  jean  case,  and  with  this  is  tied  up 
the  handle  of  his  landing  net.  His  rod  is  invariably  slung 
across  his  shoulder,  and  dependent  from  the  butt,  and 
resting  on  his  broad  back  is  the  well-known  basket  or  box 
seat  without  which  the  true  roach  fisher  never  sets  out. 

It  may  perhaps  be  well  at  this  point  to  consider  why  it 
is  that  the  modern  rodster  is  apparently  attached  so  much 
to  this  particular  branch  of  the  sport.  The  answer  is,  that 
it  is  at  once  the  prettiest  and  most  skilful  branch  of 
angling  in  the  world,  as  well  as  that  which  is  most  easily 
attainable ;  and  to  see  such  men  at  work  on  the  Lea  as 
Hackett,  Bates,  Da  Costa,  or  my  old  friend  Tom  Hughes, 
whose  show  of  fish  at  this  exhibition  is  second  to  none, 
in  their  particular  style,  or  Theaker  or  Bailey  upon  the 
Trent,  is  to  see  one  branch  at  least  of  the  true  poetry  and 
craft  of  angling. 

It  will  be  impossible  within  the  limits  of  time  at  my 
command  to  enter  fully  into  all  the  mysterious  ramifications 
attaching  to  many  branches  of  the  silent  craft.  One  or 
two  of  them  however  I  must  touch  upon,  and  knowing  that 
roach-fishing  is  the  most  popular  of  all  branches,  I  venture 
to  deal  with  that  first. 

Now  at  the  outset  I  may  tell  you,  gentlemen,  who  may 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     447 

not,  possibly,  have  seen  roach  fishermen  at  work  on  the 
Lea,  something  about  the  manner  in  which  they  set  to  work. 
In  the  first  place,  I  think  it  might  be  well  to  consider  the 
rod,  which  is  usually  one  of  18  feet  in  length,  built  of  the 
very  best  white  Carolina  or  West  Indian  cane.  The  best  rods 
are  invariably  made  as  free  as  possible  from  burrs  and  knots, 
the  cane  being  specially  picked  for  their  manufacture.  Stiff- 
ness and  pliability  throughout  their  entire  length  is  one 
great  thing  which  is  always  looked  to,  and  yet  they  have 
an  immense  amount  of  give  and  take  in  the  very  fine,  yet 
short,  top  joint,  and  the  immediate  connecting  joint.  That 
is  a  very  essential  qualification  in  a  rod  devoted  to  the 
special  branch  of  angling  with  which  I  am  dealing. 
Previously,  I  think,  to  the  famous  match  between  Woodard, 
the  champion  of  London,  and  Bailey,  an  equally  great 
fisherman  on  the  Trent,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  real 
thorough  roach  rods  made  at  any  time,  or  at  any  rate  rods 
made  especially  for  roach-fishing,  and  specially  with  regard 
to  the  habits  of  the  fish.  They  were  simply  bamboo  bottom 
rods,  and  not  half  so  much  attention  was  given  to  their  manu- 
facture. But  upon  the  occasion  of  this  famous  match,  which 
excited  an  immense  amount  of  interest  at  the  time,  a  great 
impetus  was  given  to  that  particular  branch  of  the  craft, 
and  for  months  and  months  nothing  else  was  talked  about 
in  London  angling  circles  but  roach-fishing  and  fishermen. 
Directly  following  this  leading  affair,  match  followed  match 
amongst  lesser  luminaries  of  the  angling  world,  and  presently 
a  maker  named  Sowerbutts,  of  Commercial  Street,  brought  out 
a  first  class  rod  for  roach-fishing,  and  he  it  was  perhaps  who 
gained  an  enormous  reputation  as  being  the  first  man  who 
made  roach  rods  in  their  present  excellent  form  and  finish. 
There  is  no  doubt  he  studied  the  particular  play  and  style 
of  rod  necessary  for  this  kind  of  fishing.  Then  he  was 


448    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  TH£  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

followed,  and  imitated  also,  by  a  host  of  other  makers,  until 
in  the  present  day,  and  amongst  such  traders  as  Carter 
and  Sons  of  St.  John  Street  Road,  Alfred  of  Moorgate 
Street,  and  last,  but  not  least,  a  little  maker  I  have  known 
something  about  lately,  named  Gold,  of  Waterloo  Road,  and 
who  I  think  makes  as  good  a  class  of  rod  as  it  is  possible 
to  obtain  for  this  particular  branch  of  fishing,  there  is 
small  appreciable  difference  to  be  found  in  the  quality  of 
their  manufactured  goods.  Generally,  then,  a  rod  for  roach- 
fishing  should  be  lengthy  yet  full  of  equable  spring — 
tapered  beautifully  from  the  broad  butt,  built  of  the  very 
lightest  white  pine,  to  the  slender  cane  and  lance-wood  top, 
as  light  as  possible  in  the  hand,  with  no  superfluous  weight 
attached  in  the  shape  of  rings,  or  heavy  metal  fittings,  and 
altogether  a  perfect  weapon  suited  for  a  very  perfect 
branch  of  the  art  of  angling.  I  have  no  belief  in  general 
all-round  rods.  A  salmon  rod  should  be  a  salmon  rod  and 
nothing  else,  and  a  roach  rod  ought  to  be  equally  distinct. 

I  may  now,  perhaps,  properly  discuss  the  question  of 
roach  lines,  and  I  may  also  at  this  point  premise  that  a 
really  good  and  skilful  roach  fisherman  almost  invariably 
uses  tight  tackle.  He  seldom  or  never  condescends  to  the 
use  of  running  tackle,  save,  it  may  be,  by  operators  upon 
the  Trent.  There  has  been  a  considerable  controversy 
during  the  last  few  years  in  the  columns  of  the  '  Fishing 
Gazette,'  and  other  sporting  journals,  with  regard  to  the 
advantages  of  gut  over  hair.  For  my  own  part  I  never 
could  see  that  there  was  any  strikingly  great  advantage 
derived  from  the  use  of  hair  in  roach-fishing,  and  par- 
ticularly when  the  chances  were  that  one  was  likely  to  get 
hold  of  a  heavy  chub  or  barbel  in  the  same  swim — save  it 
might  be  from  the  sportsmanlike  desire  to  kill  one's  fish 
with  the  lightest  possible  tackle.  Therefore,  I  think  a 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    449 

nice  round  fine  gut  line  is  as  good  a  tackle  as  one  could 
possibly  use.  Roach-floats  are  invariably  made  from  either 
quill  or  reed,  and  they  are  selected  as  a  matter  of  course 
with  regard  to  the  depth  and  character  of  the  water  which 
it  is  intended  to  fish.  Nicely  shaped  wooden  floats  are 

favourites  also,  but,  carrying  little  shot,  they  are  only  suit- 

ij 
able  for  swims  of  medium  depth.     There  is  a  considerable 

amount  of  difference  in  the  manner  in  which  the  roach-float 
is  shotted,  as  against  other  floats  used  for  other  purposes. 
For  instance,  it  matters  very  little  if  the  perch  or  chub- 
float  wants  the  completing  shot  to  effect  its  perfect  balance, 
but  the  roach-float  cannot  possibly  be  shotted-  too  deeply 
down,  so  long  as  the  immediate  tip  of  the  float,  which  I 
may  explain  is  the  top  of  the  white  quill  and  the  cap, 
swims  steadily  and  nicely  over  the  surface  of  the  stream. 
That  is  the  very  best  character  that  a  roach-float  can 
possibly  assume.  It  should  be  shotted  down  to  the  point, 
when  three  or  four  shot  corns  more,  over  and  above  the 
weight  of  the  bait  itself,  would  assuredly  swamp  it. 

I  will  now  go  to  the  question  of  baits.  For  roach-fishing 
they  are  few  in  number  and  very  simple,  and  without 
touching  upon  the  question  of  pearl  barley,  wheat,  shrimps, 
wasp  grubs,  silk  weed,  or  any  other  of  the  many  various  baits 
which  kill  at  certain  times,  I  think  I  may  say  that  one  of 
the  best  kinds  of  bait  one  can  possibly  use,  is  a  paste 
made  of  stale  crumb  of  bread  just  moistened,  and  worked 
up  in  the  palm  of  a  cleanly  hand.  A  very  excellent  paste 
is  likewise  made  of  an  arrowroot  biscuit,  from  which  the 
outside  brown  crust  has  been  scraped  off,  until  the  inner 
and  white  interior  only  is  left.  Slightly  moistened  with 
fair  water,  this  biscuit  works  up  into  a  capital  white  paste, 
which  is  at  times  especially  killing.  Gentles,  again,  during 
the  winter  time,  are  a  capital  all-round  bait,  and  the  same 
VOL.  III. — H.  2  G 


450     PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

may  be  said  of  the  tail  of  a  lob  worm,  or  small  red  worm, 
either  in  summer  or  winter,  when  floods  have  caused  a  rise  in 
the  streams,  and  probably  a  course  of  coloured  waters. 
Ground  bait,  which  is  usually  a  very  expensive  matter  in 
various  other  methods  of  fishing,  is  in  roach-fishing  very 
simple  and  inexpensive.  The  roach-fisher  seldom  uses 
anything  but  a  stiff  paste  made  of  bread  and  bran.  He 
soaks  his  bread  over  night,  and  in  the  morning  squeezes 
the  surplus  water  away,  and  then  adds  to  it  a  quantity 
of  bran,  working  it  up  in  his  hands,  until  he  gets  a  stiff 
paste  as  tough  and  hard  as  putty.  He  baits  his  swim  with 
pieces  of  this  ground  bait  about  as  large  as  a  pigeon's  egg, 
or  a  good  sized  walnut.  That  is  quite  sufficient  for  the 
purpose  of  baiting  a  roach  swim.  On  the  Lea  they  have  a 
practice  which  I  have  found  wonderfully  good  at  times, 
when  roach  are  exceedingly  shy,  and  when  they  will  not 
take  a  bait  under  any  conditions,  and  that  is  this.  When 
these  experienced  operators  have  baited  their  hook  with  an 
ordinary  piece  of  paste  or  with  gentles,  they  take  a  little 
of  this  tough  ground  bait,  and  nip  it  immediately  over  the 
two  shots  which  are  usually  put  on  the  bottom  length  of 
hair  or  gut,  about  two  inches  above  the  hook.  When  the 
float  is  thrown  gently  up-stream,  the  extra  weight  causes 
it  to  sink,  but  the  rodster  lifts  it  carefully  along  until  it 
gradually  reaches  the  point  where  the  roach  are  supposed 
to  be  lying.  The  whole  way  it  comes  down  the  stream, 
this  little  bit  of  bread  and  bran  keeps  flaking  small  parti- 
cles off  along  its  downward  track-  This  is  especially 
attractive  to  roach,  and  practice  has  frequently  proved  that 
they  will  then  feed  a  great  deal  better  than  they  had  been 
doing  previously,  when  the  simple  bait  itself  had  been 
floated  time  after  time  down  the  swim.  Now,  the  roach  is 
a  particularly  quick  and  active  fish  in  its  habits.  It  follows 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    451 

the  bait  down,  and  I  believe  sucks  it  in  as  it  goes  down 
the  stream,  taking  hold  of  it  with  the  peculiarly  shaped 
prehensile  upper  lip.  That  upper  lip  of  the  roach  is  pre- 
cisely like  the  hood  of  a  perambulator.  I  believe  those  big, 
aldermanic  fellows,  sly  and  wary  as  courtiers,  cautiously  pro- 
trude their  upper  lip,  and,  hunger  getting  the  better  of  them, 
suck  the  bait  in.  But  the  instant  they  get  the  bait  into 
their  mouths,  and  they  detect  that  there  is  anything  foreign 
about  it,  that  instant  they  reject  it.  That  shows  the  im- 
portance of  the  float  being  shotted  down  until  the  very 
lowest  depth  of  its  floatability  has  been  secured.  You  see 
it  will  hardly  bear  one  corn  more  shot,  and  when  these 
artful  old  roach  follow  the  bait  down-stream,  when  they 
look  at  it  even,  to  stretch  one's  imagination  a  little,  much 
less  touch  it,  instantly  the  float  gives  way,  and  there  is  a 
little  sharp  dip.  Now,  the  good  roach-fisherman  is  mar- 
vellously quick  in  hooking  his  fish,  and  from  start  to  finish 
it  is  a  bit  of  finished  wrist-action  entirely.  He  fishes  with 
this  long  1 8-foot  rod — which  I  have  attempted  to  describe 
to  you — and  it  is  curious  and  beautiful  to  see  the  accuracy 
with  which  a  crack  roach-fisherman  will  hook  fish  after  fish 
with  merely  a  little  upward  jerk  of  the  wrist.  The  line  is 
very  short ;  indeed,  from  the  point  of  the  float  to  the  top 
of  the  rod,  it  is  usually  not  more  than  a  couple  of  feet  in 
length,  and  consequently,  this  short  length  being  kept  taut 
throughout  the  float's  downward  journey,  the  slightest 
upward  stroke  is  sufficient  to  hook  the  wariest  old  roach, 
so  long  as  it  is  done  at  the  proper  moment  of  time.  Miss 
that  moment,  and  one  might  just  as  well  not  strike  at  all. 

There  is  a  considerable  difference  between  the  various 
styles  adopted  upon  the  three  rivers,  viz.,  the  Lea,  the 
Thames,  and  the  Trent  That  upon  the  Trent  is  called 
"  stret  pegging  "  in  some  cases,  "  tight  corking  "  in  others, 

2  G  2 


452    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

and  is  always  founded  upon  the  midland  fisherman's 
excellent  theory  of  fine  and  far  off.  It  is  questionable, 
however,  whether  this  is  quite  so  good  as  the  Lea  style. 
Roach-fishing  on  the  Thames  at  any  rate  is  practised  from  a 
punt  by  fishing  with  a  long  light  line  and  a  short  rod.  The 
punt  angler  on  the  Thames  almost  invariably  uses  running 
tackle,  but  in  the  Lea  and  most  other  rivers  I  think  the 
best  anglers  use  that  class  of  tackle  which  experience 
tells  them  is  the  most  useful,  viz.,  a  long  rod  with  a  tight 
line,  and  that  I  am  well  assured  is  the  finest  and  most 
artistic  principle  of  roach-fishing. 

Now,  with  regard  to  the  rivers  in  which  roach  are  found. 
I  think  the  finest  roach  I  ever  saw  or  heard  of  came 
respectively  from  the  Avon  and  Stour,  one  being  a  Dorset- 
shire and  the  other  a  Hampshire  river.  The  Lea,  in  days 
gone  by,  was  also  a  famous  roach  stream,  although  in  later 
years  I  think  its  angling  capacities  have  not  been  quite  so 
good.  There  are  also  excellent  roach  in  the  Mole,  a 
beautifully  quaint  little  stream,  its  banks  teeming  with 
thoughtful  associations  with  the  works  of  dead  and  gone 
poets,  while  the  Colne  also  is  a  charmingly  productive 
stream  whose  fish  are  strikingly  handsome  specimens. 

One  word  now  upon  swims,  and  then  I  will  close  this 
branch  of  freshwater  fishing. 

It  is  likely  enough  to  strike  even  the  most  unreflective  mind, 
that  there  should  naturally  be  a  great  difference  between 
the  swims  selected  for  almost  any  class  of  fishing  during  the 
heats  of  summer,  and  those  picked  out  during  the  rigours  of 
the  winter  season.  Some  men  there  are,  however,  who  never 
learn.  Others,  who  do,  soon  gather  together  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  considerable  difference  in  the  style  of  water  which 
should  be  selected  by  rodsters  at  various  times  of  the  year. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  roach  are  ground-feeding  fish,  seldom 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    453 

or  never  taking  bait  except  on  the  bottom  of  the  river.  It 
does  not  follow,  however,  that  roach  in  the  great  heats  of 
the  summer  do  not  take  flies  and  insects  on  the  surface  of 
the  river,  because  they  will  do  so  beyond  all  question.  So 
will  they  also  take  baits  presented  at  mid-water,  or  off  the 
bottom,  at  times.  They  affect  two  different  classes  of  water 
during  the  summer  and  winter.  Some  of  the  best  roach 
swims  in  the  more  pleasant  portion  of  the  year  are  almost 
invariably  found  near  large  beds  of  weeds,  at  sharp  swims  at 
the  tails  of  mill  streams — not  too  sharp  for  the  travel  of  an 
ordinary  roach-float — or  where  the  water  runs  smartly  with- 
out too  much  stream  by  old  camp-shedding.  There  the  roach 
will  easily  be  found  during  the  summer  months.  It  is  very 
frequently  the  practice  during  those  months,  and  particularly 
during  great  heat  seasons,  when  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
catch  fish  on  the  bottom  of  the  river,  to  fish  for  them  by 
means  of  dipping  or  daping  with  the  live  natural  insect. 
Then  there  is  another  very  killing  method  called  blow-line 
fishing,  That  is  effected  in  this  way.  The  operator  is 
armed  with  a  long,  light,  pliable  rod,  to  which  is  attached  a 
line  somewhat  longer  than  the  rod  itself,  made  of  floss  silk. 
The  angler  has  his  back  to  the  wind,  and  having  found  out 
where  the  fish  are  lying  he  waits  for  a  breeze.  His  tackle 
consists  of  a  little  length  of  the  finest  possible  gut  at  the 
end  of  a  long  length  of  floss  silk.  To  the  gut  link  is 
attached  a  small  hook  which  he  baits  with  a  natural  grass- 
hopper or  blue-bottle  fly.  With  the  rod  held  aloft,  the  baited 
hook  in  the  left  hand,  he  waits  for  a  breeze.  Presently 
it  conies  and  bellies  the  floss  silk  line  out  in  a  long  grace- 
ful curve  which  blows  right  over  the  water.  He  watches 
his  opportunity  until  it  gets  directly  over  where  the  roach  are 
possibly  lying,  and  then,  drops  the  baited  hook  gently  as  a 
bit  of  thistle  down  on  the  surface.  That  is  a  very  killing 


454    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

method  of  taking  roach  when  they  will  not  by  any  means 
take  a  bait  at  the  bottom  of  the  river.  Regard  being  had 
to  the  best  time  of  the  year  for  roach-fishing,  the  autumn, 
and  better  still,  the  winter  months  occupy  the  post  of 
honour.  I  personally  have  had  some  of  the  very  finest  takes 
of  roach  in  the  winter  months  that  man  ever  had  in  this 
world,  and  I  remember  upon  one  occasion  when  fishing  in 
the  Hampshire  Avon  I  took  75  Ibs.  of  heavy  roach  in 
5  hours.  I  took  them  all  with  a  tight  line— not  running 
tackle— and  using  an  1 8-foot  rod  over  a  very  heavy  stream 
of  swirling  water.  I  had  some  of  the  finest  sport  you  can 
possibly  imagine.  There  is  no  time  better  in  the  world  than 
the  winter  time  for  roach-fishing.  On  a  sharp,  crisp  morning, 
when  the  trees  and  grass  are  frosted  all  over  with  hoar ; 
when  you  hear  the  robin's  notes  whistling  out  bright  and 
clear,  and  the  sooty  rook's  harsh  caw  sounds  less  strident, 
then  is  the  time  to  go  roach-fishing. 

I  do  not  say  the  fish  will  feed  very  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, but  when  the  sun  gets  up,  the  hoar  begins  to  melt, 
and  there  is  a  little  softness  in  the  ground,  then  the  fish 
begin  to  feed,  and  the  deeper  the  selected  swim  consistent 
with  a  fairly  good  convenience  in  fishing  it,  the  better  at 
that  period  of  the  year.  The  fish  are  in  the  best  condition  ; 
they  are  lusty,  plump,  and  glowing  with  radiant  colour.  1 
know  of  no  class  of  fish  that  makes  a  more  thoroughly 
good  and  handsome  basket  as  the  result  of  the  angler's 
toil,  than  a  rattling  good  basket  of  roach. 

BARBEL  FISHING. 

There  is  another  highly  popular  branch  of  sport  to  which 
the  London  angler  is  deeply  attached,  and  that  is  barbel- 
fishing.  It  is  mostly  practised  on  the  Thames.  I  do  not 
say  there  are  no  barbel  in  the  Lea,  because  I  know  there 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    455 

are,  and  plenty  of  them,  but  as  barbel-fishing  is  most 
effectively  carried  out  on  the  Thames,  and  is  possibly  better 
understood  on  that  river  than  on  any  other  in  the  kingdom, 
I  shall  confine  my  remarks  chiefly  to  the  practice  there. 

Now  as  to  the  qualities  of  my  friend  the  barbel.  We 
have  heard  a  great  deal  lately  about  the  marvellous  game- 
ness  of  the  black  bass  of  America,  and  I  have  heard  my 
friends  Mr.  Wilmot  and  Dr.  Honeyman  expatiate  upon 
him  at  vast  length,  saying  that  there  is  no  such  fish  in  this 
world  for  game  qualities.  I  am  perfectly  prepared  to 
admit  it,  but  I  must  insist  that  the  barbel  of  the  Thames 
is  an  equally  game  fish,  indeed  I  doubt  very  much  whether 
there  is  any  fish  which  can  possibly  eclipse  my  old  antag- 
onist the  Thames  barbel.  He  is  a  wonderfully  game  fish  ; 
you  can  never  call  him  dead  until  he  is  absolutely  in  your 
landing  net.  I  can  tell  you,  gentlemen,  that  when  I  have 
had  a  big  barbel  "  hang  on,"  to  use  a  fisherman's  slang,  in  a 
heavy  weir  stream,  the  sport  has  been  comparable  to  the 
best  fighting  salmon  I  ever  hooked  in  my  life  or  ever  saw 
hooked,  considering  the  relative  difference  in  the  tackle 
used.  There  is  a  considerable  difference  between  the 
style  of  barbel-fishing  on  the  Trent  and  on  the  Thames, 
and  these  are  the  two  principal  rivers  where  barbel  are 
fished  for  in  the  present  day.  The  Trent  fisherman 
almost  invariably  fishes  with  float  tackles,  the  Thames 
fisherman  with  a  leger.  The  difference  is  still  greater 
when  you  listen  to  the  conditions  on  which  success  is  said 
to  depend.  The  Trent  fisherman  tells  you  that  unless  the 
river  is  low  and  exceedingly  bright  there  is  no  possible 
chance  of  catching  barbel  at  all.  The  Thames  fisherman, 
and  I  take  it  upon  myself  to  say  he  is  right,  will  tell 
you  that  you  rarely  get  fish  in  the  Thames  unless  the 
water  is  high  and  thick.  The  higher  the  water,  and  the 


456    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

thicker  the  water  is,  short  of  anything  like  the  thickest 
"  pea  soup  "  condition,  the  better,  I  think,  is  your  chance 
of  getting  barbel.  The  difference  between  the  two  styles 
can  be  easily  understood,  because  they  are  so  totally  and 
distinctly  opposite.  The  Trent  fisherman  fishes  with  a 
float,  and  consequently  he  wants  low  and  bright  water,  so 
that  the  fish  for  which  he  is  angling  may  see  the  bait 
and  follow  it  down  the  stream.  The  Thames  fisherman, 
knowing  perfectly  well  that  the  barbel,  not  only  being  a 
gregarious  fish  swimming  in  shoals,  but  also  being  an 
essentially  ground-feeding  fish,  feeds  his  fish  up  to  a 
certain  point,  and  then  fishes  for  them  with  tackle  which 
lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  river.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say 
that  the  Trent  fisherman  is  not  as  good  a  man  as  it  is  pos- 
sible to  conceive,  but  I  certainly  think  that  taking  the  best 
samples  of  the  two  men,  and  pitting  them  one  against  the 
other  upon  the  two  rivers,  and  each  fishing  in  his  own  style, 
that  the  Thames  fisherman  will  invariably  beat  the  Trent 
man,  because  after  all  that  is  said  and  done  barbel  are  barbel 
all  the  world  over,  and  their  habits  are  precisely  similar. 

Now  in  the  selection  of  swims  for  barbel  in  the  early 
part  of  the  summer  I  should  prefer  sharps  and  good  scours, 
because  there  the  fish  are  lying  beyond  all  question. 
They  are  freeing  themselves  from  parasites,  cleansing 
themselves  from  spawning  operations,  and  there  they  will 
occasionally  feed,  and  you  will  always  find  them  in  three 
or  four  feet  of  water.  There  is  no  reason  why,  in  such 
a  depth  as  that,  excellent  fish  should  not  lie.  I  have 
over  and  over  again  seen  them  of  eight  and  ten  pounds  in 
such  situations  equally  as  well  as  in  deeper  water.  As  the 
summer  progresses  and  the  autumn  season  comes  on, 
they  shift  down  bit  by  bit  into  the  lower  waters,  and  get 
into  heavy  runs  under  projecting  clay  banks  or  close  in  to 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    457 

deep  swims  protected  by  camp  shedding.  I  do  not 
know  that  I  can  pick  out  a  better  sample  of  such  a  bank 
than  the  one  well  known  to  all  Thames  fishermen,  called 
the  "  High  bank  "  at  Sonning.  There  the  water  runs  in  a 
very  heavy  stream  indeed.  The  banks  are  hollowed  and 
scoured  out,  presenting  harbours  of  refuge  to  the  fish ; 
and  during  the  autumn  period  and  that  of  approaching 
winter,  heavy  barbel  lie  under  those  banks  for  shelter, 
and  consequently  it  is  a  capital  place  to  angle  for  them. 

Now  there  is  an  immense  difference  between  the  bite  of 
a  barbel  when  he  really  means  business  and  the  reverse. 
Occasionally  it  so  happens  that  when  a  barbel  swim  has 
been  well  baited,  and  the  proper  length  of  time  has  been 
allowed  for  the  fish  to  recover  after  a  heavy  dose  of  baiting, 
before  the  work  of  the  angler  commences,  your  barbel, 
when  he  does  feed,  makes  so  little  mistake  about  it  that 
there  is  very  little  trouble  to  the  angler.  Then  one  gets 
the  poetry  of  angling  so  far  as  barbel  are  concerned ;  but 
on  the  contrary,  now  and  again,  they  feed  in  the  most 
curious  and  perverse  manner  In  speaking  of  hook  bait- 
ing on  the  Thames,  the  general  practice  is  as  follows :  the 
fisherman  takes  a  worm,  dips  it  into  a  basin  of  sand,  rolls  it 
up,  takes  a  big  white  Carlisle  hook,  puts  it  in  at  the  head, 
and  threadles  that  unhappy  worm  right  up  the  whole 
shank  of  the  hook.  Thus  the  unfortunate  worm  is  pierced 
clean  through  by  the  hook  from  end  to  end,  leaving  just  a 
little  bit  of  the  tail  wriggling  at  the  extreme  point  of  the 
hook.  Now  that  bait  being  thrown  into  the  stream  upon 
ledger  tackle,  and  when  barbel  are  feeding,  they  will  take  it 
like  a  shot.  Sometimes  I  think  my  friend  would  take  a 
boot-jack.  He  seizes  hold  of  the  bait,  and  there  can  be  no 
mistake  about  the  fact  of  his  bite,  because  he  frequently 
pulls  the  rod  clean  down  to  the  water.  On  the  other  hand, 


458    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

he  does  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  have  frequently  heard 
Thames  fishermen  say  to  one  another,  "  Have  you  had  any 
sport  to-day,"  and  shaking  their  heads  mournfully  they 
say,  "  No,  but  those  confounded  dace  have  been  nibbling  at 
the  bait  all  day  long."  But  the  nibbling  probably  arose 
from  a  totally  different  source,  and  it  has  been  barbel 
biting  when  they  were  in  that  capricious  mood  I  just  spoke 
of,  and  when  they  only  bite  very  gently  and  tenderly. 
Now  I  have  a  little  bit  of  a  dodge  by  means  of  which  I  have 
tried  to  find  out  the  weak  points  of  a  barbel  when  he  has 
been  in  that  particularly  low-spirited  condition  with  regard 
to  feeding.  Instead  of  completely  spoiling  my  worm  by  the 
process  of  threadling  previously  spoken  of,  I  take  a  perch- 
hook,  No.  8  or  9,  and  then  a  lob  worm,  and  pop  the  hook 
right  through  the  middle.  I  just  nick  it  through  the 
middle  of  the  worm,  and  leave  the  two  ends  of  the  worm  to 
work  about.  Now  if  you  compare  the  action  of  those 
worms  in  a  basin  of  water,  the  one  being  threadled  right  up 
the  gut  with  only  a  little  atom  of  lively  flesh  at  the  end  of 
his  tail,  and  my  worm  with  two  small  punctures  only  made 
in  his  flesh  while  the  rest  is  wriggling  and  curling  most 
deliciously,  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  if  the  fish  be 
delicate  and  refined  in  his  taste  with  regard  to  worms,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  which  of  the  two  he  would  be  likely  to 
prefer.  I  venture  to  think  he  would  take  mine.  The 
Thames  fisherman  also,  when  legering,  throws  out  the  bullet 
and  turns  the  rod  sideways  at  a  distinct  angle,  so  that  when 
the  fish  bites  he  pulls  the  rod  right  down.  Well,  a  child 
even  could  hook  him  then,  but  sometimes,  when  they  are 
not  feeding,  the  little  resistance  that  is  offered  by  the  rod 
frightens  them  and  they  are  off.  Now  I  hold  my  rod  and 
bait  somewhat  differently.  Having  put  the  worm  on  I 
throw  out  the  bullet,  and  feeling  it  strike  the  bottom  I  lift 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 


459 


it  up,  and  draw  it  towards  me  so  as  to  get  the  gut  bottom 
taut,  and  then  drop  it  very  gently  and  wind  up  with  a  swift- 
actioned  Nottingham  reel.     This  being  done,  I  next  turn  the 
point  of  the  rod  so  that  its  extreme  top  indicates  the  precise 
spot  where  the  bullet  lies,  and  place  the  smallest  possible 
amount  of  tension  on  the  reel,  just  so  much   only  as  to 
prevent  the  stream  taking  the  line  off.    Consequently,  when 
a  barbel  takes  the  worm    I  feel  the  slightest  little  touch 
and  release  my  ringer   so   that   the   line   may  run  freely. 
Thus  I  let  him  take  the  worm,  and  he  on  his  part  feels 
no  resistance  whatever.     Away  he  goes  with  it,  and  then 
he  usually  gets  pepper,  and  it  is  cayenne  of  the  first  order. 
A  great  consideration  in  connection  with  barbel-fishing  is 
baiting  your  swim,  and  upon  that  depends  the  whole  of  the 
after  success.     I  frequently  hear  of  men  who  go  down  to 
fish  the  Thames,  and  in  really  good  localities,  where  there 
are  plenty  of  fish,  putting  in  a  quantity  of  bait  over  night, 
fishing  the  swim  early  the  next  morning,  and  the  next  day 
going  home  disgusted.     A  brother  fisherman  says,  "  Well, 
Jones,  did  you  have  any  sport  ?  "  he  says,  "  Not  an  atom  ;  I 
put  in  5,000  worms  on  the  swim,  and  I  never  caught  a  fish." 
Why  is  that  ?   Well,  the  answer  is,  because  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  a  thoughtless  angler  puts  his  worms  in  at  night,  and 
he  fishes  over  them  the  next  morning.     The  consequence  is, 
there  is  a  herd  of  barbel  inhabiting  that  particular  section 
of  the  stream,  they  have  all  fed  on  those  worms,  and  are  in 
precisely  the  same  position  as  a  London  alderman  would 
be,  if,  after  having  just  swallowed  a  huge  dose  of  turtle-soup 
and  venison  somebody  offered  him  a  fat  pork  chop.     You 
may  put  5,000  or  even  10,000  worms  on  to  a  barbel  swim — 
I    do  not  care   how  many   there  are — and  allow  the   fish 
sufficient  time  to  recover  their  appetites,  say  25  to  30  hours 
afterwards,  and  then  most  certainly  will  you  get  fish,  unless 


460    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

there  is  some  peculiar  circumstance  in  connection  with  the 
temperature  of  the  air,  or  water,  or  electrical  disturbances, 
or  anything  of  that  kind  which  prevents  the  fish  feeding.  I 
could  give  a  curious  illustration  of  that.  I  once  went  to 
fish  at  Mr.  Worthington's  weir  at  Sonning.  I  put  into  a 
barbel  swim  there  28  quarts  of  lob  worms.  I  think  there 
were  nearly  three  slop  pails  full.  I  fished  there  24  hours 
afterwards  ;  and  I  may  add  that  at  that  time  I  was  the 
angling  editor  of  'Bell's  Life,'  and  my  racing  chief,  Mr.  Henry 
Smurthwaite,  known  to  every  racing  man  under  his  nom  de 
plume  of  "  Bleys,"  was  with  me.  The  result  of  the  day's 
fishing,  after  giving  the  barbel  a  really  good  rest  after 
baiting,  was  for  the  two  rods  something  like  three  cwt  of 
fish,  besides  some  large  trout  and  perch.  I  should  add, 
however,  that  out  of  the  three  cwt.  we  only  brought  ten 
fish  home,  the  rest  being  turned  back  into  the  river.  Now 
for  a  few  words  of  practical  instruction. 

The  best  known  methods  of  capturing  this  essentially 
sporting  fish  are  three  in  number,  to  wit — with  the  leger, 
float  and  clay-ball.  Practice  with  the  float  may  be  divided 
into  what  is  known  as  "  tight "  or  "  long  corking,"  and 
fishing  with  the  "  slider  "—the  latter,  certainly,  a  capital 
style  to  adopt,  when  deep  and  varying  runs  of  water  have 
to  be  attempted.  I  propose,  therefore,  to  deal  with  the 
subject  matter  of  this  part  of  my  paper  in  the  order  named 
at  its  head,  making  my  chief  point  the  leger.  The  rod  used 
— an  important  item, — should,  in  my  opinion,  for  convenient 
fishing  never  exceed  12,  or  at  most  14  feet  in  length ;  for 
as  this  sport  is  usually  pursued  by  its  votaries  from  the 
medium  of  a  punt  or  boat,  as  affording  the  readiest 
opportunity  of  reaching  known  haunts  of  the  fish  under 
notice,  a  rod  of  this  length  will  be  found  far  more  handy 
and  useful  in  a  cramped  space  than  one  of  greater  length.  . 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    461 

Its  material  is  the  next  consideration,  and,  after  trying  rods 
manufactured  from  a  variety  of  woods,  I  can  find  none  so 
reliable  and  lasting  as  one  of  good  sound  cane,  such  as 
can  be  obtained  to  perfection  from  my  friend  Alfred,  of 
Moorgate  Street,  himself  a  good  and  practical  fisher,  and 
hence  a  good  man  to  apply  to.  The  joints  should  be 
perfectly  straight,  free  from  flaw,  and  the  less  knots  in 
them  the  better,  the  ferrules  strong  and  well  fitted,  the 
rings  upright,  as  a  matter  of  course,  thus  allowing  the 
line  to  run  freely,  when  thrown  out  from  the  winch ;  and 
with  regard  to  the  action  or  "  play  "  of  the  rod,  it  should 
neither  be  too  stiff  nor  too  supple.  If  it  is  very  stiff  it  does 
not  show  by  the  "niggle"  at  the  point  of  the  top-joint, 
a  process  most  popular  in  use,  when  the  fish  is  attacking 
the  bait,  or  at  any  rate,  if  they  are  feeding  badly,  the  best 
moment  at  which  to  strike.  If  it  is  too  supple,  the  quick 
stroke  of  the  wrist  necessary  in  driving  the  steel  home  into 
our  tough-nosed  friend's  snout  is  frequently  lost  through 
the  action  being  diffused  too  slowly  through  the  elasticities 
of  the  weapon  in  use.  The  rod,  therefore,  should  be  fairly 
stiff,  with  a  fine  top,  a  trifle  stouter  than  a  roach  top,  yet 
with  an  amount  of  bend  and  give-and-take  work  about  it 
as  will  aid  the  hand,  wrist,  and  reel,  in  killing  a  good  fish, 
should  the  angler  be  so  fortunate  as  to  get  hold  of  one. 
The  best  advice  that  I  can  offer  to  a  tyro  in  the  selection  of 
a  rod  is  this — in  buying  your  rod  go  to  such  men  as  Alfred 
of  Moorgate  Street,  Gowland  of  Crooked  Lane,  Bowness 
and  Farlow  of  the  Strand,  or  Carter  of  St.  John  Street  Road. 
Tell  them  exactly  what  you  want,  pay  a  good  price  at  the 
outset,  and  the  probabilities  are  that  you  will  get  a  tool 
that  with  careful  usage  will  last  a  lifetime.  While  upon 
the  subject  of  rods  I  may  mention,  perhaps  with  advantage 
to  my  readers,  the  excellent  rods  that  are  to  be  obtained 


462    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

from  many  of  the  well-known  Nottingham  tackle  manufac- 
turers, and  no  one  does  them  better  than  Wells,  of  Sussex 
Street,  Nottingham.  They  are  made  of  deal,  beautifully 
balanced,  well  whipped  and  ringed,  with  substantial  fittings, 
and  for  float  work  a  man  can  have  no  better  rod  in  his 
hands.  For  legering,  however,  they  are  a  bit  too  "  kittle," 
and  from  the  frail  nature  of  the  material  employed  in  their 
manufacture  it  is  obvious  that  at  the  best  of  times  they 
require  a  delicate  hand,  and  an  absence  of  anything  like 
pully-hauly  business.  Otherwise  a  smash  is  about  as 
likely  to  ensue  as  an  explosion  if  one  dropped  a  hot  coal 
into  a  barrel  of  powder.  In  the  hands  of  a  workman  these 
rods  are  simply  perfection  for  floating,  and  so  beautifully 
light  that  the  longest  day  never  tires.  And  now  as  to  the 
winch,  another  important  auxiliary.  Wooden  pirns,  or 
Nottingham  winches  as  they  are  more  generally  called,  as 
well  as  those  made  of  vulcanite,  are  so  thoroughly  well 
made,  and  so  cheaply  put  together  nowadays,  that  no  one 
would  dream  of  using  any  of  the  old-fashioned  brass 
furniture  that  formerly  pertained  to  the  rod.  Reels  can 
now  be  had  combining  two  actions,  the  one  being  the  free, 
easy  run,  so  necessary  to  the  practice  of  float-fishing  with  a 
long  run  down-stream,  the  other,  a  check  action,  obtained 
by  simply  pressing  a  spring  on  the  reverse  side  of  the 
handles,  which  impels  a  little  catch  downwards,  the  point 
of  the  bolt-shaped  catch  nicking  into  the  cogs  of  a  wheel 
fitted  upon  the  centre  pin,  thus  obtaining  the  most  perfect 
check.  Pressure  backwards  upon  the  spring  relieves  the 
cog  wheel,  and  the  winch  then  runs  upon  its  centre  pin 
with  the  velocity  of  "  greased  lightning."  Such  a  winch  as 
this  is  the  best  that  can  be  used,  the  only  drawback  being 
— and  of  course  there  must  be  something — is  that  if  it  be 
manufactured  from  wood  and  one  gets  out  on  a  soaking 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    463 

day,  the  inner  rim  will  swell  with  the  wet,  causing  the 
winch  to  clog.  I  have  once  or  twice  experienced  the 
misfortune  of  a  "  strike  "  on  my  colleague,  the  reel's  part, 
brought  about  under  watery  conditions  of  weather,  and  that 
too  at  a  time  when  the  fish  were,  to  use  an  angler's  slang, 
"mad  on" — a  concurrence  of  circumstances  not  to  be 
devoutly  wished.  It  has  struck  me  that  an  edge  of 
very  thin  metal  fitted  upon  the  rim  of  the  inner  wheel 
would  entirely  obviate  this  only  defect  in  an  otherwise 
perfect  winch.  A  twisted  silk  line  is  good,  but  a  plaited 
line  is  far  better ;  I  would  advise  anglers,  therefore,  always 
to  choose  the  latter.  Twisted  lines,  unless  the  angler  is  an 
adept  at  throwing  from  the  reel,  of  which  more  anon,  kink 
abominably  after  they  once  become  wet,  and  I  leave  it  to 
my  reader's  own  mind  to  picture  the  misery  of  a  man  who 
gets  some  25  or  30  yards  of  line  in  a  fearful  "boggle" 
about  twice  out  of  three  times  in  his  attempts  to  throw 
out  to  a  spot  where  the  fish  are  taking  the  bait.  With 
a  plaited  line  it  is  different ;  and  even  if  the  angler  cannot 
throw  from  the  reel — a  little  performance  that  requires 
some  practice  before  perfection  is  attained — he  has  only  to 
be  fairly  careful  and  see  that  his  coils  of  line  are  free  and 
clear  of  any  obstruction  in  the  shape  of  twigs  or  stiff  blades 
of  grass  if  upon  the  bank,  or  the  toes  of  his  boots,  or  the 
chair  legs  in  a  punt.  At  the  time  of  throwing  out  also, 
dispense  with  anything  like  a  jerk  when  impelling  the  bullet 
to  its  desired  destination,  thus  securing  the  ultimatum  of  your 
happiness — to  wit,  the  free  running  of  the  line  through  the 
rings,  without  any  tangle,  or  the  annoyance  of  finding  the 
fine  line  linked  well  round  one  of  them,  and  the  bullet  and 
leger  bottom  flying  away  through  space  by  itself,  broken 
away  from  the  line  by  the  impetus  of  the  throw,  and  the 
sudden  check  caused  by  the  link  aforesaid.  Supposing,  then, 


464    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

that  a  plaited  line  has  been  selected,  I  would  have  100  yards 
of  it  at  least  on  the  reel  for  legering,  and  for  this  reason. 
Careful  as  one  may  be,  a  fine  line  always  rots  and  frets  more 
or  less  with  hard  work,  and  it  is  always  advisable  before  com- 
mencing a  day's  campaign  against  such  an  undoubted  hard 
puller  as  your  barbel,  to  see  that  the  line  is  in  good  condition. 
If  it  is  not,  break  it  away  in  lengths  of  a  yard  at  a  time, 
until  it  will  stand  the  test  of  a  strong,  steady  pull.  Thus  100 
yards  will  not  be  too  much.  Consistently  with  the  requisite 
strength  that  is  required,  the  line  cannot  be  too  fine,  for  it 
should  be  remembered,  that  the  finer  the  line  the  less  effect 
the  stream  has  upon  it,  and  the  less  weight  will  be  required 
to  keep  it  at  the  bottom.  Thus  it  will  be  sufficiently 
patent  to  every  rodster  that  the  smaller  the  bullet  used,  if 
one  can  only  make  certain  of  its  being  upon  the  bottom,  the 
more  readily  will  the  bite  of  the  fish  be  distinguished,  and 
the  more  likely  is  one  to  kill  a  large  one  with  a  light  bullet 
that  can  be  held  taut  above  him,  than  with  a  heavy  one, 
which  must  cause  a  certain  amount  of  bend  or  "sag  "  in  the 
line  when  the  fish  is  struck  and  pounding  away  for  liberty. 
While  upon  the  subject  of  lines,  and  before  dismissing  it,  I 
may,  perhaps,  add  a  few  words  upon  their  preservation. 
Nothing  ruins  a  line,  no  matter  how  good  it  may  be,  so 
much  as  allowing  it  to  remain  on  the  reel  for  any  length 
of  time  after  use,  and  a  capital  adjunct  to  the  angler's 
equipment  will  be  a  light  wooden  winder,  say  a  foot  square, 
that  fits  closely  and  neatly  to  the  side  of  the  basket  On 
this  the  line  should  be  wound  off  the  reel,  but  not  in  lengths 
overlapping  each  other,  directly  the  sport  of  the  day  is  over, 
and  care  should  be  taken  that  a  few  yards  more  than  the 
quantity  that  has  actually  been  in  use  be  unwound  from  the 
reel  and  well  dried,  to  provide  for  the  great  probability  of 
the  wet  having  soaked  down  amongst  the  silk  that  has 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     465 

been  unwound  during  the  day.  When  the  line  is  thoroughly 
dry  it  may  be  advantageously  dressed  with  the  following 
preparation — as  good  and  simple  as  can  be  used,  keeping 
it  thoroughly  supple,  and  aiding  it  in  water-resisting  power 
— Take  a  bit  of  the  best  bees-wax  that  can  be  got,  say  of 
the  size  of  a  walnut,  and  a  piece  of  the  hard  fat  from  the 
exterior  of  the  sheep's  kidneys,  of  about  the  same  size,  and 
melt  them  up  together,  giving  the  mixture  frequent  stirs 
with  a  stick,  so  as  to  assimilate  the  two  substances 
thoroughly.  When  it  is  cold  and  hard,  give  the  line  a  rub 
or  two  with  this  preparation  every  time  it  is  used,  and  it  will 
be  found  an  excellent  preserver  of  the  most  delicate  lines. 
Leger  bottoms  should  be  selected  from  round,  stout  gut. 
Finer,  of  course,  should  be  in  the  tackle  book  for  use  if  the 
water  is  very  bright,  and  each  should  be  a  yard  in  length. 
I  have  found  nothing  so  good  in  the  shape  of  colour  as  gut 
dyed  of  a  light  sorrel  hue.  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
gut  of  this  colour  is  less  likely  to  be  distinguished  by  the 
watchful,  wary  eye  of  a  shy  feeding  fish,  when  lying  on  a 
sandy,  gravelly  bottom,  than  the  blue  gut,  although  I  am 
aware  that  some  of  our  best  barbel-fishers  pin  their  faith 
to  the  latter  colour,  and  allow  nothing  to  shake  their 
allegiance.  For  my  part,  and  having  killed  some  barbel  in 
my  time,  and  at  all  seasons,  I  have  found  the  sorrel  gut 
giving  better  results  than  anything  else.  The  proof  of 
the  pudding,  therefore,  being  in  the  eating,  I  have  only 
to  add  that  white  gut  is  an  utter  abomination.  In  "tit- 
ting  up  the  leger  bottom,  I  use  a  length  of  the  very  finest 
stained,  gimp,  of  a  yard  in  length,  with  a  small  bored 
shot  fixed  firmly  upon  it  at  the  lower  end,  where  the 
gut  joins — this  gimp  being  for  the  bullet  to  work  upon,  as* 
I  have  found,  over  and  over  again,  that  the  chafing  of  the 
bullet  upon  the  fine  silk  line  has  caused  a  large  amount 
VOL.  III.— H.  2  H 


466    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

of  wear  and  tear,  and  losses  of  good  fish,  from  the  silk 
breaking  exactly  at  the  spot  where  the  bullet  worked  upon 
it.  Such  experience  caused  me  long  ago  to  alter  my 
tactics,  and,  if  the  gimp  is  selected  fine  enough — and  it 
can  be  got  nearly  as  fine  as  stout  gut — and  it  is  used  with 
a  yard  of  gut  below  it,  it  will  not  operate  against  the 
angler's  success  if  the  fish  are  feeding  at  all.  If  they  don't 
feed,  nothing  on  earth  will  make  them.  Hooks  for  leger- 
ing,  at  any  rate  for  lob-worm  fishing,  should  be  long  in  the 
shank,  stout  in  the  wire,  and  not  too  broad  at  the  bend  ;  they 
are  sold  at  all  respectable  tackle  shops  now,  with  a  small 
silk  loop  whipped  on  the  shank  in  lieu  of  the  usual  length  of 
gut,  and  are  far  preferable,  doing  away  with  the  chance  of  the 
hook  link  being  weaker  than  the  gut  bottom — and,  again, 
a  quantity  can  be  carried  without  the  chance  of  getting  the 
gut  links  tangled  and  warped,  a  state  of  things  frequently 
happening  no  matter  how  careful  a  man  may  be. 

Perhaps  the  best  hook  in  use  at  present  amongst  barbel- 
fishers  is  one  made  by  Messrs.  Allcock  of  Redditch,  an 
eminent  manufacturing  firm,  and  called  "The  Wheeldon 
Barbel  Hook."  It  is  a  white  Carlisle  and  has  a  small  wire 
loop  at  the  top  of  the  shank,  on  which  it  is  only  necessary 
to  loop  the  gut  bottom. 

Although  my  paper  is  entitled  "  On  Modern  Fishing  other 
than  Trout  and  Salmon,"  I  can  hardly,  in  dealing  with  the 
Thames,  leave  the  question  of  trout-spinning  entirely  out, 
because  it  is  a  question  so  strongly  applicable  to  the 
Thames,  and  to  no  other  river ;  therefore,  I  feel  I  must  say 
half-a-dozen  words  even  at  the  risk  of  tiring  you.  I  think 
we  ought,  as  English  anglers,  to  feel  very  proud  of  our 
great  home  river,  and  of  the  quantity  and  calibre  of  the 
fish  which  inhabit  it.  I  doubt  very  much  if  our  friends 
from  America  or  New  Zealand,  or  any  other  place  you  like 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     467 

to  mention,  can  bring  forward  more  magnificent  trout  than 
have  been  taken  in  the  Thames  within  the  last  few  years. 
The  Kennet  again  is  swarming  with  trout,  and  as  for  size, 
I  have  only  to  point  to  some  examples  in  the  Exhibition. 
I  think  Lord  Craven  has  taken  trout  in  the  Kennet  up  to 
20  Ibs.  in  weight,  and  two  years  ago  a  trout  was  taken  in 
the  Kennet  behind  Messrs.  Huntley  and  Palmer's  biscuit 
factory  close  upon  17  Ibs.  Neither  is  that  an  isolated 
instance,  because  within  the  last  Thames  trout  season  an 
old  friend  of  mine,  Mr.  Ross-Faulkner,  took  a  trout  at 
Hampton  Court  Weir  14  Ibs.  15  oz.,  and  that  is  almost 
within  the  sound  of  the  omnibuses  and  cabs  rattling  through 
Oxford  Street.  Other  anglers  have  had  splendid  samples 
from  the  Thames.  I  might  mention  the  names  of  Messrs. 
Allard,  Hughes  and  Pugh  amongst  them,  all  of  whom  are 
showing  grand  trout  at  this  Exhibition.  I  think  it  redounds 
very  greatly  to  their  credit  as  anglers  to  have  caught  such 
splendid  trout.  Again,  Mr.  Forbes,  of  Chertsey,  a  gentle- 
man I  have  the  honour  to  know,  has  perhaps  the  most 
magnificent  collection  of  Thames  trout  that  any  man  ever 
saw.  With  regard  to  trout-fishing  there  is  a  considerable 
amount  of  judgment  necessary  in  approaching  the  locality 
that  a  trout  inhabits.  In  the  early  part  of  the  year  you 
find  trout  on  the  scours  near  where  they  spawn,  and  they 
do  not  move  up  to  the  weirs,  where  they  are  more  fre- 
quently caught,  until  the  warm  weather  induces  them  to  do 
so.  As  soon  as  hot  weather  sets  in,  you  invariably  find 
that  trout  follow  the  stream  up  further  and  further,  getting 
at  last  to  the  heads  of  the  big  Thames  weirs.  There  is  a 
considerable  amount  of  precaution  necessary  in  approaching 
a  weir.  If  a  man  goes  to  a  weir-head  where  the  foot-walk 
goes  across  from  side  to  side,  with  a  great  sixteen-foot  rod  in 
his  hand,  and  looks  over  the  head  of  the  weir  where  usually 

2  H  2 


468    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

the  trout  are  in  the  habit  of  lying,  what  is  the  consequence  ? 
Away  goes  your  fish.  Thus  I  may  perhaps,  hint  at  the 
best  style  to  adopt  under  the  circumstances. 

To  my  notion  a  man  wants  two  rods,  so  as  to  make  his 
kit  thoroughly  complete,  and  so  far  as  spinning  pure  and 
simple  is  concerned,  I  propose  to  speak  of  that  branch  of 
trout  angling  first,  thus  giving  it  the  preference  over  live 
baiting.  Not  because  I  have  fallen  into  the  hypocritical 
groove  which  obtains  in  angling  circles,  and  which  enables 
certain  very  virtuous  gentlemen  to  denounce  live-baiting 
publicly,  while  they  follow  it  up  on  every  possible  occasion 
in  private ;  nor  from  the  conviction  that  spinning  is  neces- 
sarily the  purest  and  most  sportsmanlike  method  of  angling 
for  large  trout. 

But  why  two  rods  ?  Well,  I  will  give  you  my  reasons. 
In  punt  fishing,  or  spinning  from  a  boat,  a  long  rod  is  often 
sadly  in  the  way,  and  in  the  course  of  a  day's  casting  to 
either  side  while  working  down  a  likely-looking  reach  where 
it  is  known  fish  lie,  will  tire  and  strain  even  a  very  stout 
arm  indeed,  quite  as  much  as  in  a  day's  salmon  casting, 
take  my  word  for  it.  For  such  work,  therefore,  commend 
me  to  a  rod  lightly  yet  strongly  made  of  sound  unblemished 
mottled  cane,  12  feet  in  length,  with  plenty  of  spring  and 
play  in  it  from  butt  to  point,  and  fitted  with  the  very  best 
ring  that  ever  was  invented  for  casting  or  throwing  purposes, 
viz.,  that  brought  out  by  Gregory  of  Birmingham,  and  at 
present  fitted  to  most  of  the  rods  turned  out  by  the 
celebrated  firm  of  Allcock  of  Redditch.  It  is  a  perfectly 
simple  appliance,  being  an  arched  wire  whipped  on  at  either 
side.  The  ring  itself  is  firmly  soldered  into  the  centre  of 
the  arch  ;  but  it  is  absolutely  out  of  even  a  careless  angler's 
power  to  engender  such  an  awful  possibility  as  a  kink,  and 
that  alone  should  be  a  sufficient  guarantee  of  its  worth  to 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     469 

any  one  who  has  either  lost,  or  who  can  imagine  for  one 
moment  the  diabolical  and  horrific  grief  and  misery  of  losing, 
a  good  trout  by  such  an  unlooked-for  and  apparently 
impossible  contingency. 

In  weir  spinning  the  condition  of  things  is  altogether 
different.  Here,  not  only  is  it  sometimes  necessary  to  fish  at 
a  considerable  distance  below  one's  standpoint,  but  a  very 
large  scope  of  water,  every  inch  of  it  looking  capable  and 
likely  ground,  has  to  be  covered.  For  this,  therefore,  give 
me  a  sixteen  foot  rod,  pliable  and  springy,  so  that  by  the 
mere  motion  of  the  top  joint  alone  I  can  keep  my  bait 
revolving  smartly  without  taking  up  more  than  an  inch  or 
two  at  a  time  of  the  line. 

Traces,  flights  and  baits  should  have  each  a  separate 
place.  In  connection  with  the  first  and  second  of  these,  two 
very  necessary  items,  the  greatest  possible  care  should  be 
used  in  the  matter  of  their  selection,  for  it  is  mainly  upon 
their  delicacy,  accurate  work,  and  powers  of  successful 
resistance  to  the  plunging  of  a  big  and  powerful  fish,  that 
the  issue  of  the  battle  lies.  Colour,  likewise,  is  a  great 
point,  therefore  principally  choose,  for  trout  spinning  at 'any 
rate,  gut  of  a  pale  smoky  blue-green,  if  such  a  colour  exists,  a 
matter  I  am  by  no  means  certain  about,  and  next  see  that 
it  is  correct  and  clear  to  the  eye,  free  from  white  specks,  or 
from  knotty  excrescences  to  the  touch.  Then  if  you  have 
sufficient  ability,  and  will  take  my  advice,  make  your  traces 
yourself.  If  not,  you  will  not  be  far  out  by  leaving  them  in 
the  hands  of  such  men  as  Alfred,  Farlow,  or  Gowland. 

But  in  their  manufacture,  whether  it  may  be  done  at 
home  or  abroad,  either  carry  out,  or  leave,  positive  instruc- 
tions, that  from  top  to  bottom  of  the  trace  there  shall  not  be 
one  atom  of  binding  in  it.  It  is  this  very  thing  that  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  has  been  responsible  for  the  loss  of  a  good 


470    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

fish.  "  Godfrey  Daniel !  "  says  the  fisherman,  after  seeing 
a  grand  fish  just  hooked  fling  himself  clean  out  of  the  water 
and  go  with  lightning-like  speed  down  the  run.  "  Godfrey 
Daniel !  what  a  beauty ! "  Then  ensues  a  splendid  run 
for  twenty  yards,  when  a  man's  heart  thumps  painfully — 
absolutely  painfully — at  the  bare  notion  of  such  a  glorious 
creature  becoming  his  own  in  due  and  proper  time,  and  one 
vows  "  by  our  lady  "  that  he  shall  be  played  as  carefully, 
and  with  as  gentle  touch  as  one  approaches  the  dear  partner 
of  one's  bosom  at  that  awful  period  when  she's  sulking  for 
a  new  bonnet  and  can't  have  it.  Hands  up!  There's 
another  fling  out  of  the  water,  and  old  brown-faced  and 
horny-handed  Tom  Davis  says  excitedly  and  hoarsely, 
"  Drop  point  on  ye're  rod,  sir — smart,  now ! "  and  you 
instinctively  do  it  as  matter  of  course.  Gone  ?  Impos- 
sible !  But  it  is  so,  and  there's  no  getting  away  from  it, 
and  presently  you  see  your  own  once  fondly  hoped-for  trout 
leap  a  hundred  yards  in  the  stream  below  you,  in  the  vain 
attempt  to  get  rid  of  the  half-yard  of  gut  hanging  from  his 
jaws  and  the  stinging  triangles  in  his  soft  fleshy  mouth. 
"  Ah,  gone  at  a  bit  o'  binding,"  says  old  Tom  ruefully  at 
your  elbow,  surveying  the  broken  trace.  "  Thowt  so  ;  I 
did  by  gum  !  It's  they  blessed  careless  coves  at  the  shops 
as  is  to  blame  for  half  the  trout  as  is  lost ; "  and  I  entirely 
endorse  old  Tom's  imaginary  opinion.  Therefore  not  a 
scrap  of  binding,  if  you  please.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  make 
small  loops  for  the  swivels,  and  after  putting  the  loop 
through  (the  gut  being  well  wetted  previously),  to  draw  them 
tight ;  and  in  the  long  run  it  is  ten  times  more  reliable,  take 
my  word  for  it.  Now  as  to  swivels  and  the  length  of  the 
trace. 

I  sometimes  tumble  across  trout-fishers  up  the  Thames 
who  are  spinning  a  weir  with  three-quarters  of  a  yard  of  gut 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    47 1 

(and  that  very  coarse),  three  large  jack  swivels,  and  a  great 
ugly  lead,  heavy  and  coarse  enough  for  the  coarsest  and 
roughest  pike  fishing  in  private  waters,  where  sharpset  fish 
will  often  run  at  anything.  For  my  own  part,  and  knowing 
that  if  there  is  one  fish  which  is  especially  more  wide- 
awake and  cunning  than  another  it  is  an  old  wary  Thames 
trout — I  always  start  on  the  war-path  as  well  and  carefully 
armed  as  a  man  can  be.  I  don't  mean  to  assert,  mind,  as 
a  fact,  that  the  angler  with  coarse  tackle  never  gets  a  fish. 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  nothing  so  likely,  supposing  he 
knows  from  observation  exactly  where  a  trout  feeds — and 
they  feed  day  after  day  in  the  same  spot  to  the  fraction  of 
a  foot — that  if  he  goes  at  early  morning,  before  the  weir 
has  been  disturbed  by  any  of  its  paddles  being  drawn,  and 
cautiously  drops  a  biggish  bait  which  spins  well  exactly 
over  his  lovely  mottled  nose,  but  that  he  will  dash  at  it 
without  an  instant's  reflection.  That's  when  he  is  dead 
hungry,  and  then  any  fool  can  catch  him.  But  only  let 
him  have  a  "  bit  in  hand ; "  let  him  have,  say,  two  or 
three  bleak  or  dace  down  his  throttle,  just  to  take  the 
sharp  edge  of  the  morning  off,  and  rely  upon  it,  it's  the  artist 
then,  and  not  the  chance  man,  that  gets  him  even  to  look 
at  a  bait  at  all. 

Thus  I  like  a  fine  gut  trace  of  full  a  yard  and  a  quarter 
long,  the  lead  so  placed  that  it  is  a  yard  of  trace  length, 
and  the  length  of  the  flight-link  itself  from  the  bait,  and 
with  at  least  five  small,  well  made,  well  oiled  swivels,  and 
one  double  one,  all  set  below  the  lead.  There  is  no 
necessity  for  any  above  it ;  the  lead  is  not  intended 
to  spin,  and  all  the  motion,  therefore,  should  be  below 
it.  The  more  there  is,  and  the  freer  it  is,  the  less  likeli- 
hood of  a  kink  or  snarl  in  the  line.  For  the  lead  itself, 
nothing,  in  my  opinion,  beats  the  "  Field  lead,"  when 


472    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

mounted  on  an  inch  or  two  of  very  fine  gimp,  and  next  to 
that  is  a  very  good  one  brought  out  by  the  editor  of  the 
1  Fishing  Gazette/ 

As  to  the  flight,  after  trying  them  all,  I  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  is  nothing  better,  perhaps,  than  the 
simple  old  Thames  flight,  with  four  sets  of  small  stout  wire 
triangles  and  a  single  liphook.  The  liphook  is  the  main 
trouble,  because,  do  what  one  will,  or  act  as  carefully  as 
one  will  with  it,  there  is  always  more  or  less  charing.  I 
tried  the  liphook  bound  upon  a  short  slip  of  starling's  wing 
quill,  the  gut  passing  through  the  interior  of  the  quill,  and 
this  answered  well— for  a  time.  Afterwards,  as  the  gut 
and  quill  both  swelled  with  the  wet,  it  became  simply 
immovable,  and  necessitated  each  fresh  bait  being  of  pre- 
cisely similar  size  to  its  predecessor.  Then  I  went  back  to 
the  old-fashioned  hook,  with  a  single  small  loop  of  gut  tied 
on  the  tip  of  the  shank.  This  loop  permits  the  hook  to  fly 
loose  up  and  down  the  gut  link,  but  when  it  is  in  use,  and 
the  gut  thoroughly  wet,  a  very  efficient  "bite"  is  obtained 
by  simply  lapping  the  gut  carefully  and  systematically 
round  the  shank,  until  the  liphook  fits  accurately  to  its 
place  at  the  nose  of  the  bait 

It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  describe  baiting  theoretically. 
More  may  be  learned  by  watching  the  operations  of  a  really 
good  Thames  fisherman  for  an  hour,  than  by  all  the  pen- 
and-ink  teachings  in  the  world.  However,  practice,  based 
upon  a  fairly  good  theory,  may  accomplish  great  things,  so 
that,  having  first  selected  a  clean  silvery  bleak — perhaps 
the  best  of  all  bait  for  a  big  trout,  and  particularly  for  a 
spinning  flight — wet  your  fingers  and  hands  thoroughly 
before  handling  the  little  fish,  with  a  view  to  saving  as 
much  as  possible  of  his  brilliant  silvery  armour.  Then 
nick  one  of  the  hooks  of  the  bottom  triangle  exactly  through 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     473 

the  fleshy  root  of  the  tail,  and  precisely  at  the  angle  of  the 
fork.  That  establishes  a  firm  hold,  and  then,  taking  the 
lateral  line  as  a  guide,  carefully  fit  in  hook  after  hook 
upwards,  towards  the  head,  taking  care  that  you  bruise  not 
nor  tear  the  delicate  skin,  finishing  off  at  the  top  triangle, 
which  should  fit  nearly  at  the  root  but  slightly  above  the 
pectoral  fin.  Draw  back  the  liphook,  hanging  loose  on  its 
wet  gut,  measure  off  say  half  an  inch  for  lapping,  twist  it 
carefully  up  until  the  bend  of  the  hook  touches  the  lips  of 
the  bait,  and  equally  carefully  put  the  hook  through  the 
very  centre  of  the  gristle  of  both  lips.  If  it  hangs  straight 
as  a  die,  with  only  a  gentle  curve  at  the  tail,  it  will  spin  so 
as  to  kill  a  Thames  trout,  and  if  it  don't,  it  won't ;  so  there 
you  are,  don't  you  know ! 

I  do  not  like  artificial  baits,  although  I  don't  say  that 
they  will  not  kill  at  times.  But  those  times  are,  in  my 
opinion,  and  in  the  majority  of  cases,  just  the  same  as 
when  the  short  trace,  coarse  gut  angler  gets  a  run.  Even 
here  I  must  make  an  exception  in  favour  of  one  bait,  and 
only  one,  and  that  is  the  *  Bell's  Life '  spinner,  made  and 
sold  by  Alfred  &  Son,  of  Moorgate  Street.  This  is  simply 
a  really  good  bait,  beyond  all  shadow  of  doubt,  and  both 
in  the  Thames  and  other  rivers  has  proved  its  unquestion- 
able excellence  and  killing  powers  over  and  over  again.  As 
an  instance,  I  may  place  it  on  record  that  on  the  2?th  of 
April,  1880 — the  first  season,  I  fancy,  in  which  they  came 
into  general  use,  and  on  a  bitter  cold  day  to  boot — H.  P. 
Hughes,  Esq.,  caught  at  Shepperton  Weir  a  brace  of 
splendid  Thames  trout,  weighing  respectively  9  Ibs.  and 
7  J  Ibs.  In  each  case  the  trout  had  completely  gorged  the 
bait,  taking  it  so  thoroughly  into  the  mouth  that  it  required 
the  assistance  of  scissors  before  the  hooks  could  be  cut 
away.  A  very  great  deal,  however,  of  the  excellence  of 


474     PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

these  baits  consists  in  the  exact  angle  at  which  the  tail  is 
bent  They  are  sold,  I  fancy,  with  the  tails  fashioned 
sheer  across,  and  this  won't  spin,  or  anything  approaching 
it.  The  tail  should  be  bent  slightly  over  with  the  thumb 
and  ringers  of  the  right  hand  until  it  assumes  a  very  gentle 
downward  sweep  or  angle  from  slightly  below  the  point  or 
root  of  the  dorsal  fin  to  about  the  line  of  the  ventral  fin,  or 
where  the  ventral  fin  should  be.  With  this  bait  I  have 
killed  many  good  fish,  both  in  the  Thames  and  Kennet,  a 
few  years  ago,  and  I  shall  try  them  again  with  certainly 
renewed  confidence. 

In  casting,  I  think  nothing  will  beat  the  good  old- 
fashioned  Thames  plan,  of  holding  a  coil  of  line  in  the  left 
hand,  and  throwing  from  that,  save  it  may  be  that  the 
stream  is  sufficiently  heavy  and  strong  to  permit  the  use  of 
a  heavy  lead,  and  then  one  can  throw  from  the  reel — best 
plan  of  all.  In  any  event,  have  no  loose  line  about  either 
the  bottom  of  the  punt,  or  on  your  knees,  if  sitting  on  the 
weir  beam  with  your  legs  dangling  over  in  space.  The  end,  in 
the  event  of  a  run,  may  be  summed  up  in  one  sentence,  viz., 
total  loss  of  temper,  and  the  continued  and  frequent  use 
of  a  word  which  distinguishes  say  the  mother  of  a  thorough- 
bred foal,  for  the  rest  of  that  day  on  every  possible  or 
impossible  opportunity.  Remember  that  the  least  possible 
movement  of  the  bait  is  sufficient.  Do  not  let  it  remain 
stationary,  or  spinning  in  one  position  long  together, 
because  to  the  discriminating  eye  of  an  old  and  judiciously 
educated  trout,  particularly  of  the  order  Triitta  Tamesis, 
such  a  course  of  procedure  would  look  odd,  to  say  the  least 
of  it.  Rather  work  it  slowly  and  very  gently  in  and  out 
and  round  about  every  little  eddy  and  curl,  and  quickly 
across  those  dark,  oily-looking  patches  between  foamy 
runs. 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     475 

I  approach  the  subject  of  live-baiting  in  fear  and 
trembling,  because  I  am  half  afraid  that  its  very  mention 
may  bring  a  hurricane  about  my  devoted  head,  and  heaven 
knows,  having  had  some  experience  of  married  life,  I  don't 
want  that.  Still,  I  know  full  well  that  there  are  scores  of 
people  ready  to  howl  indignantly  and  defiantly  against 
any  one  even  breathing  a  word  about  live-baiting  in 
connection  with  Thames  trout-fishing,  yet  who  are  the  very 
first  to  put  it  in  practice  when  they  are  clear  of  the  lens  of 
public  scrutiny.  I  live-bait  myself,  and  shall  continue  to 
do  so,  for  three  very  good  and  sufficient  reasons.  In  the 
first  place  I  beg  to  assert  that  there  is  ten  times  more  real 
skill  and  science  displayed  in  killing  a  good  trout  with  my 
live-bait  tackle  than  with  all  the  spinning  tackle  in  the 
world,  because  it  is  fifty  times  at  least  more  delicate  and 
fragile.  In  the  second  place,  because,  in  spite  of  lamenta- 
tions with  upheld,  shocked,  and  horrified  hands,  by  sundry 
virtuous  and  "  unco  guid "  howlers,  I  fail  utterly  and 
entirely  to  see  anything  unsportsmanlike  in  it ;  and,  for  the 
third,  and  perhaps  most  important  of  all,  because  I  know 
perfectly  well  that,  good  as  my  chances  are  in  a  weir  or 
rough  stream  with  spinning  bait,  in  wide,  open,  still  reaches 
such  as  the  very  biggest  trout  lie  in  nowadays,  it  is  at  least 
twenty  to  one  on  the  live-bait  tackle  as  against  that  for 
spinning.  Aye,  and  there  is  yet  another  reason,  and  that 
not  the  least  of  them  either.  Wherever  it  is  known  that  a 
big  trout  feeds — and  there  is  not  a  trout  in  the  Thames 
whose  home  is  not  spotted  to  the  fraction  of  an  inch — there 
sits  day  after  day  either  a  professional  fisherman  with  a 
customer,  or  without  one — it  is  quite  immaterial  which,  in 
the  majority  of  cases — or  some  riverside  loafer,  whose  only 
mission  is  to  catch  that  trout  by  hook  or  by  crook — crook 
preferred — and  straightway  convert  his  bones  and  body 


476    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

into  beer  and  "  bacca."  Now,  why  should  I,  whose  trout- 
fishing,  cut  it  as  fine  as  may  be,  costs  at  least  a  pound  a 
day  on  the  Thames,  run  less  chance  possibly  than  the  very 
man  who  writes  to  tell  me  of  a  trout  in  such-and-such  a 
place,  and  who  very  likely  has  run  him,  pricked  him  hard, 
or  in  some  few  cases  absolutely  caught  him  and  sold  him 
the  day  before ;  or  of  the  individual  who  values  the 
splendid  fish  by  just  so  many  pots  of  beer  and  no  more, 
who  knocks  him  ruthlessly  on  the  head,  in  or  out  of 
condition,  and  who  has  been  at  him  morning,  noon,  and 
night  from  the  first  peep  o'  day  on  the  opening  of  the 
season  ? 

Now  here's  the  pattern  of  my  tackle,  any  one  is  welcome 
to  it,  and  if  there  be  any  who  in  time  to  come  can  tell  me 
they  have  killed  a  ten-pounder  on  it  fairly  and  squarely, 
no  one  will  say  more  heartily — "  Here's  t'  thee,  my  lad, 
and  more  power  to  your  elbow,"  than  he  who  pens  these 
lines.  First  for  the  rod.  It  is  a  little  1 2-foot  Nottingham 
barbel  rod,  made  of  deal,  with  a  lancewood  top,  light, 
springy  and  handy.  My  reel  is  a  wooden  one,  holding 
200  yards  of  very  fine  silk,  such  as  would  be  used  for 
chubbing  with  pith  and  brains,  or  with  cheese  in  the  autumn 
and  winter  months.  I  have  a  bottom  of  three  yards  of 
finest  gut — a  very  fine  tapered  fly  cast  is  best — with,  at 
the  extremity,  two  small  fine-wired  perch  hooks  bound  on 
the  bottom  strand,  the  lower  two  inches  from  the  upper. 
One  shot  only — size  No.  3 — is  put  on  the  gut — 4  ft.  from 
the  bait,  so  as  to  steady  it  in  the  stream.  Just  above  the 
gut,  and  on  the  silk  running  line,  is  a  bit  of  pear-shaped 
cork  as  big  as  a  barbel  bullet,  sufficient  only  to  buoy  the 
line  in  a  slight  degree.  On  the  upper  of  the  two  hooks  is 
liphooked  a  live  bleak  ;  the  other  hook  flies  loose,  or,  as  I 
fancy,  clings  to  the  side  of  the  little  bait.  If  you  can  find 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     477 

and  kill  a  big  trout  with  this — fairly  and  squarely,  mind, 
taking  all  the  chances  of  submerged  roots,  boughs  of 
trees,  weed-beds  or  sunken  piles — never  mind  anybody 
growling,  but  tell  them  to  go  and  do  likewise.  There  is 
not  one  in  twenty  who  can,  you  bet. 

PIKE  FISHING  (SPINNING). 

I  may  now  perhaps  give  you  my  ideas  with  reference  to 
pike-fishing,  and  in  the  first  place  I  think  that  a  pike- 
fisher's  equipment  should,  with  regard  to  rods,  consist  of 
two — one  being  kept  solely  for  spinning.  This  rod,  being 
not  more  than  12  to  14  feet  in  length,  is  built  so  as  to 
be  more  limber,  and  consequently  has  more  "  spring  "  in  it 
than  the  other,  which  may  be  kept  for  paternoster  work, 
trolling  upon  rare  occasions,  and  live-baiting.  A  stiff  rod 
for  spinning — to  my  mind  the  most  artistic  method  that 
can  be  adopted — is  simply  comparatively  useless.  The 
top,  and  indeed  the  rod  generally,  should  give  freely  to 
the  upward  sweep  of  the  arm  when  throwing,  the  rod 
being  held  tightly  and  easily  in  the  right  hand,  while  the 
butt  is  planted  firmly  in  the  hollow  of  the  groin.  Thus  it 
materially  helps  in  the  direction  to  be  obtained,  and  the 
length  of  the  cast.  Having  a  solid  butt  (which  I  prefer  to 
a  hollow  one),  the  rod  may  yet  be  obtained  as  light  and 
handy  as  is  consistent  with  the  work  in  hand  ;  and  any  of 
the  well-known  London  makers  may  be  thoroughly  de- 
pended on  for  workmanship.  Upright  or  standing  rings,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  are  a  sine  qua  non;  without  them  it  is  im- 
possible to  throw  to  any  distance  without  the  line  "  kinking  " 
and  knotting  up  in  a  horrible  tangle — perhaps  the  most 
annoying  thing  of  all  on  a  cold  day,  and  when  fish  are 
feeding.  The  line  used  for  spinning  should  be  60  or  70 


478    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

yards  in  length,  not  too  thick,  thoroughly  waterproofed,  and 
well  made  and  substantial  in  quality  and  strength ;  for  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  it  has  to  undergo  more  friction 
in  the  length  used  for  casting  than  any  other  running  line. 
The  length  named  will  be  found  amply  sufficient  for 
ordinary  waters,  such  as  the  Thames  or  Trent,  where  the 
fish  taken  are  usually  of  the  ordinary  size,  though  were  I 
fishing  some  of  the  Irish  lakes,  or  the  private  inland  waters 
of  England,  where  the  fish  have  the  reputation  of  being 
monstors,  I  should  perhaps  take  care  to  have  a  bit  more 
on  the  reel.  The  winch  to  be  used  is  really  very  much  a 
matter  of  fancy,  although,  for  my  own  part,  I  prefer  the 
plain  wooden  Nottingham  reel  to  any  other,  for  its  ease  in 
manipulation,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  one  can  reel  up 
slack  line.  A  reel  I  have  lately  seen,  and  one  of  the  most 
recent  manufacture,  is  a  Nottingham  reel  combining  two 
actions — the  one  being  the  smooth,  easy  run  so  necessary 
in  "  long  corking,"  the  other  attained  by  pressing  a  spring 
on  the  reverse  sides  of  the  handles  by  which  a  cog  is  set  to 
work  giving  check  action  instantaneously.  The  "  flight " 
mounted  upon  fine  gimp  should  have  a  set  of  three  or  four 
triangles  and  one  moveable  single  hook.  In  baiting  this 
flight  of  hooks,  care  should  be  taken  to  use  dace,  gudgeon, 
roach  or  bleak,  whichever  may  be  preferred,  of  a  size 
proportionate  with  the  length  and  fit  of  the  flight  of  hooks 
used,  as  nothing  tends  so  much  to  the  ugly  "  wobbling  "  of 
a  bait  in  the  water  as  an  over-sized  fish  badly  mounted. 
Supposing  then  that  a  suitable  bait  is  found,  the  bottom 
triangle  is  firmly  fixed  by  the  penetration  of  one  of  the 
hooks  only  in  the  extreme  root  of  the  tail,  just  where  the 
flesh  joins  the  rays;  then,  holding  the  dead  fish  firmly 
between  the  thumb  and  fingers  of  the  left  hand,  so  bend 
or  curve  the  body  that  the  tail  assumes  a  clear  and 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     479 

distinct  sweep.  Keeping  it  thus,  force  the  point  of  one  of 
the  next  set  of  triangles  nicely,  and  without  displacing  the 
scales,  into  the  body  of  the  dace,  so  that  the  tail  is  kept 
firmly  in  the  position  desired.  The  other  triangle  is  fitted 
into  its  place,  whilst  the  small  sliding  hook  is  pulled  down 
the  gimp,  and  fixed  through  the  nose  of  the  bait,  thus 
keeping  all  in  the  required  position.  Let  us  still  further 
suppose,  then,  that  the  angler  is  at  the  waterside,  and  about 
to  make  his  first  cast.  First,  one  word  of  advice  as  to  ap- 
proaching the  side  of  a  weir  or  river.  Wherever  you  may  be 
intending  to  angle  use  extreme  caution — it  is  never  thrown 
away — and  tread  as  though  you  were  in  the  backwoods 
and  dreaded  to  hear  the  twang  of  an  ambushed  Indian's 
bowstring.  Rely  upon  it  that  fish  nowadays  are  not  to 
be  caught  as  they  were  in  the  days  of  Walton  and  Cotton ; 
they  get  more  and  more  subtle  and  cunning  every  day. 
Where  there  were  ten  anglers  ten  years  ago  there  are  now 
a  hundred  ;  the  consequence  is  that  every  bit  of  fishable 
water  is  fished  to  death  by  anglers  of  every  grade,  from  the 
rank  duffer  with  a  coarse  gut  line,  enormous  cork  float  and 
a  big  hook  with  a  brandling  impaled  thereon,  and  sitting 
right  over  the  water,  yet  who  still,  with  a  true  fisherman's 
soul,  hopes  to  catch  that  whacking  perch  that  he  saw  an 
hour  ago  chase  some  gudgeon  out  of  that  deep  hole  and 
on  to  the  shallows  at  his  very  feet,  to  the  real  artist,  who 
fishes  the  hole  with  fine  Nottingham  tackle  but  little  later, 
and  takes  glorious  perch  one  after  the  other  under  "big 
float's  "  very  nose,  much  to  the  latter's  astonishment.  So 
he  puts  his  primitive  tackle  down  to  wonder  at  the  other's 
skill,  delighted  if  he  can  even  manipulate  the  landing-net 
when  an  extra  "  big  'un  "  comes  to  bank. 

Pike  in  fine  open  weather  lie  close  in  to  the  side,  and  under 
cover  of  projecting  banks,  tree-roots,  and  beds  of  water- 


480     PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

flags  and  reeds.  In  colder  weather  they  seek  the  shelter 
of  the  deeps.  As  a  matter  of  course,  if  the  angler  ap- 
proaches full  in  view,  and  with  heavy  and  incautious  tread, 
the  place  where  a  fish  is  lying,  it  becomes  almost  equally 
certain  that  the  fish  sees  him  long  before  he  is  close  to  his 
abiding  place;  and  with  one  stroke  of  his  great  tail,  he 
shoots  out  of  the  shallows  and  into  the  deeper  portions  of 
the  river.  So  let  us  then  "softly  tread,  'tis  hallowed 
ground,"  and  having  gained  a  likely  spot,  reel  off  some 
loose  line,  letting  it  fall  clear  of  roots,  grass,  stumps,  and 
rushes,  to  the  left  hand,  and  cast  quietly,  with  as  little 
splash  as  possible,  if  on  a  fine  quiet  day — on  a  windy  day 
it  doesn't  matter — first  to  the  right  and  then  left,  until 
converging  to  the  centre.  If  the  water  has  been  fairly 
covered,  and  these  preliminary  casts  need  never  be  more 
than  10  or  12  yards  from  the  side,  and  if  further  success 
does  not  attend  you,  draw  off  yard  by  yard  from  the  reel, 
until  a  long  cast,  yet  well  within  your  power  of  rod  and 
arm,  has  been  attained.  Never  attempt  to  overdo  it, 
because  it  always  results  in  failure,  and  the  tyro  who  tries 
to  do  a  tremendous  throw,  will  find  that  the  extra 
momentum  simply  brings  his  line  into  a  glorious  tangle, 
and  a  very  nice  thing  in  fishing  is  a  real,  downright  tangle 
— soothing  to  the  feelings,  very!  As  soon  as  the  bait 
touches  the  water  after  the  cast  has  been  made,  draw  it 
across  and  against  the  current,  with  long  regular  strokes, 
with  the  left  hand,  avoiding  a  jerky  motion,  and  taking 
care  to  keep  the  point  of  the  rod  well  down,  almost  touch- 
ing the  water.  The  moment  the  point  of  the  rod  is  raised, 
it  causes  the  bait  to  spin  nearer  the  surface,  which  is  not 
to  be  desired,  save  in  shallow,  weedy  waters.  Spin  the 
bait  right  up  to  your  feet,  and  do  not  be  in  a  hurry  to  get 
it  out  of  the  water  for  a  fresh  throw,  for  it  often  happens 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    481 

that  both  jack  and  perch  will  follow  the  bait  out  from  the 
deeps,  and  take  it  quite  close  home ;  in  fact,  within  sight. 
When  a  jack  strikes  the  bait — of  which  fact  there  is 
usually  little  doubt  on  the  angler's  part,  for  it  is  plainly 
perceptible  to  the  touch — strike  him  gently,  yet  still  hard, 
so  as  to  fix  the  hooks  well  within  his  bony  jaws,  and, 
having  hooked  your  pike,  it  must  then  be  very  much  a 
matter  of  discretion  and  judgment  how  you  handle  him. 
If  you  are  fortunate  enough  to  get  hold  of  a  really  big  fish, 
remember  that,  although  pike  as  a  rule  do  not  go  with 
the  rattle  and  dash  of  a  freshly-hooked  salmon,  or  trout 
even,  nor  have  they  the  dogged  pertinacity  of  a"  barbel, 
they  have — and  particularly  big  fish — an  immense  amount 
of  muscular  strength,  and  no  liberties  must  be  taken  with  a 
good  one  "just  on."  Keep  a  tight  line  on  your  prey; 
keep  him,  if  it  is  possible,  as  far  away  from  the  beds  of 
weed  as  you  can,  and  at  the  earliest  opportunity  get  his 
head  out  of  the  water,  and  well  up,  giving  him  the  benefit 
of  a  "  back  wash,"  as  the  rowing  men  say,  down  his 
capacious  throat.  Watch  him  keenly  and  warily,  and  give 
him  hand  and  reel  instantaneously  if  he  makes  a  determined 
rush,  taking  care  that  no  slack  lies  loosely  about  to  get 
entangled  in  coat  buttons  or  your  feet.  When  your  fish 
shows  by  his  rolling,  with  his  broad  flat  side  to  the  surface, 
that  he  is  fairly  settled,  lead  him  to  a  convenient  place 
where  the  water  shallows,  and,  bringing  him  to  the  side  by 
the  aid  of  the  reel,  and  not  the  hand,  get  him  close  in,  and 
gaff  him  with  all  speed. 

LIVE-BAITING, 

Under  the  head  of  live-baiting,  the  pike-fisher  embraces 
several  varieties  of  angling,  chief  among  them   being  the 
VOL.  III.— H.  2  I 


482    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

well-known  and  most  common  method  of  fishing  with  a 
living  fish  bait  attached  to  a  hook  and  trace,  and  suspended 
in  the  water  by  the  buoyancy  of  a  big  cork  float.  In  large 
pools  or  meres,  or  indeed  in  any  waters  where  there  is  little 
or  no  current,  this  style  of  pike  angling  is  the  easiest,  and 
consequently  the  most  idle.  After  baiting  the  hook,  the 
angler  can  put  his  rod  down  and  leave  the  bait  to  play  its 
own  part,  which  it  generally  does  if  lively  and  attractive  ; 
but  it  always  seems  to  me  a  far  less  amusing  method,  apart 
from  the  science  displayed,  than  spinning,  or  paternoster 
work,  while  it  cannot  be  doubted,  supposing  one  has  a  cold 
wintry  day  to  fish  in,  which  of  the  two  is  better  calculated 
for  keeping  up  the  necessary  caloric  at  any  rate.  A  rod  for 
live  baiting  should  be  stiffer  in  its  action  than  the  spinning 
rod,  and  one  of  14  feet,  light  and  handy,  will  be  found  long 
enough  for  anything,  with  well-made  upright  rings  of  good 
size,  through  which  the  line  can  run  freely.  A  pike  rod 
with  small  or  moveable  rings,  is  an  abomination,  and  not  to 
be  tolerated  at  any  price,  and  it  certainly  seems  strange  to 
think  that  nowadays,  with  all  the  vast  improvements  that 
have  been  made  in  sporting  tools,  one  could  find  any  man 
so  conservative  in  his  opinions  as  to  be  firmly  wedded  to 
the  use  of  one  of  the  old-fashioned  rods  in  preference  to  a 
modern  one.  That  there  are  such  men  in  the  world  is 
beyond  all  question,  for  it  was  but  the  last  season  that  a 
dear  old  friend  of  mine,  whom  I  have  preached  to  any 
number  of  times,  yet  in  vain,  was  out  "jacking"  with  me 
and  lost  three  or  four  good  fish  through  using  a  miserable 
old  rod  with  moveable  rings.  The  line  "  kinking  "  with  the 
wet,  ran  freely  for  a  moment  or  two  and  then  got  into  a 
lovely  "  boggle  "  round  one  or  other  of  the  rings.  A  guess 
at  what  ensued,  with  a  good  fish  running,  is  not  difficult. 
The  same  dear  old  "buffer"  persists  in  using  a  muzzle- 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     483 

loader  on  "  the  first,"  whilst  every  one  else  has  their  Boss  or 
Grant,  with  breech  action,  and  modified  choke,  and  all  the 
rest  of  it,  and  then  he  grumbles  at  being  left  behind !  while 
the  major,  as  he  crams  his  cartridges  in,  mutters,  politely 

muffling  his  tones,  however,  something  about  "  D d  old 

muff!"  Given,  then,  a  suitable  rod,  a  plain  check  winch, 
or,  better  still,  a  "  Nottingham  "  holding  plenty  of  line,  from 
70  to  100  yards  at  least,  is  the  next  desideratum.  It  will 
be  noticed  that  I  advocate  more  line  on  the  winch  for  live- 
baiting  than  I  do  for  spinning.  Why  ?  I  fancy  one  of  my 
readers'  queries.  For  this  simple  reason — a  fish  striking 
at  a  spinning  bait  is  hooked,  or  should  be,  there  and  then  ; 
and,  unless  he  is  a  veritable  mammoth,  he  will,  by  careful 
management,  succumb  under  30  or  40  yards'  run  ;  but  in 
live-baiting,  unless  one  is  using  snap-tackle — of  which  more 
anon — a  fish  may  run  fully  that  quantity  off  the  reel,  before 
he  reaches  his  sanctum  sanctorum,  and  before  absolutely 
pouching  the  bait.  A  much  finer  line  can  be  used  in  live- 
baiting  than  when  adopting  spinning  m  Aures,  because  there 
is  far  less  friction,  hence  less  wear  and  tear ;  and  my  idea  is 
that  tackle  cannot  be  too  fine.  Half  the  fun  consists  in  the  " 
satisfaction  that  ensues  in  knowing  that  you  have  settled  a 
"  grouser  "  with  a  thread,  as  opposed  to  "  the  barge  rope  and 
pully-hauly  system."  The  next  thing  to  consider,  then,  is  the 
"  trace,"  which  should  consist  of  fine  gimp,  or  better  still, 
stout  gut,  with  three  or  four  swivels  in  its  length,  to  assist 
the  bait  in  its  gyrations.  These  swivels,  and  their  free 
working,  are  important  elements  in  jack-fishing,  so  that  at 
the  end  of  a  day  it  is  worth  while  for  a  piscator  to  see  that 
they  are  dry,  and  indeed  all  metallic  portions  of  his  tackle, 
before  putting  them  aside.  Care  in  this  particular  is  never 
thrown  away.  Touching  live-baiting,  and  when  adopting  the 
old-fashioned,  and,  I  am  glad  to  say,  nearly  played-out 

2  I    2 


484    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

method  with  live-bait  and  a  double  hook,  it  is  made  so  as 
to  lie  flat  and  close  to  the  side  of  the  fish.  This  is  attached 
to  the  trace  either  by  a  spiral  screw  or  a  wire  running  round 
a  portion  of  the  extremity  of  the  bottom  swivel,  or  by  a 
sort  of  snap.  I  certainly  prefer  the  spiral  apparatus.  With 
the  double  hook,  the  infamous  baiting  needle  comes  into 
operation,  and  is  used  by  looping  the  loop  of  the  hook-link 
into  the  eye  of  the  needle — the  latter  being  made  with  a 
flat  sharp  point  at  the  other  end.  Then  holding  your  dace 
tenderly, "  as  though  you  loved  him,"  insert  the  point  of  the 
needle  just  beneath  the  skin  at  the  edge  of  the  gills,  carry 
it  through,  taking  care  not  to  wound  the  flesh  under  the 
surface  of  the  skin,  and  bring  the  point  of  the  needle  out 
behind  the  rays  of  the  dorsal  fin,  drawing  the  gimp 
through,  noting  that  the  hook  lies  flat  and  close  to  the  side 
of  the  fish — then  pop  him  at  once  into  the  bait  can.  Jack- 
men  using  the  single  hook  simply  hook  their  bait  through 
the  upper  lip  or  the  back  fin ;  but  this  is  a  style  which 
finds  little  favour  with  a  good  pikeman.  All  being  arranged, 
attach  the  hook-link  to  the  gimp  trace,  and  you  are  ready 
so  far  as  the  baiting  is  concerned.  The  trace  should,  of 
course,  be  sufficiently  leaded  or  weighted,  to  ensure  the  bait 
being  kept  well  down,  and  without  giving  it  an  opportunity 
of  rising  too  often  to  the  surface,  which  they  frequently  have 
an  unhappy  knack  of  trying  to  do.  Much  depends,  with 
regard  to  the  lead,  and  its  weight,  upon  the  sije  of  the  bait 
used,  and  also  upon  the  depth  and  character  of  the  water. 
Personally  I  strongly  disapprove  of  side-hook  fishing,  and 
only  speak  of  it  because  fish  will  occasionally  take  a  bait 
upon  this  tackle  when  they  will  look  at  nothing  else.  The 
float  used  must  also  depend,  so  far  as  its  size  is  concerned, 
upon  the  buoyant  power  required,  but  it  is  a  good  maxim 
never  to  use  one  larger  than  is  absolutely  necessary,  nothing 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    485 

being  more  likely  to  scare  a  shy- feeding  fish  than  to  find 
that  he  is  dragging  a  lot  of  unknown  apparatus  behind  him. 
Besides  that,  a  smaller  float,  supposing  it  to  be  a  weedy 
water,  is  the  less  likely  to  be  "  hung  up  "  during  the  pre- 
liminary canter.  I  prefer  an  oval-shaped  float,  bored,  of 
course,  and  with  a  quill  through  it,  through  which  the 
running  line  is  passed,  and  a  wooden  peg  fitting  firmly 
into  the  orifice  of  the  quill,  keeps  all  tight — particularly 
as  the  action  of  the  water  causes  the  peg  to  swell.  Many 
anglers  use  the  above  float  and  one  or  two  smaller  floats, 
called  "pilots,"  which  prevents  the  line  "bagging"  im- 
mediately round  the  float,  and  from  twisting,  and  they 
are  doubtless  a  useful  adjunct.  In  windy,  boisterous, 
and  very  cold  weather,  the  nearer  one's  bait  swims 
to  the  bottom  the  better,  as  the  fish — the  larger  ones 
especially — under  such  circumstances  always  resort  to  the 
deeps,  while  on  fine,  mild  days  they  will  be  found  more  in 
the  shallows ;  and  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  on  such  occasions, 
when  the  wind  and  atmosphere  is  nipping  keen,  live-bait 
fishing  in  the  deepest  portions  of  the  river  is  more  likely  to 
command  success — from  the  fact  that  the  fisher  goes  at 
once  into  a  likely  stronghold.  A  big  gudgeon,  carefully 
put  on  the  hook,  is,  when  the  water  is  bright,  as  good  and 
attractive  a  bait  for  pike  as  can  well  be  used — he  is,  besides, 
a  tough  and  game  little  fish,  and,  if  uninjured  when  thrown 
into  the  water,  has  another  qualification,  which  makes  him 
valuable, — he  always  seeks  the  bottom.  In  thick  water, 
he  is,  from  his  sombre  colour,  not  so  good  a  bait  as  the 
more  silvery  dace.  This  latter  fish,  as  well  as  small' chub, 
are  also  excellent  as  pike  baits,  and  good-sized  bleak  as 
well,  but  bleak  are  an  excessively  delicate  fish,  and  require 
most  careful  handling  in  any  case  of  live-baiting,  and  if  hurt 
in  the  least  degree,  soon  "  turn  it  up."  Small  carp  furnish 


486    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

a  good,  lasting  bait,  and  in  an  emergency,  the  gold-fish  bowl 
may  be  emptied  —  this,  however,  only  on  high  days  and 
holidays,  for  it  will  be  found  an  expensive  luxury.  Nothing 
can  be  more  certain  than  that  a  lively,  hard-working  bait  is 
immeasurably  superior  in  its  killing  powers,  in  opposition 
to  a  spent  or  weary  bait,  so  that  the  angler  should  always 
endeavour  to  have  his  lure  in  the  very  best  possible  con- 
dition. It  is  equally  certain  however  that  there  are  times 
when  pike  are  so  lavenously  "on/'  that  I  am  almost  inclined 
to  believe  in  a  chance  of  a  run  if  one  used  an  old  boot  for 
a  bait.  Given  a  run,  there  is  not  the  least  necessity  to 
wait  "  ten  minutes  ; "  pay  out  the  line  freely,  and  when  he 
stops  he'll  pouch  it  in  three  or  four,  or  not  at  all.  If  after 
stopping  he  moves  on  again,  strike  him  at  once.  A  great 
disadvantage  in  the  method  of  live-baiting  with  side-hook 
is  the  certain  tearing  of  the  skin,  and  consequent  disfigura- 
tion of  the  bait,  as  well  as  the  chance  of  killing  small  fish. 
All  this  is  obviated  by  the  use  of  snap-tackle,  which  simply 
consists  of  two  triangles  bound  upon  the  gimp  hook-link 
and  about  two  inches  apart.  One  of  these  triangles  is 
placed  carefully  through  the  root  of  the  dorsal  fin,  while 
the  other  is  fixed  at  the  root  of  the  pectoral.  Another 
advantage  gained  arises  from  the  fact  that  here  there  is  no 
waiting  for  the  fish  to  run  to  his  nook,  and  then  gorge  the 
bait.  The  instant  the  float  disappears  one  can  make  ready  to 
strike,  and  when  the  line  becomes  taut  and  the  angler  feels  his 
fish  he  can  do  so  with  the  certainty,  in  nine  cases  out  often,  of 
securing  the  aggressor.  Pike,  as  is  well  known,  take  their  prey 
sideways  ;  thus  it  is  clear  that  if  a  fish  seizes  the  bait  attached 
to  snap-tackle,  the  triangle  must  be  within  his  jaws,  and  the 
probability  is  that  he  is  safe,  due  skill  being  observed  on  the 
angler's  part  when  he  is  hooked.  There  is  not  the  least 
necessity  to  strike  heavily,  a  smart  handstroke  is  amply 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    487 

sufficient ;  indeed,  where  the  line  is  taut,  as  it  should  be, 
a  simple  pull  on  the  fish  when  running  fixes  the  hook  firmly. 
A  point  that  may  be  mentioned  is  the  likelihood  of  an 
inexperienced  hand  mistaking  the  efforts  of  a  bait  to  escape 
the  murderous  jaws  of  a  big  pike,  for  "a  run."  It  is 
astonishing  what  an  amount  of  strength  is  shown  by  an 
active,  lively  dace,  when  he  sees,  as  he  doubtless  does,  the 
fish  poke  his  shark-like  head  out  from  a  weed  patch  or  the 
cover  of  a  bank,  before  making  his  fatal  rush.  I  have  seen 
a  large  float  go  clean  down  out  of  sight ;  and  where  the 
water  has  been  very  clear,  have  traced  the  white  top  for 
some  little  distance,  as  the  dace  shot  down -stream.  A  jack 
usually  leaves  little  doubt  on  the  subject:  down  goes  the 
float  clean  away,  and  the  water  frequently  eddies  and 
surges  round,  showing  where  our  friend  "  Johnnie  "  has  shot 
out  from  cover. 

Paternostering,  another  class  of  live-bait  fishing,  is  a 
method  of  which  I  am  excessively  fond.  It  is  carried  out 
as  follows  : — Attached  to  the  running  line  by  means  of  a 
loop  is  a  yard  of  good  stout  gut,  the  rounder  it  is  the 
better,  with  a  further  loop  at  the  other  end  A  pater- 
noster lead,  not  heavier  than  is  absolutely  necessary, 
shaped  like  a  pear,  and  with  an  eye  of  brass  wire,  is  next 
fastened  to  the  bottom  loop,  by  simply  slipping  the  loop 
through  the  eye  and  over  the  extremity  of  the  lead,  and 
then  drawing  it  tight.  Personally  I  prefer  a  silk  loop 
attached  to  the  end  of  the  gut,  and  this  loop  to  be  put 
through  the  eye  of  the  lead.  A  foot  or  a  foot  and  a  half 
above  the  lead  a  single  hook  (on  gimp)  is  fastened,  and  a 
small  dace  or  gudgeon  is  lip-hooked  as  the  attraction. 
Drawing  a  sufficient  quantity  of  line  from  the  reel,  the 
angler  casts  out  in  the  most  likely  place  where  jack  harbour, 
round  the  edge  of  rush-beds  and  reeds,  or  in  deep  still 


488    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT 

pools  ;  the  lead  upon  reaching  the  bottom  communicates  a 
distinct  jar  through  the  silk,  which  is  easily  distinguished. 
The  line,  held  in  the  left  hand,  is  then  slowly  worked  in 
towards  the  bank  or  punt,  from  whichever  stand-point  the 
piscator  is  throwing,  the  lead  being  clearly  felt  as  it  scrapes 
along  the  bottom.  I  have  found  it  much  the  better  plan, 
instead  of  coiling  the  line  at  one's  feet,  to  gather  it  back- 
wards and  forwards  in  the  palm  of  the  left  hand,  and  with 
a  good  line,  free  from  knots  and  kinks,  this,  after  a  little 
practice,  is  easily  done.  Those  proficient  in  the  use  of 
the  Nottingham  winch  throw  from  the  winch  itself,  thus 
have  no  slack,  and  work  in  with  the  handle,  a  method,  for 
those  who  care  to  overcome  its  no  slight  difficulties,  far  in 
advance  of  the  other  style.  Much  diversity  of  opinion 
exists  among  anglers  adopting  the  paternoster  in  jack-fishing 
as  to  the  correct  moment  at  which  to  strike  when  the  bite  is 
felt.  As  a  matter  of  course  fish  feed  differently,  and  hardly 
ever  two  days  alike.  One  day  they  are  ravenous,  and 
prepared  to  gulp  down  everything,  the  next  dainty,  and 
wonderfully  hard  to  please ;  but  I  have  always  found  that 
if  small  baits  are  used — and  these  are  more  killing  than 
large  ones,  although  the  latter  are  possibly  more  attractive 
—few  mistakes  will  be  made  in  striking  if  one  feels  a  good 
fair  pull,  and  particularly  if  momentarily  afterwards  the 
fish  begins  to  move  off.  It  should  be  recollected  that 
supposing  a  small  dace,  say  of  three  or  four  inches  long,  is 
on  the  hook,  a  jack  has  a  rare  width  of  jaws,  and  an 
enormous  power  of  expansion,  and  with  such  a  cherry,  will 
scarcely  make  two  bites,  but  gulp  it  in  at  once.  Thus  the 
hook  is  very  likely  to  nick  him,  and  once  hooked,  show  no 
mercy,  but  reel  up  at  once.  Always  avoid  having  more 
loose  line  than  is  really  required,  and  kill  your  fish,  when- 
ever practicable,  with  the  reel,  and  not  with  the  hand.  If  a 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.      489 

large  bait  is  in  use  it  is  advisable  to  give  him  more  time, 
but  if  they  are  feeding  freely  and  the  bait  is  taken  while 
the  fish  is  moving  off  at  the  same  instant,  it  is  only  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  he  has  turned  the  bait  as  he  ran,  and 
so  the  "  strike  "  may  be  attempted.  In  places  where  it  is 
weedy,  it  will  be  found  a  better  plan  rather  to  dip  down 
from  the  point  of  the  rod,  into  all  likely  looking  "  shops," 
and  abstain  from  working  the  bait  on  the  bottom  at  all, 
from  the  likelihood  of  getting  "  hung  up  "  in  the  weeds,  and 
a  consequent  smash  of  tackle  ensuing.  Very  much,  how- 
ever, depends  upon  the  characteristics  of  the  place  when  at 
the  river  side,  and  the  intelligent  angler  will  be  greatly 
guided  by  circumstances.  Nine  times  out  of  ten  when 
paternoster  fishing,  the  fish  will  be  found  hooked  at  the 
edge,  or  just  outside  the  lip,  and  no  difficulty  will  be 
experienced  in  extracting  the  hook.  Beware,  however,  at 
all  times  of  putting  fingers  near  a  pike's  teeth ;  he'll  bite 
like  a  crocodile  if  he  has  half  a  chance,  and  even  a  chance 
scratch  is  unpleasant.  It  is  far  better  therefore  first  to 
land  heavily  on  his  cranium  with  the  toe  of  your  boot,  and 
then — if  the  hook  is  gorged,  and  it  is  not  easily  got  at  with 
the  disgorger — of  slipping  the  hook  off  the  trace  altogether, 
than  stand  the  chance  of  getting  your  fingers  well  scored 
with  his  grinders,  which,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  is  not  a 
pleasant  process,  and  especially  on  a  cold  day.  I  speak 
from  experience,  and  therefore  feelingly. 

PERCH  FISHING. 

A  gloriously  handsome  fish,  perch,  when  in  condition, 
afford  excellent  sport,  and  they  are  deservedly  favourites 
with  each  and  every  fisherman,  let  him  be  young  or  old. 
One  of  the  very  first  fish  I  ever  caught  in  my  life  was  a 


490    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

perch,  and  to  this  day  I  recollect  my  pride  and  exultation 
when  I  effected  his  capture.  He  had  located  himself  near 
the  sluice-gates  at  the  head  of  a  mill-stream,  hard  by  my 
native  vale  of  Derwent,  and  day  after  day  I  caught  sight 
of  him  and  looked  wistfully  and  longingly,  trying  him  with 
wasp  grubs  and  brandlings — alas  !  in  vain.  One  day  I  met 
a  man  chubbing,  using  shrimps  for  bait,  and  watched  him 
roving  without  float  or  shot  under  the  high  banks  of  the 
stream,  letting  the  current  carry  his  bait  where  it  would. 
Thinks  I, —  "  Shrimps  will  catch  that  perch,"  and  so  they 
did,  for  going  to  tea  an  evening  or  two  afterwards  I  found 
the  clergyman's  superior  moiety  was  expected,  and  amongst 
other  delicacies  shrimps  were  on  the  festive  board.  I 
"  went  for  "  that  plate,  and  quick  as  thought  a  handful  was 
transferred  from  it,  and  during  the  whole  of  that  warm 
evening  lovingly  reposed  in  my  trousers  pocket,  amongst,  I 
doubt  not,  alley-taws,  peg-tops,  bits  of  string,  a  broken- 
bladed  knife,  a  jew's-harp  and  a  paper  of  eel  hooks.  Break  of 
day  found  me  on  the  sluice-gates,  and  ten  minutes  after- 
wards that  perch  was  on  the  bank  among  the  dewy  grass. 
What  man  is  bold  enough  to  say  that  my  boy's  heart 
exulted  not,  and  that  my  blood  coursed  not  rapidly  in  my 
veins,  even  as  the  deer  stalker's  who  sees  the  Monarch  of  the 
Glen  totter  and  fall  to  the  crack  of  his  trusty  grooved  barrel  ? 
Pennant,  an  excellent  authority,  thus  describes  the  fish 
under  notice :— "  The  body  is  deep,  the  scales  very  rough, 
the  back  much  arched,  and  the  side  line  approaches  near  to 
it ;  the  irides  are  golden,  the  teeth  small,  disposed  in  the 
jaws  and  on  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  which  is  large;  the 
edges  of  the  covers  of  the  gills  are  serrated,  and  on  the 
lowest  end  of  the  largest  is  a  sharp  spine."  So  far  as  colour 
is  concerned,  our  friend  is  perhaps  as  brilliant  an  inhabitant 
of  our  lakes  and  rivers  as  we  have,  his  back  being  a  rich 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    491 

olive-green,  deepest  in  shade  at  the  ridge,  and  growing 
gradually  lighter  in  hue  as  it  approaches  the  belly,  which  is 
white,  with  a  faint  green  tinge  ;  transverse  broad  black  bars, 
pointing  downwards,  mark  his  shapely  sides,  while  the  ven- 
tral fins  are  a  glowing  scarlet,  the  tail  and  anal  fins  being 
of  a  like  colour,  though  a  shade  paler."  The  distinguishing 
characteristic  of  the  perch  is  his  formidable  dorsal  fin,  and 
armed  as  it  is  with  very  long  and  spinous  rays,  it  makes  him 
at  all  times  an  antagonist  well  capable  of  taking  care  of 
himself. "  It  would  be  just  as  well,  if  an  angler  is  fortunate 
enough  to  get  hold  of  a  big,  lusty  fellow,  to  see  that  this 
saw-like  fin  is  carefully  smoothed  down  before  gripping  him 
to  take  the  hook  out,  for  I  have  known  instances  where  a 
man's  hand  has  been  badly  cut  through  incautious  handling, 
and  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  heal.  They  are  thoroughly 
gregarious  in  their  habits,  herding  together,  and  remaining 
for  a  long  time,  unless  disturbed,  in  the  same  situation.  I 
have  watched  them  repeatedly  when  the  water  has  been 
clear  in  a  deep  hole,  and  the  larger  fish  always  seem  to 
claim  and  keep  precedence  over  the  smaller.  Where  such 
a  hole  is  found,  if  the  tenants  thereof  are  in  a  feeding 
humour,  it  is  just  as  likely  that  if  the  angler  is  wary  and 
noiseless,  and  hooks  and  lands  them,  he  may  take  every 
fish  out  of  it.  Prick,  and  hold  one  for  an  instant,  and  then 
let  him  escape,  the  probabilities  are  that  every  one  of  the 
shoal  will  follow  their  frightened  fellow — then,  one  may 
just  as  well  try  somewhere  else. 

Perch  are  found  nearly  everywhere,  all  our  English 
rivers  containing  them — Thames,  Trent,  Severn  and  Wye 
alike  holding  plenty  of  this  game  fish,  while  the-Loddon 
is  famous  for  bouncers,  and  nearly  all  the  great  inland 
waters  of  Britain,  meres  and  lakes,  are  well  stocked. 
Instances  have  been  quoted  to  show  that  they  have 


492    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

attained  a  large  size,  it  being  said  that  a  perch  of  9  Ib. 
was  taken  out  of  the  Serpentine  in  Hyde  Park,  and 
another  of  8  Ib.  from  Dagenham  Reach.  The  best  that  I 
ever  saw  was  one  that  weighed  4  Ib.,  full  weight ;  he  was  a 
splendid  fish,  and  was  caught  by  a  lad  with  a  sixpenny 
rod,  a  stout  gut-line  and  a  hook  baited  with  worm,  from 
one  of  the  pools  of  the  little  Brent  at  Hanwell.  I  was  a 
boy  at  the  time,  and  remember  offering  him  a  threepenny 
bit  and  my  dinner  for  it ;  he  didn't  see  it,  and  perhaps  it 
was  just  as  well,  for  I  should  have  assuredly  deceived  my 
worthy  sire  as  to  who  caught  it.  Deep,  quiet  water,  where 
there  is  a  gentle  eddy,  under  hollow  banks,  holes  where  the 
roots  of  trees  run  down  and  their  pendant  branches  shade 
the  retreat  from  the  fierce  heat  of  the  sun,  the  piles  of 
locks  and  sluice-gates,  and  the  back-water  of  millstreams, 
are  all  favourite  perch  haunts.  In  navigable  rivers  and 
canals  he  seeks  the  deeper  parts,  where  barges  lie,  and 
about  floats  of  timber,  always  choosing,  if  obtainable,  a 
"  habitat "  where  the  bottom  is  sandy  and  pebbly.  I  have 
found  it  a  good  plan  in  wandering  about  the  banks  of  an 
unknown  river  in  quest  of  perch  to  note  where  the  small 
fry  of  dace,  roach,  &c.,  most  do  congregate.  Such  a  place 
will  be  a  sandy  bank  at  the  edge  of  a  bed  of  sedge  and 
rushes,  and  where  the  current  forms  a  little  eddy ;  here 
the  youngsters  get  out  of  the  force  of  the  main  stream,  and 
if  the  angler  remains  quiet,  and  unobserved  by  the  fish- 
meanwhile  observant  himself— it  is  any  odds  that  he  will 
notice  ere  long  the  rush  from  the  deeps,  of  a  perch,  with  his 
bristling  back  fin  erect  and  menacing,  and  a  scatter  of  the 
small  fry  for  the  shelter  of  the  sedges.  Try  here,  then— it 
is  sure  to  be  good  ground  and  likely  to  be  remunerative. 

Now  for  the  tackle  to  be  used.      Select  a  nice  light  cane 
rod,  12  ft.  or  14  ft,  with  standing  rings,  and  not  too  pliable ; 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    493 

indeed,  the  rod  previously  described  for  legering  will  do 
admirably.  Use  a  Nottingham  winch,  with  fine  running 
tackle,  and  first  try  the  paternoster ;  this  should  be  a  gut 
length  of  a  yard,  round,  and  good  in  quality,  and  mounted 
with  two  hooks,  the  bottom  one  not  more  than  five  or  six 
inches  from  the  lead,  the  top  a  foot  and  a  half  above  it. 
The  lead  itself  need  not  be  any  heavier  than  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  find  the  bottom,  and  withstand  the  current ;  if 
there  is  little  or  none  of  the  latter,  use  as  small  a  one  as 
possible.  I  have  seen  advocated  the  desirability  of  using 
three  or  four  hooks  to  the  paternoster,  but  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  all  practical  men  will  agree  with  me  in  saying 
that  two  are  ample ;  indeed  with  more,  when  one  is  using 
minnows,  it  would  be  found  that  a  large  supply  of  bait 
would  be  necessary,  from  the  frequency  with  which  they 
are- jerked  off  the  hook  at  the  moment  of  striking.  Don't 
use  too  large  a  hook — "  No.  7's  "  are  large  enough — and 
hook  the  minnows  through  the  side  of  the  lip,  it  is  easier 
than  through  the  extremity  of  the  nose,  and  it  should  be 
remembered  that  they  are  a  delicate  little  fish,  and  won't 
bear  much  pulling  about.  At  a  likely-looking  place,  par- 
ticularly at  a  spot  where  one  may  see  the  aforesaid  small 
fry,  drop  the  paternoster  quietly  in,  and  keep  the  line  taut 
from  the  winch  the  moment  the  bottom  is  felt ;  then  move  it 
gently  along  the  bottom,  lifting  it  now  and  again  from  the 
point  of  the  rod,  until  the  spot  chosen  has  been  thoroughly 
searched.  If  they  are  there,  and  in  a  feeding  humour,  the 
angler  will  not  be  long  before  he  knows  it,  and  at  the  sharp 
"  tug-tug,"  indicating  the  attack,  one  should  strike  without 
loss  of  time— instantaneously,  in  fact — and  if  the  fish  be 
hooked,  as  he  will  be  nine  times  out  of  ten,  and  proves  a  big 
one,  keep  the  line  taut ;  be  in  no  hurry  with  him  ;  and  after 
the  first  few  desperate  plunges  are  over,  he  is,  with  ordinary 


494    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

care,  your  own  ;  then  get  him  to  the  bank  as  soon  as  you 
can,  into  your  landing  net — and  mind  his  fin.  It  is  a 
curious  fact,  but  nevertheless  an  indisputable  one,  that 
perch  will  frequently  refuse  a  minnow  on  the  paternoster, 
and  yet  take  it  greedily  if  put  on  to  a  hook,  attached  to 
a  shotted  and  floated  line  ;  so  that  it  may  ,be  always  wisely 
remembered  that  if  they  refuse  the  one,  the  other  method 
may  be  tried  with  advantage.  Small  gudgeon  are  a 
capital  bait  for  large  fish,  and  if  they  persistently  refuse 
the  paternoster,  a  light  spinning  flight  may  be  rigged  up 
and  tried,  with  a  possible  chance  of  success.  Stone  loach 
will  also  kill  perch,  and  in  waters  that  are  brackish  and 
subject  to  tidal  influences,  live  shrimps  are  a  killing  lure. 
They  are  best  kept  in  an  open  basket  in  wet  sand,  and 
care  should  be  taken  that  they  are  never  packed  close 
together.  Caddis  worms,  wasp  grubs,  and  occasionally 
gentles,  attract  the  notice  of  our  striped  friend  ;  but  having 
done  with  the  subject  of  live-baits  as  applied  to  fish, 
nothing  will  be  found  of  greater  killing  power  than  the  old 
and  well-known  bait,  the  worm  of  various  classes,  and  first 
in  order  I  take  the  lob.  .  No  perch  angler  should  be  with- 
out worms,  for  it  frequently  happens,  and  particularly 
in  the  autumn,  and  a  little  later  on,  that  they  will  take 
worms  freely,  when  minnow  and  gudgeon  are  totally  dis- 
regarded. Worms  cannot  be  too  bright  and  tough,  or 
too  well  scoured  for  perch-fishing,  and  lobs  want  a  week  at 
least  in  moss,  and  well  looked  after,  if  the  weather  is  warm, 
before  being  fit  for  the  hook.  If  they  are  wanted  for 
immediate  use,  put  them  in  a  pot  of  tea-leaves  squeezed 
dry,  and  let  them  remain  for  a  few  hours  ;  it  will  be  found 
that  the  tannin,  presumably,  has  had  a  miraculous  effect. 
In  waters  where  there  are  deep,  slow  eddies,  with  little  or 
no  stream,  some  of  the  largest  perch,  and  now  and  again  a 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    495 

chub  or  two,  are  captured  by  using  a  gut  bottom,  of  a  yard 
in  length,  attached  to  a  running  line  of  the  finest  Notting- 
ham or  Derby  silk.  Before  attaching  the  bottom,  fit  up  a 
long  cork  float  on  the  silk  line,  with  a  small  well-drilled 
bullet  below  it — the  hole  through  the  bullet  being  suf- 
ficiently large  for  the  line  to  run  easily  and  freely.  Then, 
having  tied  on  the  gut  bottom,  a  split  shot  is  fixed  on  the 
silk,  just  above  the  loop,  so  as  to  prevent  the  bullet  running 
over  the  bow  of  the  silk  line.  Selecting  the  place  of 
operation,  the  float  must  be  so  arranged  that  the  bullet  just 
touches  the  bottom,  and  the  proper  depth  being  thus 
obtained,  select  a  flat,  silvery  lob  from  amongst  the  stock, 
and  note  those  with  a  red  vein  running  down  to  the  tail 
are  the  best  for  the  hook,  and  put  the  hook  point  in  an 
inch  below  the  head.  Threadle  the  worm  until  the  shank 
of  the  hook  is  just  covered.  Worms  put  on  in  this  manner 
show  far  better  than  when  looped  up  on  the  hook,  or 
entirely  "  threadled,"  and  hence  must  be  a  more  attract- 
ive bait.  Then  cast  out,  and  draw  the  bullet,  when  it 
is  found  to  have  reached  the  bottom,  towards  the  point 
angled  from,  until  the  gut  length  is  likely  to  lie  straight  on 
the  bed  of  the  river.  If  there  is  any  current,  the  float,  after 
righting  itself,  must  be  "  held  back  "  from  the  point  of  the 
rod,  the  light  silk  line  being  clear  of  the  water  ;  and  do  not 
be  in  a  hurry  if  a  dip  of  the  float  indicates  that  a  fish  is 
attacking  the  worm.  Recollect  that  it  is  likely  to  be  a 
big  one,  and,  as  a  consequence,  a  far  more  cautious  gentle- 
man than  the  smaller  of  the  tribe  ;  wait  then,  until  after  the 
first  preliminary  dip  or  two,  the  float  goes  down  clean  out 
of  sight,  then  strike,  not  too  hard,  however,  and  look  out 
for  storms  and  a  long  and  strong  pull  at  the  top  joint. 
Brandlings  found  in  old  rotten  manure,  and  red  worms, 
sometimes  kill  as  well  as  anything,  but  I  must  confess  to  a 


496     PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

great  fancy  for  the  lob  for  nearly  all  big  fish— the  others 
are  more  suitable  for  the  paternoster.  If  the  water  is  very 
bright,  and  the  fish  are  "  dead  off,"  take  away  the  float 
previously  mentioned,  and,  substituting  a  smaller  bullet  as  a 
sinker,  throw  out  the  lob,  across,  and  up  and  down  the 
water  with  a  motion  similar  to  that  of  spinning  ;  a  brace  of 
fish  may  be  taken  in  this  way  when  they  are  very  dainty. 

CARP  FISHING. 

The  carp  is  perhaps  as  handsome  a  fish  as  British 
waters  can  boast  of  as  a  resident,  and  is  without  any  ex- 
ception one  that  will  try  an  angler's  skill  and  resources 
to  the  utmost.  In  colour,  a  bronze  or  yellowish  olive, 
deeper  in  shade  towards  the  back  ;  and  with,  when  in 
condition,  a  splendid  burnished  sheen  diffused  over  his 
sides,  and  great  round  scales,  he  looks,  when  freshly  caught, 
a  very  noble  and  handsome  fellow.  The  fins  are  brown,  with 
a  faint  violet  or  purple  tinge,  the  dorsal,  in  particular,  large 
and  well  developed,  and  continued  in  its  rays  for  some 
distance  down  the  slope  of  the  back  ;  he  has  a  large  head, 
but  by  no  means  an  unsightly  one,  a  small  round  mouth, 
tough  and  leathery  to  a  degree,  with  two  small  cirri  or 
beards  on  either  side;  the  tail,  but  little  forked,  is  set 
firmly  on,  and  denotes  great  strength,  and  he  is,  when  large, 
a  deep  and  thick-set  fish.  Carp  are  extremely  prolific,  and 
in  suitable  waters  increase  and  multiply  to  an  enormous 
extent ;  indeed  it  has  been  stated  upon  good  authority  that 
the  weight  of  the  roe  taken  from  a  single  female  fish 
exceeded  the  weight  of  the  despoiled  carcase  when  the  two 
have  been  weighed  the  one  against  the  other.  A  good 
deal  of  uncertainty  seems  to  exist  as  to  when  carp  were 
first  introduced  into  England  ;  but  we  get  evidence  from 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    497 

the  '  Boke  of  St.  Albans '  published  in  1496  that  they  were 
known  then  at  any  rate,  while  other  ancient  writers  dealing 
with  him  establish  his  place  in  our  native  lakes  and  rivers 
somewhere  about  the  same  period.  They  attain  a  vast  age. 
Buffbn  telling  us  that  he  has  seen  at  Pontchartrain  fish  of 
this  species  which  were  known  to  be  1 50  years  old  ;  how 
this  age  was  arrived  at  is  not  very  clear,  but  well  authenti- 
cated accounts  have  been  from  time  to  time  brought  for- 
ward, proving  that  they  are,  under  suitable  conditions,  an 
extremely  long-lived  fish.  In  Prussia  and  Germany  they 
are  cultivated  carefully,  and  there  carp  of  25  Ib.  and  30  Ib. 
weight  is  not  of  unfrequent  occurrence,  while  in  warm 
climates,  India  to  wit,  fish  of  this  species  grow  to  an 
enormous  size,  specimens  of  the  family  being  taken  in  the 
tanks  and  lagoons  of  40  Ib.  to  60  Ib.  Fancy,  brother 
angler,  getting  a  fellow  of  this  size  on  a  fine  gut  bottom  1 
Here,  a  fish  of  10  Ib.  or  12  Ib.  is  accounted  a  good  one,  but 
there  is  little  doubt  that  in  some  of  the  deep  inland  meres 
and  lakes  they  grow  to  a  much  larger  size.  I  have  myself 
seen  in  an  extensive  sheet  of  water  that  I  had  the 
opportunity  of  fishing  in  Hampshire  some  years  ago,  fish 
basking  in  the  weeds  on  a  hot  summer's  day,  that  I  have 
little  doubt  would  have  run  from  15  Ib.  to  20  Ib.,  and  once 
or  twice  got  hold  of  one,  but  never  was  able  to  hold  him, 
for  he  pulled  like  a  donkey,  and  went  straight  for  the 
nearest  weed-bed,  and  quietly  smashed  me  up.  The  rod 
to  be  used  should  not  be  too  long,  12  feet  is  ample; 
when  it  is  longer  it  does  but  make  it  more  tiring  to 
the  man  using  it,  who,  I  need  hardly  say,  should  avoid 
laying  it  on  the  bank  as  much  as  possible,  particularly  when 
it  is  remembered  that  he  is  on  the  trail  of  the  "water 
fox,"  as  old  anglers  delighted  to  call  our  golden  friend. 
This  perhaps  is  the  situation.  One's  arm  gets  a  bit 

VOL.  III.— H.  2   K 


498    PRACTICAI  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

cramped,  and  one  puts  the  rod  down — tired,  perhaps,  of 
a  long  spell  with  no  signs  of  a  fish — and  carelessly,  of 
course,  with  the  handle  of  the  winch  on  the  grass  ;  then,  just 
as  one  is  putting  the  vesuvian  into  the  bowl  of  one's  pipe, 
comes  a  tug  at  the  top  joint ;  one  goes  with  a  dash  at 
the  rod,  and  waits  eagerly  for  the  expected  pull.  No  go ; 
the  golden  moment  is  gone,  and  the  chance  of  a  golden 
prize  into  the  bargain.  The  finer  the  running  line  the 
better,  consistent  with  the  proper  degree  of  strength  that 
is  required,  supposing  a  "  bonser  '"'  is  hooked.  When  baiting 
with  paste  or  gentles,  triangle  hooks,  not  too  large,  should 
be  used,  and  the  lead,  having  the  hole  through  it  well 
bored  out,  so  that  the  line  runs  very  easily,  should  work  on 
the  silk  running  line  or  better  still  a  very  fine  piece  of  gimp, 
in  preference  to  the  gut  bottom,  so  that  friction  of  the  gut  is 
avoided,  as  well  as  any  possible  obstruction  from  a 
knot.  Carp  will  sometimes  take  worms  freely ;  large  red 
worms,  thoroughly  cleansed  and  toughened  in  moss,  being 
almost  a  standing  dish,  and  a  bright  silver  lob  is  another 
very  attractive  bait.  Wasp  grubs,  and  the  larvae  of  the 
insect  in  an  immature  state,  are  another  killing  lure.  I 
have  taken  them  with  green  peas,  and  I  have  heard  of 
them  taking  cherries ;  but  of  all  the  baits  that  I  have  ever 
tried,  commend  me  to- a  yellow  waxy  potato,  fairly  well 
boiled,  but  not  so  as  to  be  too  soft  of  course,  and  with  a 
plentiful  ground-baiting  of  the  hole  where  one  intends 
operating,  for  a  day  or  two  previously,  with  boiled  potatoes 
and  bran,  well  kneaded  and  worked  up,  so  that  when 
formed  into  balls  about  the  size  of  a  billiard  ball,  they  sink 
at  once.  The  potato  should  be  cut  into  an  oval  shape, 
of  the  size  of  a  thrush's  egg,  the  gut  drawn  through  its 
centre  by  means  of  a  fine  baiting  needle,  and  the  points  of 
the  triangle  pushed  into  the  bait  until  they  are  fairly 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    499 

embedded.  Now  cast  out  a  yard  or  two  beyond  where 
your  baited  spot  is  situated,  and,  when  the  lead  has  reached 
the  bottom,  draw  it  towards  you,  so  that  the  hooks  lie  clear 
of  the  lead  and  line,  and  straight  from  the  point  of  the  rod. 
Then  hold  the  rod,  with  the  top  joint  pointed  directly  to 
where  your  hooks  lie,  and  lower  the  point,  that  the  line 
may  be  straight  through  the  rings  (which,  of  course,  should 
be  standing  rings),  and  directly  in  a  line  with  the  thumb 
and  forefinger  of  the  left  hand.  By  adopting  these  means, 
one  avoids  the  fish  feeling  the  pull  on  the  top,  which  must 
be  felt  when  the  rod  is  at  an  angle,  and  if  the  line  is  held 
very  delicately  between  the  fingers,  the  least  motion  can  be 
detected.  The  first  indication  of  a  nibble,  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten,  will  be  a  tremulous  movement,  that  will,  I  warrant, 
send  a  thrill  through  the  angler's  frame ;  hold  the  line  as 
you  would  a  gossamer  thread.  Niggle,  niggle,  niggle,  again 
it  comes ;  then  a  little  pull,  and  at  last  the  line  begins  to 
sneak  through  one's  fingers.  Now's  the  time !  Strike 
smartly,  not  too  hard,  and  if  you  find  that  you're  home, 
give  him  another  little  tug,  just  to  send  the  hooks  well  into 
his  leathery  mouth ;  keep  a  taut  line,  and  humour  him 
nicely  for  a  little,  until  you  find  out  the  calibre  of  the  game 
you  have  to  kill.  Bear  this  in  mind,  however,  that  you 
have  no  cowardly  foe  to  conquer.  A  large  carp  is  a  gallant 
fellow,  and  will  resent  any  untimely  indignity  in  the  shape 
of  early  "  pully-haulings,"  by  a  terrible  rush,  that  may  very 
likely  upset  all  your  previous  calculations,  and  free  himself 
at  the  same  moment.  Do  not,  therefore,  be  in  a  hurry  to 
get  him  out — always  reflect  that,  so  long  as  your  line  is 
tight,  and  the  hooks  hold,  he  is  as  much  your  prisoner  as 
though  he  were  on  the  bank.  If  possible,  get  him  away 
from  the  hole  where  you  hook  him,  and  play  and  land  him 
lower  down,  so  as  to  avoid  disturbing  others  that  may  be 

2   K   2 


500    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

lying  in  the  same  locality,  and  always  keep,  from  first  to 
last,  well  out  of  sight  of  the  water.  In  pond  or  lake 
fishing,  much  the  same  tactics  may  be  adopted,  except 
that  one  may  use  a  much  lighter  leger  lead  where  there  is 
no  stream,  and  indeed  I  would  not  use  a  lead  at  all  if  it 
were  possible  to  get  the  line  out  without  it.  If  float-fishing 
be  the  order  of  the  day,  the  float  cannot  be  too  light,  and  a 
small  quill  carrying  three  or  four  shot  only  is  to  be  pre- 
ferred. The  bait  should  always  be  well  on  the  bottom. 
I  fish  with  the  baited  hook  at  least  six  inches  on  the 
bottom — and  the  shot  may  be  placed  on  the  hook-link  of 
gut  so  that  they  too  rest  on  the  ground,  and  thus  there  is 
nothing  of  a  foreign  nature  to  catch  the  wary  eye  of  the  fish 
that  may  be  prowling  about.  Even  the  gut  may  be  dyed 
green  or  of  a  bluish  tint,  so  as  to  assimilate  as  nearly  as 
possible  with  the  tinge  of  the  water.  The  rod  used  should 
be  a  longer  one  than  the  one  previously  mentioned,  for  it  is 
a  time-honoured  maxim  in  angling  for  some  classes  of  fish, 
to  "  fish  fine  and  far  out ; "  and  the  carp  is  one  of  them  where 
this  maxim  should  be  observed.  A  good  plan,  when  float 
fishing,  is  to  have  an  iron  rod  rest,  or  a  forked  stick,  stuck 
in  the  ground,  so  that  the  rod,  in  this  case,  unlike  when 
legering,  may  be  placed  in  the  rest  or  cleft  stick.  Throw 
well  out,  and,  particularly  when  the  water  is  clear  and 
bright,  have  no  more  of  the  rod  than  is  absolutely  necessary 
projecting  over  the  bank,  then  sit  well  away  from  the  water ; 
don't  move  the  rod  if  you  see  a  bit  of  a  nibble,  but  if  the  float, 
after  a  preliminary  cautious  dip  or  two,  sails  slowly  away 
and  out  of  sight,  then  get  your  line  taut,  and  strike,  not  two 
hard,  however.  The  remarks  I  have  just  made  apply  more 
directly  to  worm  fishing,  and  it  is  useless  to  strike  when 
operating  with  this  bait  unless  the  float  begins  to  slide  off, 
for  carp  suck  the  bait  in  very  artfully,  and  if  he  is  not  given 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    501 

time  to  gulp  the  whole  of  the  worm,  the  chances  are  that 
you  lose  your  fish,  from  the  fact  that  by  striking  too 
hurriedly  you  may  have  only  allowed  him  to  get  hold  of 
the  tail  end.  When  fishing  with  paste  or  gentles,  and 
using  triangle  hooks,  I  should  strike  immediately  if  the 
float  dipped  fairly  down ;  for  these  fish  are  so.  crafty  and 
wary  that  they  will  suck  the  whole  of  the  bolus  of  paste 
away  from  the  hook,  and  that  being  effected  quietly  sail  off. 
Strike  gently,  however,  and  should  you  not  succeed  in 
hooking  the  fish,  let  the  bait  drop  quietly  again,  when  it  is 
possible,  if  he  is  in  a  feeding  humour,  he  may  have  another 
try.  Various  grubs  and  caterpillars,  caddis  and  turnip 
worms,  beetles,  and  a  hook  baited  with  a  red  worm  and 
tipped  with  a  gentle  have  been  from  time  to  time 
recommended  as  super-excellent  lures ;  my  experience, 
however,  tells  me  that  if  carp  will  not  take  potatoes,  well- 
scoured  lobs,  red  worms,  or  a  lively  bunch  of  gentles, 
they  won't  take  anything,  and  one  might  just  as  well  go 
home  and  have  a  rubber  of  whist  and  a  pipe. 


CHUB  FISHING. 

The  chub,  another  member  of  the  numerous  carp  family,, 
attracts  no  inconsiderable  share  of  the  angler's  attention, 
and  particularly  numbering  amongst  his  followers  that 
section  who  delight  in  getting  hold  of  something  that  pulls. 
Amongst  the  number  is  my  humble  self.  I  know  of  no  fish 
that  I  have  had  at  the  end  of  my  line  that  goes  with  such  a 
devil  of  a  rattle  as  a  big  chub,  and  as  he  usually  when 
pricked  by  a  hook  bolts  with  the  speed  of  a  rocket  for  the 
first  stronghold  he  can  get  to — sunken  roots  of  trees,  or 
pendant  boughs  overhanging  hollow  banks — it  requires  no 
little  skill  to  keep  the  line  and  tackle  out  of  danger.  His 


5o2    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

first  rush  over,  however,  he  is  pretty  safe,  and,  unlike  the 
barbel,  who  rights  with  dogged  pertinacity  to  the  last, 
quickly  succumbs,  and  with  ordinary  care  is  soon  come- 
atable.  Common  in  most  of  the  English  rivers,  and  growing 
to  a  large  size,  the  chub,  or  cheven,  affords  endless  amuse- 
ment, for  he  feeds  well  at  times  when  other  fish  refuse  a 
bait.  In  the  summer  large  flies  and  beetles  of  various  kinds 
tempt  him  ;  while  in  autumn  and  winter,  cheese,  greaves, 
lobs,  pith  from  the  vertebrae  of  the  bullock,  as  well  as  live 
bait,  such  as  minnows  and  small  gudgeon,  attract  his  atten- 
tion. It  has  always  been  the  fashion  to  speak  of  him  as  "  the 
loggerheaded  chub,"  and  well-known  angling  writers  have 
described  him  as  having  an  ugly  misshapen  head,  but  I 
utterly  fail  to  see  this,  and,  indeed,  consider  him,  when  in 
condition,  an  exceptionally  handsome  fish,  with  a  longer 
body  than  the  carp,  large  silvery  scales,  his  back  of  a  deep 
olive  green,  the  belly  white,  the  irides  of  the  eye  a  shining 
silver,  pectoral  fins,  large  and  well  developed,  of  a  dusky, 
yellow  hue,  ventral  and  anal  fins  a  pale  salmon  red,  while 
the  tail,  slightly  forked,  is  brown,  with  a  distinct  bluish  line 
at  the  extremity.  They  are  frequently  taken  both  in  the 
Thames  and  Lea,  from  three  to  four  pounds  in  weight,  it 
being  asserted  that  specimens  from  the  former  river  have 
come  to  bank  of  far  greater  calibre  ;  while  upon  the  authority 
of  Dr.  Bloch,  we  are  told  that  fish  of  8  Ib.  and  9  Ib.  is  no 
uncommon  -size  in  some  of  the  continental  waters.  The 
Loddon  and  Mole  hold  gigantic  fish ;  from  the  latter  river 
came  the  best  chub  I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  It  was  taken  by 
my  friend,  Mr.  Callen,  of  East  Molesey — was  tempted  by 
a  couple  of  shrimps,  and,  weighed  by  myself,  bumped 
down  the  scale  at  ;J  Ib.  Chub  usually  spawn  in  the  latter 
end  of  March,  if  the  weather  is  open  and  fine,  or  in  April, 
and  are  again  in  full  vigour  in  June. 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     505 

No  more  cautious,  timid  fish  swims  than  your  chub,  and 
I  have  frequently  seen  a  shoal  of  them  lying  near  the  top 
of  the  water,  sink  slowly  down  and  out  of  sight,  the  only 
thing  that  I  could  discover  as  likely  to  alarm  them  being  a 
crow  or  two  winging  their  way  across  the  stream.  Hence 
the  chub-fisher  cannot  be  too  cautious  and  subtle  in  his 
operations. 

Chub  in  the  summer  resort  to  the  deeps,  and  large  still 
pools  overhung  by  foliage ;  here  they  lie,  day  after  day,  if 
undisturbed,  watching  for  grubs  and  insects  dropping  from 
the  sheltering  trees ;  and  at  such  places  the  dibber,  with 
his  humble  bee  in  the  day-time,  or  large  moth  in  the 
evening,  kills  his  fish.  In  the  winter  they  seek  places 
where  high  marly  banks  form  the  sides  of  the  stream,  or 
deep  holes,  with  a  sandy  or  clayey  bottom,  afford  them 
good  harbourage ;  and  in  nooks  where  this  fish  are  known 
to  resort,  they  are  found  at  the  proper  season,  year  after 
year.  Hence  the  say  ing  among  anglers,  "once  a  chub  hole, 
always  a  chub  hole."  They  are  a  restless  fish,  however, 
and  shift  about  in  the  autumn  and  winter  months,  when 
insect  diet  has  failed  them,  continually  seeking  fresh  ground. 
It  is  advisable,  therefore,  never  to  stay  long  in  one  spot — 
ten  minutes  or  a  quarter  of  an  hour  is  enough — for  if  there 
are  fish  there  and  they  mean  feeding,  they  will  do  so  at 
once,  or  not  at  all. 

For  legering  for  this,  and  indeed  for  all  other  fish,  a  rod 
of  12  ft.  in  length  is  fully  long  enough.  I  don't  believe  in 
long  rods  for  general  use,  and  feel  assured  that  if  an 
angler,  with  a  short  one,  pits  his  own  brains  and  resources 
against  the  craft  of  the  fish  he  is  trying  for,  he  will  in  the 
long  run  succeed.  Long  rods  are  cumbersome  and  tedious 
to  the  wielder,  and  it  is  only  in  roach  fishing  from  the  bank 
in  a.  river  like  the  Lea,  for  instance,  where  they  are  practi- 


504    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

:ally  of  any  use — for  angling  in  such  a  water,  and  for  this 
specified  class  of  fish  they  are  of  course  indispensable.  I 
recollect,  many  years  ago  now,  when  my  passion  for  the 
river-side  and  the  "  contemplative  man's  occupation  "  was 
just  as  keen,  if  not  more  so  than  now,  I  had  an  impression, 
and  I  find  that  young  anglers  of  the  present  day  indulge  in 
the  same  idea,  that  fish  can  only  be  found  in  the  middle  of 
a  river  or  pond,  or  so  near  thereto  as  one  could  throw  out. 
Thus  I  used  to  perch  myself  on  the  extreme  edge  of  the 
bank,  completely  forgetting  that  fish  could  see  me  when  I 
could  not  see  them.  As  a  consequence  the  bag  was  nearly 
always  lighter  at  night  than  in  the  morning.  Now  it  is 
different,  simply  because  I  reflect,  and  reflection  and  the 
caution  that  naturally  accrues,  is  in. my  view  the  great 
secret  of  success.  To  return  to  the  rod :  let  it  be  of  cane, 
light  and  handy,  12  feet  in  length  and  fitted  with  upright 
rings,  moderately  stiff  and  well  balanced.  Always  avoid  a 
rod  that  is  top-heavy.  The  winch — and  one  can  hardly 
improve  upon  the  Nottingham  reel  for  "reel  work" — 
should  be  capable  of  holding  sixty  or  seventy  yards  of  fine 
plaited  Derby  silk  line ;  some  prefer  a  twist  line,  I  don't, 
while  the  finer  the  better  if  the  operator  has  a  light  hand, 
and  can  hdld  a  "  big  'un  "  tenderly.  Besides  which,  a  fine  line 
requires  a  far  less  heavy  bullet  than  a  stout  one — another 
advantage — and  these  requisites  obtained,  one  is  ready, 
so  far  as  rod  and  line  are  concerned.  Now  for  the  leger 
bottom ;  this  is  an  important  item,  for  upon  it  much  of  the 
desired  success  is  likely  to  attend.  Choose  it  of  the 
finest  and  roundest  natural  gut,  a  yard  in  length  at 
least  (I  use  them  a  yard  and  a  half),  and  always  have  a 
length  of  gimp  fitted  to  them  for  the  bullet  to  work 
upon.  Other  accessories  are  entirely  unnecessary,  and 
the  less  foreign  matter  one  has,  the  better.  At  any 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     505 

of  the  first-class  tackle  shops,  these  bottoms  are  to  be 
obtained,  stained  to  any  desired  shade  ;  it  is  therefore 
obvious  that,  if  an  angler  is  fishing  a  river  where  the  bottom 
is  composed  of  deep-coloured  marly  oose  or  clay,  a  length 
of  gut  assimilating  as  nearly  as  possible  with  the  ground 
on  which  the  wary  chub  are  lying,  is  far  preferable  to  a 
shiny  piece  of  white  gut,  which  moves  about  as  the  stream 
catches  the  line  and  bullet,  and  can  certainly  not  look  like 
a  piece  of  weed.  Look  your  gut  well  over  before  com- 
mencing, and  reject  a  bottom  that  has  cracks  or  flaws.  Far 
better  to  be  particular  in  the  tackle  than  stand  a  chance  of 
losing  a  fish  that,  if  landed  and  "  set  up,"  may,  in  its  case 
"  be  a  thing  of  beauty  and  a  joy  for  ever."  If  lob  worms 
are  the  order  of  the  day,  use  hooks  whereon,  in  lieu  of  the 
ordinary  length  of  gut,  a  small  loop  of  silk  is  whipped ; 
they  are  easily  attached  to  the  leger  bottom,  and  do 
away  with  the  chance  of  the  hook  links  of  gut  being 
stronger  or  weaker  than  the  remainder  of  the  gut  in  use. 
Some  have  a  morsel  of  bristle  whipped  on  the  reverse  way 
from  the  hook's  point ;  this  certainly  prevents  the  worm 
from  slipping  or  wriggling  down  the  shank  of  the  hook,  and  is 
possibly  an  advantage,  but  if  chub  mean  business,  they  will 
bolt  one's  lob  before  it  has  the  chance  of  slipping  very  far 
down.  Being  on  the  bank,  keep  well  out  of  sight,  and 
avoid  shuffling  about,  or  moving  unnecessarily.  Every  move- 
ment of  the  feet  causes  a  certain  amount  of  vibration, 
and,  rely  upon  it,  chub  will  bolt  if  they  fancy  anything  is 
wrong.  If  you  have  plenty  of  lobs,'  and  the  stream  is  not 
too  heavy,  throw  them  in  whole,  and  some  little  distance 
above  where  you  are  fishing.  Cast  in  down-stream  and 
make  sure  that  your  gut  bottom  lies  straight  on  the  bed  of 
the  river,  by  drawing  the  bullet  towards  the  place  where 
you  are  sitting.  The  chub,  when  he  feeds,  is  nothing  like 


5o6    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

so  distrustful  as  the  carp,  therefore  the  same  intent  watch 
is  not  absolutely  needful,  and  the  rod  may  be  placed  in  the 
rest  or  on  the  bank  so  long  as  the  line  is  fairly  taut.  Given 
a  bit  of  a  tug,  up  with  it  instanter,  and  strike  at  once,  for  it 
is  most  likely  that  the  fish  has  taken  the  bait  and  gulped 
it  down  his  capacious  throttle.  The  same  tackle  may  be 
used  in  baiting  with  cheese  or  greaves,  save  that  the  hook 
should  be  a  triangle,  and  that  of  fair  size.  In  fishing  with 
cheese,  two  or  three  holes  may  be  baited  the  night  before 
angling,  with  some  of  the  most  rotten  old  cheese  that  can 
be  got  at.  Samples  outside  the  cheesemongers'  shops, 
smelling  strong,  full  of  animal  life,  and  at  about  $d.  a 
pound,  is  the  correct  thing  ;  and  a  couple  of  pounds  of  this 
aromatic  variety  worked  up  roughly  .with  some  soaked 
bread  makes  a  highly  seasoned  dish  of  a  surety  likely  to 
please  the  palate  of  the  loggerhead,  wherever  he  may  be, 
and  keep  him  hanging  about  the  baited  place.  Once  let 
him  get  the  full  flavour  of  the  sunken  mess,  there  he'll  stick 
until  every  atom  is  gone.  Touching  and  concerning  the 
paste  for  the  hook,  this  cannot  be  too  carefully  made,  for 
as  cheese  having  a  tendency  to  harden  in  the  water,  it  is 
obvious'that  the  material  should  be  thoroughly  softened  and 
incorporated,  so  as  to  do  away  with  this  as  much  as  possible. 
Select  rich  old  Cheshire,  oily,  and  full  of  unctuous  quality, 
pare  away  the  rind,  not  too  sparingly,  so  as  to  get  rid  of 
the  harder  portions,  then  with  a  bottle,  or  a  rolling-pin, 
crush  the  cheese  thoroughly  upon  a  table  or  flat  piece  of 
stone,  breaking  up  every  hard  bit ;  when  completely  rolled 
out  and  soft,  get  a  piece  of  stale  crumb  of  bread — a  piece 
the  size  of  an  egg  will  be  sufficient  for  a  good  quarter  of  a 
pound  of  cheese— and  moisten  it  thoroughly,  then  squeeze 
dry,  and  with  the  hands  work  and  mix  it  up  with  the 
cheese— it  will  take  a  good  half  hour  to  do  well ;  when 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.   5<>7 

finished,  put  it  in  a  damp  cloth  for  use.  At  the  water-side 
it  will  want  working  up  now  and  again  so  as  to  keep  it  soft 
and  pliable,  and  when  baiting  the  hook,  take  a  piece  of 
cheese  a  little  bigger  than  a  thrush's  egg — the  chub  has  a 
capacious  gullet,  and  will  easily  negotiate  this — and  make 
a  hole  in  it  with  the  thumb,  inserting  the  triangle  ;  then 
pinch  it  close  round  the  gut,  covering  the  hook  completely. 
By  this  method  the  hook  lies  encased  simply  by  a  shell  of 
cheese,  which  will  break  with  the  strike,  when  the  fish 
takes  the  bait.  If  the  paste  is  moulded  round  the  hook  in 
a  mass  it  becomes  very  shortly  a  solid  body,  hard  as  a 
bullet,  and  the  chances  are  that  a  fish  is  lost  by  the  bait 
being  pulled  out  of  his  mouth,  the  hooks  being  unable  to 
break  through  the  bait  and  penetrate  his  leathery  muzzle. 
Strike  instantly  and  sharply  when  a  bite  is  felt ;  if  the  fish 
is  not  hooked,  drop  the  bait ;  he  may  try  it  again,  if 
hungry.  If  hooked,  keep  him  away  from  roots  and  sub- 
merged boughs,  for  once  let  him  get  among  them,  all  the 
king's  horses  and  all  the  king's  men  won't  save  the  tackle 
unless  one  is  very  lucky,  and  if  the  hooked  fish  is  lost  it  is 
all  up  with  that  hole  for  a  time,  and  one  might  just  as  well 
seek  fresh  pastures. 

Shrimps  are  another  bait  that  at  certain  times  kill  chub 
well,  and  I  prefer  the  pink  to  the  brown.  I  always  shell 
them,  saving  husks,  heads  and  tails,  and  putting  them  with 
a  few  whole  shrimps  into  some  clay  for  ground  bait ;  and 
then  three  or  four  of  the  shelled  crustaceans  neatly  on  a 
small  triangle,  casting  into  likely  places.  Greaves  also  are 
better  on  a  triangle  than  a  single  hook,  and  the  whitest  and 
softest  pieces  should  be  selected.  In  preparing  greaves 
the  cake  should  be  broken  up  and  put  in  any  old  vessel 
with  just  water  enough  to  cover  the  contents,  and  into  a 
slow  oven  to  simmer  and  stew  until  the  compound  is  soft 


5o8    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

Never  throw  much  greaves  in  as  ground  bait,  fish  soon 
sicken  of  it,  so  that  it  should  be  used  sparingly. 

A  baby  frog  is  the  grandest  bait  in  the  world  for  a  big 
chub,  just  at  that  doubtful  period  of  his  existence  when 
even  his  mother  might  feel  some  pardonable  uncertainty  as 
to  whether  he  belonged  to  her  family  or  not ;  but  it  would 
occupy  too  much  space  to  dilate  impartially  upon  frogs 
and  black-beetles,  cockchafers  and  slugs,  and  the  beauties 
of  Nottingham  fishing  with  pith  and  brains  under  the 
boughs;  so  that  I  must  even  leave  all  I  would  say 
unsaid. 

TENCH  FISHING. 

With  regard  to  angling  for  tench  there  is  really  little  to 
be  said.  They  are  so  seldom  met  with  in  rivers,  and  are  so 
uncertain  in  their  biting  moods,  that  it  would  be  simply 
waste  of  time  for  an  angler  to  devote  much,  if  any,  of  his 
leisure  to  angling  specially  for  them.  One  hears  every 
now  and  then  of  a  good  fish  that  has  fallen  to  a  skilled 
rodster,  both  in  the  Thames  and  Lea.  But  it  usually  turns 
out  upon  investigation  that  the  capture  has  been  one  purely 
of  a  chance  nature,  and  that  the  fish  has  been  taken  either 
by  a  banksman  who  was  roach-fishing,  or,  in  the  Thames 
more  particularly,  by  some  angler  who  is  bream  or  barbel- 
fishing,  and  who  gets  a  cautious  preliminary  nibble  or  two, 
puzzling  him  for  a  moment  from  its  being  utterly  unlike  any 
other  bite  he  has  had,  and  who  upon  striking  when  he  finds 
his  float  sailing  off,  finds  that  "  the  doctor  "  has  taken  a  fancy 
to  his  lobworm.  Where,  however,  it  is  known  that  tench 
have  chosen  some  slow,  heavy  water,  and  their  habitation 
is  a  part  of  a  river,  I  would  always  advise  those  who  may 
have  a  sufficient  stock  of  patience  to  devote  part  of  their 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    5<>9 

time  in  pursuit  of  them,  to  see  that  their  tackle  is  of  good 
quality  and  without  flaws,  for  a  river  tench  of  any  size,  and 
who  being  hooked  gets  into  anything  like  a  strong  current, 
will  try  the  tackle  as  much,  perhaps,  as  a  barbel,  and 
that  is  saying  a  good  deal  for  his  fighting  powers.  Far 
and  away  more  likely  places  will  be  old  clay  pits,  deep 
ponds,  fleets  and  meres,  and  the  large  ornamental  sheets 
of  water  that  are  found  in  many  of  our  large  landed 
proprietors'  domains,  and  where  a  request  for  a  day's 
angling  rarely  meets  with  refusal  if  properly  preferred.  In 
such  a  situation,  and  supposing  the  water  to  be  fairly  free 
from  weeds,  or  with  large  open  spaces  between  the  weed- 
grown  places,  I  would  recommend  that  before  fishing,  the 
place  should  be  plentifully  ground-baited  for  a  night  or  two 
previously.  If  it  is  intended  to  angle  with  worms,  chopped 
lobs  should  form  the  attraction,  first  selecting  from  the 
stock  gathered,  the  flat,  silvery  and  medium-sized  worms 
for  the  hook.  Never  bait  the  hook  with  those  dull,  leaden- 
coloured  worms,  with  a  red  band  running  round  them,  and 
an  orange-coloured  belly.  I  don't  mean  to  say  that  a 
tench  would  never  take  one  if  offered  him,  and  nicely  put 
on  the  hook  ;  but  I  think  the  other  worm  will  kill  in  the 
proportion  of  four  to  one — at  least  such  has  been  my 
experience,  therefore  I  think  it  proves  which  of  the  two  is 
the  better.  If  float  fishing  is  preferred  it  should  be  as 
light  as  possible,  for  the  tench  is  a  shy  feeder,  and  would 
infallibly  leave  the  bait  if  he  found  that  he  was  dragging  at 
a  big  cork  float  on  the  surface.  A  small  swan  or  porcupine 
quill  is  as  good  as  any ;  the  gut  should  be  fine  yet  good, 
the  hook  No.  7  or  8,  fairly  long  in  the  shank  and  round  in 
the  bend,  the  running  line  of  fine  yet  strong  silk — plaited 
for  choice — while  the  rod  need  not  be  longer  than  is 
necessary  to  reach  the  place  selected.  If  the  water  be 


5io    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

very  weedy  and  the  clear  places  small  and  confined,  then 
perhaps  a  long  rod  would  be  serviceable,  dispensing  with 
the  running  line  altogether,  but  taking  care  that  the  gut 
bottom  and  line  at  the  top-joint  be  additionally  strong.  In 
such  a  cramped  position,  should  the  fish  feed  and  a  big  one 
be  struck,  it  will  be  simply  a  case  of  testing  the  fish  and 
his  strength  against  the  tackle ;  all  I  can  say  is,  keep  him 
away  from  the  weed-beds,  he'll  bolt  for  them  like  a  ferret 
after  a  bunny,  and  if  he  gets  among  them — good-bye.  The 
bait  should,  if  possible,  touch  the  bottom,  but  inasmuch  as 
tench  retreats  are  usually  muddy  in  the  extreme — which 
fact  is  easily  ascertainable  by  the  plummet — it  would  be 
useless  to  put  a  lively  lob  well  on  the  bottom,  because  he 
would  very  soon  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  mud  itself. 
I  have  found  it  a  good  plan  when,  as  I  have  said,  there  are 
plenty  of  clear  open  spaces,  and  the  bottom  is  sound  and 
hard,  to  dispense  with  float,  etc.,  altogether,  and  first 
baiting  the  hook  with  a  picked  lob,  draw  from  the  reel  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  line  to  reach  the  desired  spot,  and 
then,  coiling  this  line,  let  it  lie  on  the  bank  free  and  clear 
of  all  obstructions.  Lay  the  rod  as  well  on  the  bank,  and 
take  the  baited  hook  in  the  thumb  and  fingers  of  the  right 
hand,  cast  it  out  from  the  hand  with  a  gentle  swing,  and 
the  line,  if  sufficiently  light  and  fine  (and  what  big  fish  can 
be  killed  on  a  fine  line  if  one  only  knows  how  to  use  it),  will 
fly  out  after  the  baited  hook,  which  sinks  from  its  own 
specific  weight  and  that  of  the  worm  combined  ;  give  it  time 
to  find  the  bottom  and  then  reel  up  any  slack  line  there  may 
be.  Keep  the  rod  down  upon  the  bank,  with  the  winch 
handles  (and  the  winch  for  this  work  must  be  a  Nottingham 
with  perfectly  free  action)  uppermost,  and  clear  of  any  twigs 
or  other  things  likely  to  impede  it,  and  then  take  a  seat 
well  away  from  the  water,  keep  perfectly  still  and  motion- 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    511 

less,  and  await  events.  A  bite  is  first  indicated  by  a 
trembling  of  the  line  ;  give  him  plenty  of  time,  and  presently, 
if  master  tench  means  business,  the  winch  handles  begin  to 
slowly  revolve  and  the  line  to  sneak  away  yard  after  yard  ; 
then  strike,  not  too  hard,  for  he  has  a  leathery  mouth,  and 
the  hooks  are  sure  to  hold,  and  the  probability  is  that  if  he  is 
a  good  fish  there  will  ensue  a  "  leetle  fight  "  before  he  caves 
in.  Never  be  in  a  hurry  when  tench-fishing,  and  the  float 
indicates  some  hidden  attentions — this  fish  will  mumble  and 
suck  at  your  worm  or  gentles  for  a  long  time  in  some 
cases,  before  he  finally  makes  up  his  mind  to  do  or  die — 
then  the  float  either  goes  slowly  down,  and  out  of  sight,  or 
it  may  rise  up,  and  seem  half  inclined  to  topple  over,  and 
then  move  along  the  surface,  or  it  may  be  raised  up,  and 
laid  flat  on  the  water,  indicating  that  a  fish  has  taken  the 
bait,  and  has  risen  to  the  surface — either  are  critical 
moments,  and  one  is  warranted  in  striking  at  once.  Sweet 
paste,  made  from  stale  bread-crumb,  and  judiciously 
blended  with  honey,  kills  tench  well  at  times,  at  others  they 
won't  look  at  it.  Wasp  grubs  are  another  good  bait,  and 
caddis  worms  occasionally  make  their  mark,  while  gentles 
are  at  times  taken  greedily.  Worms,  however,  clean  and 
well  scoured,  seem  at  all  times  to  be  the  most  favourite 
lure,  and  although  I  am  aware  that  many  anglers  will 
disagree  with  me,  I  prefer  the  lobworm  to  any,  even  to 
the  red  worm,  or  brilliantly  striped  brandling.  Bright,  clean 
and  tough,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  nothing  beats  the 
lob  for  big  fish,  and  the  bigger  the  inhabitants  of  the  pool 
are,  the  more  they  seem  to  like  it. 


512    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 


BREAM  FISHING. 

The  fish  under  notice  is  tolerably  well  known  to  anglers, 
and  yet  merits  a  passing  word  or  two  in  the  matter  of 
description.  He  grows  to  a  large  size,  and  as  he  increases 
in  weight  becomes  a  very  handsome  fellow,  requiring  no 
little  skill  on  the  part  of  a  fisher  to  successfully  make  a 
large  bag.  With  a  high  arched  back,  and  deep  belly,  he  is 
somewhat  of  a  rhomboidal  form,  his  sides  being,  unless  very 
well  nourished,  extremely  flat  in  comparison  with  his  great 
depth.  His  head  is  small,  with  the  nose  pointed  and 
tapering  down  to  the  mouth,  which  is  void  of  teeth,  and 
not  by  any  means  a  large  one.  The  eyes  are  large  and 
full,  the  irides  of  a  silvery  hue,  the  fins,  the  dorsal  in 
particular,  are  small  sized,  the  anal  extending  from  the  vent 
to  the  root  of  the  tail,  which  is  large,  powerful  and  deeply 
forked.  In  colour,  bream  vary  considerably;  and  there 
seems  to  be  two  distinct  classes  of  the  same  species, 
although  both  inhabit  similar  localities.  The  one  cabled 
the  golden,  or  carp  bream,  attains  a  far  larger  size  than  his 
relative,  the  white  bream,  the  latter  never  carrying  the 
brilliant  bronze  tint  of  his  big  brother.  The  golden  bream 
has  his  back  coloured  with  a  deep  olive  bronze  tint,  the 
sides  gradually  growing  lighter  in  hue  as  they  approach 
the  belly,  which  is  a  shining  silvery  white,  the  fins  of  a 
dusky  grey,  tinged  at  the  root  with  the  predominant  golden 
cast;  the  scales  in  both  species  are  large,  round  and  well 
developed.  Bream  are  thoroughly  gregarious  in  their 
habits,  herding  together  in  large  shoals,  and  generally 
seeking  the  deepest  and  widest  part  of  a  river,  where  the 
stream  is  slow  and  heavy,  and  the  sides  are  fringed  with 
beds  of  reed  and  rushes.  Such  situations  are  always 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    513 

looked  upon  as  likely  habitats  for  the  "flat,  unwieldy 
bream,"  but  it  does  not  follow  that  there  he  will  be 
invariably  found,  for  some  of  the  largest  fish  of  this  tribe 
are  taken  in  the  Thames  immediately  in  the  boil  and  rapid 
water  of  a  heavy  weir  fall.  The  river  just  mentioned,  the 
Thames,  holds  plenty  of  bream  at  certain  places,  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  fish  attain  a  very  large  size.  I 
have  taken  them  myself  close  upon  6  Ibs.,  and  I  have  heard 
of  them  being  landed  considerably  heavier.  Halliford, 
Shepperton,  Weybridge  and  Penton  Hook,  of  the  higher 
sections,  and  Teddington  and  Kingston  of  the  lower  parts 
of  the  river,  are  all  famous  bream  waters.  The  Mole  again, 
from  its  rise  to  the  point  where  it  empties  itself  into  the 
Thames,  nearly  opposite  Hampton  Court  Palace,  and  the 
Wey,  are  both  celebrated  for  their  abundant  supply,  while 
the  Medway,  at  many  of  its  stations,  gives  the  bottom  fisher 
plenty  of  sport  with  large  specimens  of  this  class.  Then 
further  afield,  the  Ouse,  throughout  its  entire  length,  is  full 
of  them ;  and  the  Yare,  and  the  contiguous  "  broads "  of 
Norfolk  literally  swarm  with  bream ;  while  the  Trent,  at 
some  places,  produces  large  supplies  for  the  Birmingham  and 
Sheffield  Angler's  delectation.  Close  home,  the  Lea  holds 
a  few  fish  in  its  waters,  but  they  are  rarely  angled  for 
properly,  and  hence  rarely  caught ;  three  fish,  however,  may 
be  seen  at  Mr.  Benningfield's  house,  the  Crown,  at  Brox- 
bourne,  which  were  taken  by  Mr.  Bradlaugh  at  Carthagena 
Weir — fruits  of  philosophy  and  good  angling  combined ; 
these  three  specimen  fish  weighing  together  21  Ibs.  Then, 
quite  recently,  a  gentleman,  whose  name  I  at  the  moment 
forget,  but  who  is,  or  was,  attached  to  the  Conservancy 
Board  of  the  Lea,  caught  a  splendid  bream  close  upon  9  Ibs. ; 
so  that  it  proves  that  if  they  are  not  as  plentiful  as  black- 
berries in  this  river,  they  run  large  at  any  rate.  The  Surrey 

VOL.   III.— H.  2   L 


5i4    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

and  Commercial  Docks,  formerly  open  to  the  hard-working 
London  angler,  but  now  unhappily  tabooed,  unless  at  a 
terribly  high  price  for  a  season  ticket — £$  I  am  told — holds 
plenty  of  them;  and  the  Welsh  Harp  and  Dagenham  fishery 
lakes  as  well,  usually  returns  a  take  of  these  fish  to  one  who 
knows  the  peculiarities  of  each  spot,  and  studying  them, 
takes  the  trouble  to  fish  with  caution,  suitable  bait  and  fine 
tackle.  Very  much  depends  upon  the  water  to  be  fished, 
upon  the  method  adopted  and  the  description  of  tackle 
employed.  In  the  Thames,  except  at  one  or  two  places, 
where  the  bank  fisher  may  command  one  or  other  of  the 
deep  holes  which  are  known  to  be  bream  haunts  with  the 
leger,  it  is  simply  labour  in  vain  to  attempt  to  fish  for  them 
from  the  bank  with  any  chance  of  making  a  good  catch. 
They  are  shy  and  crafty  in  the  extreme,  and  take  good  care 
to  keep  well  away  from  the  sides  of  the  river — and  out  in  the 
more  fancied  security  of  the  deeps  ;  so  that  even  if  the  bank- 
man  can  throw  his  leger  into  the  hole,  his  only  chance  of 
success  would  be  at  the  very  earliest  peep  of  "  early  morn  " 
or  at  the  close  of  "  dewy  eve  ; "  and  these  two  periods  of  the 
day  may  be  taken,  from  first  to  last,  as  the  best  times  to 
endeavour  to  seduce  our  slimy  friend  into  appreciating  the 
flavour  of  a  well  scoured  lob,  or,  indeed,  any  other  bait  with 
which  one  may  choose  to  tempt  him.  In  Thames  fishing, 
then,  for  bream,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  fish  from  a 
punt  or  boat,  and  for  this  method  of  angling  a  Nottingham 
rod,  with  two  tops,  of  12  or  14  feet  in  length,  is  the  best 
that  can  be  used  ;  they  are  wonderfully  light,  and  one  may 
fish  all  day  with  one  of  these  rods  without  tiring  the  arm, 
no  small  desideratum  in  a  long  day's  work.  These  rods  * 
are  besides  so  nicely  adjusted  that  the  change  of  tops 
makes  a  complete  change  in  the  character  of  the  rod — with 
the  long  and  somewhat  flexible  top,  one  gets  a  rod  with  the 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     515 

most  perfect  action  for  either  long  corking  or  the  sliding 
float ;  affixing  the  shorter,  and  consequently  much  stiffer 
top,  one  gets  a  tool  the  very  beau  ideal  of  what  is  required 
for  either  paternostering  or  legering ;  and,  after  that,  I  think 
I  need  hardly  say  more  in  praise  of  my  favourite,  the 
Nottingham  weapon.  If  the  place  selected  has  a  bottom 
tolerably  uniform  in  depth,  there  is  no  method  more  killing 
than  "tight  corking,"  i.e.,  using  a  bottom  of  the  finest 
natural  gut,  with  the  shot  equally  placed  along  its  entire 
length  ;  by  adopting  this  method  of  placing  the  shot  it 
will  be  obvious  that  the  line  hangs  much  more  true  and 
straight  in  the  water  from  the  extremity  of  the  float  than  if 
they  were  placed  all  together.  The  running  line,  and  there 
should  be  from  60  to  100  yards  on  a  reel,  cannot  well  be 
too  fine,  while  the  reel  itself  should  be  perfectly  smooth  and 
easy  in  its  action — in  point  of  fact,  so  nicely  made  and 
regulated  that  the  mere  action  of  the  stream  on  the  float, 
and  the  weight  of  the  float  itself,  is  sufficient  to  cause 
the  reel  to  revolve  easily,  and  without  the  least  stopping 
or  scraping.  If  the  reel  acts  properly,  and  the  line  is 
sufficiently  light,  it  can  be  held  perfectly  taut  and  straight 
from  the  cap  of  the  float  to  the  point  of  the  rod,  no  matter 
how  long,  in  reason,  the  swim  may  be,  and  the  fish  can  be 
struck  with  almost  as  great  a  certainty  as  the  roach 
fisherman  hooks  his  fish  with  half  a  line  only  of  strike 
line  from  float  to  top  joint.  Five-and-twenty,  thirty,  or 
forty  yards  is  no  uncommon  distance  for  a  swim  down 
from  the  punt,  and  the  fun  that  ensues  when  a  three  or  four 
pounder  is  hooked  on  fine  tackle  at  this  distance  is  no 
little,  rely  on't !  The  hook  used  for  bream  should  be  size 
No.  7  or  8,  round  in  the  bend,  and,  if  for  worm-fishing,  long 
in  the  shank,  so  that  the  worm  may  be  drawn  neatly  up  the 
shank  of  the  hook,  and  not  hang  in  loops.  Supposing  then 

2  L  2 


5i6    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

that  suitable  tackle  has  been  rigged  up,  we  will  now  proceed 
to  the  fishing  itself.  Ground-baiting,  whether  in  river  or 
pond,  is  essentially  necessary  for  this  fish ;  for  as  they 
frequently  shift  their  locale  and  rove  about  in  search  of 
food,  it  is  obvious  that  they  are  likely  to  be  kept  together 
where  they  find  a  supply  of  .palatable  rations.  Now  there  is 
nothing  that  your  river  bream  takes  so  kindly  to  as  a  diet 
of  worms,  and  where  the  fish  run  large,  lobs  well  scoured 
are  a  very  attractive  bait ;  indeed  I  don't  know  anything  to 
beat  them  for  big  fish.  The  hole,  or  run  that  is  intended  to 
operate  upon,  should  therefore  be  well  baited  one  or  two 
nights  before  fishing  with  a  plentiful  supply  of  lobs,  either 
chopped  up  or  thrown  in  whole  ?  of  the  two  I  think  the 
latter  is  far  preferable,  and  saves  a  somewhat  unpleasant 
operation.  One  thing  should,  however,  be  borne  in  mind, 
that  if  there  is  no  clay  used  when  ground-baiting,  and  it  is 
better  without  it,  the  worms  should  be  taken  sufficiently 
above  the  hole,  and  the  set  of  the  current  studied  to  ensure 
them  sinking,  and  not  being  swept  away  from  the  chosen 
place.  It  is  an  extraordinary  fact,  yet  none  the  less  certain, 
that  these  fish  will  sometimes  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  a  worm  that  travels  down  the  stream,  no  matter  how 
neatly  or  showily  put  upon  the  hook,  when  the  self-same 
bait,  stationary  upon  leger  tackle,  kills  him  instantly  ;  and 
again  they  frequently  reverse  their  tactics,  declining  the 
leger  business  altogether,  yet  attacking  the  moving  bait  the 
instant  it  reaches  the  bottom.  The  bream-fisher,  bearing 
this  in  mind,  should,  then,  never  despair  of  filling  his  basket 
if  the  fish  seem  at  first  to  be  "  dead  off/'  but  try  other 
methods,  and  by  offering  them  a  suitable  bait,  he  will 
usually  succeed  in  killing  a  brace  or  two  of  fish,  and  perhaps 
a  good  many  more,  when,  if  he  had  stuck  to  his  original 
style,  he  would  in  all  probability  have  gone  home  with  a 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 


517 


very  light  basket.  In  legering  much  the  same  tackle  may 
be  used  as  that  described  in  carp-fishing — a  fine  gut  bottom, 
a  bullet  no  larger  than  is  absolutely  necessary  to  find  and 
hold  the  ground  against  the  stream,  the  hook  the  same  as 
that  previously  described,  allowing  the  fish  a  fair  time  if  the 
bait  is  a  large  one,  before  striking  him.  A  capital  bait  at 
times  for  a  bream  is  a  bolus  of  plain  bread  paste,  made 
from  the  crumb  of  stale,  yet  perfectly  sweet  and  white 
bread,  just  dipped  into  water,  and  worked  up  with  scrupu- 
lously clean  hands  until  it  attains  a  tough  and  stiff  con- 
sistency. This  may  sometimes  be  sweetened  with  a  little 
honey  to  advantage,  although  I  have  usually  found  that 
when  they  are  in  a  paste-feeding  humour,  the  plain  kills 
just  as  well  as  the  sweet.  Paste  will  not  stand  a  heavy 
current  long,  so  that  the  hook  should  be  frequently  looked 
at,  and  a  small  triangle  will  be  found  more  serviceable  than 
a  single  hook,  holding  the  paste  much  better  together. 
Gentles,  again,  sometimes  exercise  a  powerful  attraction  ; 
they  are  best  used  on  a  diminutive  triangle,  ground-baiting 
with  plenty  of  "carrion,"  and  using  liver  gentles  for  the 
hook.  Bream  seek  the  deep  secluded  parts  of  ponds  and 
lakes,  and  thrive  amazingly  in  favourable  waters,  such  as 
have  a  bottom  of  an  oozy,  sandy  nature,  and  where  the 
sides  have  an  edging  of  weed-beds,  lilies  and  water-flags. 
Here,  in  the  hot  weather,  they  will  be  found  rolling 
and  tumbling  about  in  the  weeds,  to  which  they  resort 
for  shade  and  shelter  during  the  heat  of  the  day.  In 
some  waters  that  can  be  fished  only  from  the  side, 
a  long  rod  is  really  needful,  so  as  to  clear  the  weeds. 
At  all  times,  however,  cumbersome  and  heavy,  a  long 
rod,  where  running  tackle  is  employed,  becomes  an  abomi- 
nable nuisance,  from  the  difficulty  in  unshipping  a 
joint  to  allow  landing  the  fish.  I  should,  then,  always 


;i8   PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

advise,  whenever  practicable,  the  use  of  a  short  one — of,  say 
12  or  14  feet,  with  strong  yet  fine-running  tackle  of  plaited 
silk.  When  the  proper  depth  has  been  obtained,  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  line  to  ensure  reaching  the  desired 
spot  may  be  drawn  from  the  reel  and  taken  out  in  a  loop 
from  the  bottom  ring  of  the  rod  and  the  reel  itself.  It 
may  then,  when  drawn  fairly  taut,  be  hitched  over  a  tiny 
twig,  or  a  blade  of  stout  grass  projecting  from  the  ground, 
and  the  piscator,  taking  up  the  rod  and  giving  the  float 
and  the  shotted  line  a  swing  in  the  desired  direction,  will 
find  that  the  light  line  flies  easily  through  the  rings  after 
the  weighted  portion,  and,  with  a  little  practice,  almost  any 
part  of  a  pond  may  be  easily  reached.  In  a  gastronomic 
point  of  view  the  bream  has  always  been  held  up  to  execra- 
tion. Here  is  a  recipe  for  cooking  a  river  fish  of,  say 
3  or  4  pound  weight : — Cleanse  him  and  lay  him  in  salt 
and  water  one  hour ;  stuff  with  a  rich  veal  stuffing  and 
bake  him — plentifully  anointed  with  good  butter — in  a  slow 
oven,  until  the  meat  comes  easily  from  the  bones.  Serve 
him  up,  hot  and  hot,  with  cayenne  pepper  and  lemon  juice. 
Carpers  may  say — I  don't  mean  carp-eaters  or  carp-fishers 
—that  the  veal-stuffing,  lemon  juice  and  butter,  are  the 
only  parts  of  the  dish  worth  going  in  for ;  it  may  be  so,  but 
I  have  found  the  fish  very  toothsome. 

DACE  FISHING. 

Dace  are  found  in  most  of  our  English  rivers,  streams 
and  brooks,  and  will  thrive  well  in  either  swiftly  running 
water,  or  in  slower  streams,  so  long  as  there  is  a  fresh 
supply  coming  from  the  head  or  from  the  feeders  running 
into  it  To  the  beginner  in  fly-fishing,  we  have  no  fish 
indigenous  to  our  waters  that  gives  such  good  practice 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     519 

to  the  learner  as  the  one  under  notice,  for  during  the 
spring  and  summer  months  the  dace  rises  greedily  at  small 
flies  and  insects  of  various  kinds,  and  is  besides  so  brave 
and  dashing  in  his  attempts  to  escape  when  hooked  upon 
fine  tackle,  that  he  gets  the  pupil's  hand  well  in  for 
higher  and  nobler  game.  He  is  an  extremely  handsome 
fish,  and  elegantly  shaped,  the  head  small,  with  the  irides 
of  the  eyes  a  pale  yellow,  the  body  lengthy  and  the  tail 
well  forked  ;  the  scales  are  much  smaller  than  those  of  the 
roach,  and  have  a  brilliant  silvery  gloss  predominating  over 
a  cast  of  yellowish  green ;  the  back  is  of  a  dusky  green 
tint,  the  belly  white,  the  ventral,  anal  and  caudal  fins 
of  a  pale  reddish  hue.  In  the  Thames  they  are  seldom 
taken  of  any  great  size,  but  in  the  Lea,  and  particularly 
above  Ware  and  Hertford,  they  run  much  larger ;  while 
in  the  Lark  and  Linnet — the  former  a  tributary  of  the 
Ouse,  of  Suffolk  and  Cambridge,  the  latter  another 
tributary  stream  joining  the  Lark  near  Bury — it  is  said 
that  they  attain  a  pound  or  more  in  weight.  Personally, 
however,  I  have  never  seen  anything  approaching  this  size, 
and  shall  be  inclined  to  take  such  statements  cum  grano, 
although  Pennant  gives  an  account  of  one  that  weighed  a 
pound  and  a  half,  and  Linnaeus  says  that  it  grows  to  a  foot 
and  a  half  in  some  countries.  The  most  likely  localities  in 
which  to  find  these  fish  is  in  the  vicinity  of  rapid  currents, 
sharps  and  eddies  ;  the  point  of  .junction  between  two 
streams  is  another  habitat,  while  mill-races  and  the  tail  of 
a  mill-run  are  nearly  always  sure  finds,  and  here  they  will 
work  up  among  the  sharpest  streams,  and  in  the  froth 
and  foam  of  the  most  turbulent  looking  water.  In  cold 
and  stormy  weather  they  leave  their  favourite  gravelly 
scours,  and  seek  deeper  and  more  subtle  water,  where  the 
bottom  is  marly  or  clayey  in  character,  and  here  they  are 


520    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

more  likely  to  be  taken  by  means  of  bottom  fishing. 
Spawning  somewhere  about  the  middle  of  March,  or  the 
beginning  of  April,  it  is  a  wonderful  sight  to  watch  a  school 
of  these  fish  upon  the  spawning  beds,  working  and  burrow- 
ing amongst  the  sand  and  gravel,  in  active  preparation  for 
the  deposition  of  their  ova,  and  upon  favourable  ground, 
countless  thousands  may  be  frequently  noticed  by  the 
attentive  observer ;  while  so  intent  are  the  little  fellows 
upon  the  object  at  issue,  that  they  seemingly  take  not  the 
slightest  notice  of  lookers  on.  Always  provided  they  keep 
tolerably  quiet,  and  don't  throw  brickbats  among  them — a 
little  amusement  I  saw  practised  some  few  years  ago  on  the 
Maidenhead  shallows,  by  some  of  the  thoughtless  men  who 
make  camping  out  an  amusement  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Thames  as  soon  as  the  sun  has  fairly  made  his  appearance 
for  the  summer  season.  In  bottom  fishing  for  dace,  there 
is  little,  if  any,  difference  to  that  practised  in  roach-fishing ; 
at  any  rate  the  same  tackle  will  kill  equally  well.  It  is, 
however,  in  the  autumn  months  that  the  best  sport  can  be 
obtained,  when  they,  like  the  roach,  have  retired  to  the 
deeper  portions  of  the  river.  In  the  earlier  periods  of  the 
year  dace  will  feed  greedily,  occasionally  upon  worms  of 
all  kinds,  and  the  little  red  worm  in  particular,  as  well  as 
the  larvse  of  beetles,  grubs,  wasps  and  caddis  worms.  In 
the  hotter  months,  such  as  June,  July  and  August,  if  the 
angler  chooses  to  try  for  them  on  the  bottom,  no  bait  is  so 
killing  as  gentles,  well  scoured  and  cleansed  in  sand,  and 
thus  rendered  tough  and  lasting  on  the  hook.  Some 
pieces  of  greaves,  of  which  dace  are  extravagantly  fond, 
are  another  excellent  bait  for  them,  and  many  an  anathema 
has  this  fish  to  put  up  with  from  the  barbel-fisher  when 
legering  with  this  substance,  in  return  for  the  multitude  of 
sharp  tugging  bites — very  different,  however,  to  that  of  a 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    521 

barbel — that  he  favours  the  angler  with  at  such  times.  A 
capital  plan  for  their  capture  when  they  come  upon  a 
barbel  swim,  is  to  fit  up  a  small  hook  upon  a  length  of  gut, 
and  so  affixed  to  the  leger  bottom  that  it  hangs  close  to 
the  larger  lump  of  greaves  destined  for  the  bigger  fish — 
thus,  when  these  little  pests,  at  such  times,  rush  at  the  big 
piece  of  greaves,  one  or  other  of  their  number  is  certain  to 
swallow  the  small  bit,  and  come  to  bag,  where  one  might 
strike  all  day  at  their  sharp  tugs  at  the  larger  baits,  without 
once  hooking  one  of  them.  It  is  always  a  good  sign  when 
dace  on  a  sudden  cease  biting  on  a  barbel  swim.  Rely  upon 
it,  that  larger  fish  have  hustled  the  little  thieves  away,  and 
that  the  probabilities  are  that  while  barbel  or  chub  are  on 
the  bottom  inspecting  your  bait,  preparatory  to  a  final 
smack  at  it,  the  dace  have  risen  over  them  as  a  flight  of 
wood  pigeons  will  watch  a  hawk.  During  the  summer, 
supposing  the  angler  to  be  bottom  fishing,  it  is  always 
advisable  to  fish  rather  off  than  on  the  bottom  for  dace ; 
for,  unlike  the  roach,  they  seek  the  swifter  runs  of  water, 
such  as  the  angle  of  two  sharp  streams,  or  the  races  of  mill- 
wheels,  and  there,  stemming  the  current,  lie  poised  and 
waiting  for  chance  food  that  may  come  down.  In  such  a 
place,  where  eddies  and  back  currents  whirl  the  waters 
back  and  forth  in  tortuous  fashion,  drop  in  the  plummet, 
and  set  the  bait  four  or  five  inches  from  the  ground.  A 
light,  handy  rod  is  required,  a  little  springy  in  its  action, 
fine  running  tackle  and  a  fair  sized  cork  or  quill  float,  well 
shotted,  and  yet  of  such  buoyancy  as  to  resist  the  suction 
and  swirl  of  the  heavy  stream ;  then  let  the  stream  take 
the  baited  hook — and  the  lure  may  be  caddis,  red  worm, 
or  gentles — right  down  away  among  the  sharpest  whirls 
and  eddies.  Here  lie  the  dace,  and  the  instant  the  bait 
reaches  them  away  goes  the  float,  and  good  sport  ensues  at 


522    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

once,  for  dace  fight  hard  and  pluckily,  and  upon  such  fine 
tackle  as  this,  and  in  such  a  boil  of  water,  will  not  yield 
till  they've  had  a  sharp  fight  for  victory.  For  its  size 
nothing  plunges  more  violently  at  first,  and  proper  care 
should  always  be  taken  in  striking  a  fish  at  such  a  place, 
from  the  extreme  probability  that  a  trout  or  two  may  be 
lying  there,  and  that  one  of  the  spotted  beauties  may  have 
bolted  your  worm,  or  bunch  of  caddis  or  gentles.  In  ground 
baiting  for  dace  I  know  of  nothing  better  than  plenty  of 
carrion  gentles,  obtained  from  bone  boilers'  and  crushers' 
places  of  business.  These,  mixed  with  coarse  pollard  or 
bran,  and  put  loosely  into  balls  of  clay,  will  be  found  as 
useful  as  anything ;  but  care  should  be  exercised  in  the 
quantity  given,  as  dace  are  greedy  feeders  at  all  times, 
and  if  they  get  thoroughly  gorged  with  food,  will  cease 
biting  at  the  baited  hook,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

As  I  have  already  said,  no  better  practice  for  the  embryo 
trout-fisher  can  be  obtained  than  fly-fishing  for  dace.  An 
ordinary  trouting  rod  will  do  as  well  as  any ;  the  cast 
should  be  of  the  finest  gut,  and  two  or  three  flies  may  be 
used  tied  on  hooks  of  small  pattern :  when,  however,  a 
beginner  in  the  graceful  art  of  fly-fishing  is  desirous  of 
obtaining  instruction  and  accuracy  in  throwing  a  fly,  one 
only  is  sufficient.  Small  black  and  red  palmers  and  black 
enats  are  good  and  staple  flies  for  dace  whipping,  and 
occasionally,  if  the  black  flies  have  a  gentle  put  upon  the 
tip  of  the  hook's  point,  it  seems  to  possess  extraordinary 
attractive  qualities,  and  the  fish  will  dash  at  it  madly.  In 
lieu  of  gentles,  supposing  them  to  be  unattainable,  a  bit  of 
wash-leather  with  the  point  of  the  hook  pushed  through  it  will 
be  found  an  efficient  substitute.  The  best  method  of  fishing 
the  Thames  shallows  is  to  throw  from  a  boat,  having  a  heavy 
stone,  or,  better  still,  a  small  anchor,  so  as  to  effectually 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.     523 

moor  the  craft  whenever  a  likely  spot  is  reached.  The 
flies  may  then  be  cast  straight  down  the  stream  and  to  the 
right  and  left,  and  it  will  be  soon  apparent  to  the  angler 
whether  dace  are  on  the  shallows  or  no,  for  if  there  they 
will  likely  enough  come  with  a  rush  at  the  flies  at  once,  pro- 
vided the  weather  is  at  all  favourable  ;  if  they  are  not  there 
or  none  are  taken  after  ten  minutes'  time,  try  elsewhere. 

Capital  sport  as  is  obtained  with  the  artificial,  I  must 
confess  that  I  think  the  practice  of  blow  line  fishing  will 
beat  it  hollow,  and,  at  the  risk  of  repetition,  I  will  suggest 
that  whenever  shallows  and  likely  looking  scours  can  be 
reached  from  the  bank,  they  should  be  fished  in  the 
following  manner : — Use  a  lengthy,  light  and  stiff  rod,  with 
a  long  line  of  floss  silk,  which  can  be  obtained  at  any  of 
the  tackle  shops  for  this  particular  purpose,  and  should  be 
two  yards  at  least  beyond  the  length  of  the  rod  ;  then,  with 
a  small  hook  placed  carefully  between  the  shoulders  of  a 
bluebottle — at  all  times  a  most  deadly  lure — get  the  wind 
at  your  back,  and,  sheltered  from  view  by  a  bit  of  rising 
ground,  a  bush,  or  the  old  stump  of  a  tree,  let  the  breeze 
carry  the  light  floss  until  it  bellies  out,  clear  of  the  uplifted 
rod.  With  the  baited  hook  held  between  the  thumb  and 
finger  of  the  left  hand,  raise  the  point  of  the  rod,  and  at 
the  instant  a  puff  of  wind  comes,  release  the  fly,  gradually 
lowering  the  rod  until  it  drops  gently  and  naturally  upon 
the  surface  of  the  stream.  It  sometimes  happens,  from 
some  unaccountable  reason,  that  dace  will  not  take  the  fly 
when  upon  the  surface.  Supposing  that  this  occurs  and 
few  fish  are  observed  rising  over  ground  where  they  are 
known  to  lie,  and  those  which  do  rise  refuse  to  take  the  fly 
thrown,  perhaps,  directly  over  them,  put  on  the  hook-link 
of  gut  or  hair  a  single  shot,  and  let  the  insect  sink,  gently 
drawing  it  backwards  and  forwards  to  the  surface  of  the 


524    PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT. 

water  ;  by  these  means  many  fish  may  be  captured  that 
otherwise  would  have  gone  untouched.  The  ant  fly,  a 
winged  insect  found  in  the  interior  of  the  anthills,  is  a 
splendid  natural  bait  for  dace,  and  Walton  thus  gives 
instructions  for  their  capture  and  subsequent  keeping.  He 
sayS  : — «  Gather  them  alive  with  both  their  wings,  and  put 
them  into  a  glass  that  will  hold  a  quart  or  pottle  ;  first  put 
into  the  glass  a  handful  or  more  of  the  moist  earth  out  of 
which  you  gather  them,  and  as  much  of  the  roots  of  the 
grass  of  the  said  hillock,  and  then  put  in  the  flies,  gently, 
that  they  lose  not  their  wings  ;  lay  a  clod  of  earth  over  it, 
and  then  so  many  as  are  put  into  the  glass  without  bruising 
will  live  there  a  month  or  more,  and  be  always  in  readiness 
for  you  to  fish  with.  But  if  you  would  have  them  keep 
longer,  then  get  any  great  earthen  pot  or  barrel,  or  three 
or  four  gallons,  which  is  better,  then  wash  your  barrel  with 
water  and  honey,  and  having  put  into  it  a  quantity  of  earth 
and  grass  roots,  then  put  in  your  flies,  and  they  will  cover 
it,  and  will  live  a  quarter  of  a  year — these  in  any  stream 
and  clear  water  are  a  deadly  bait  for  roach  or  dace,  or  for 
a  chub."  So  far  as  culinary  properties  are  concerned,  the 
"silvery  dace"  has  little,  if  anything,  to  recommend  him, 
although  when  fried,  crisp  and  brown,  in  good  oil  or  lard, 
and  eaten  in  lieu  of  anything  better,  with  the  appetite 
engendered  by  a  long  ramble,  rod  in  hand,  by  the  brink  of 
some  sparkling  streamlet,  he  is  not  to  be  despised ;  and  I 
can  well  recollect  on  one  occasion,  when  cold,  wet,  and 
hungry,  I  got  back  to  a  little  village  "  pub.,"  at  which  I 
had  engaged  a  bed  for  the  night,  I  was  met  with  the 
comforting  assurance,  that  save  some  rusty  bacon,  and 
cheese  like  soap,  there  was  nothing  eatable  in  the  house.  I 
had,  however,  some  three  dozen  splendid  dace,  and  these  were 
forthwith  consigned  to  the  kitchen  for  my  supper  ;  presently 


PRACTICAL  LESSONS  IN  THE  GENTLE  CRAFT.    525 

they  appeared,  crisp  and  hot,  and  with  brown  bread  and 
butter,  pepper,  and  salt,  they  made  an  appetising  and 
savoury  meal — better  than  sprats,  at  any  rate.  Carefully 
wiped  dry,  and  placed  in  methylated  spirits  in  an  air-tight 
jar,  they  will  keep  wonderfully  well  and  make  grand  baits 
for  winter  jack  spinning. 


LITERATURE 


OF 


SEA   AND    RIVER    FISHING. 


BY 

J.  J.  MANLEY,  M.A., 

AUTHOR  OF  'NOTES  ON  FISH  AND  FISHING,'  ETC.,  ETC. 


VOL.  III. — H. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  PACK 

I.  THE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  FISHING  LITERATURE — CATA- 
LOGUES— LIBRARIES,  ETC.— AUTHORS  ON  THE  BIB- 
LIOGRAPHY OF  FISHING 531 

II.  AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING,  ETC.,  BEFORE 
THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  PRINTING  INTO  ENGLAND 
(1474  A.D.)  ...  ...  543 

III.  AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING,  FROM  THE 
INTRODUCTION  OF  PRINTING  INTO  ENGLAND  (1474 
A.D.)  TO  THE  TIME  OF  IZAAK  WALTON  (1653  A.D. 
FIRST  EDITION  OF  "THE  COMPLETE  ANGLER")  .  565 

IV.  IZAAK    WALTON— His    LITERARY    CONTEMPORARIESX 

AND  SUCCESSORS  TO  END  OF  CENTURY  XVII.         .    592 

V.  AUTHORS  ON  FISH  AND  FISHING  IN  CENTURY  XVIII.    612 
VI.  AUTHORS  ON  FISH  AND  FISHING  IN  CENTURY  XIX.  .    617 
VII.  THE  ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING      .        .        .        .637 
VIII.  THE  PERIODICAL  LITERATURE  OF   SEA  AND  RIVER 
FISHING  —  NEWSPAPERS  —  REVIEWS— MAGAZINES  — 
BOOKS   ON  SEA   FISHING,  ICHTHYOLOGY,  AND  PIS- 
CICULTURE—THE  LITERARY   "OUTCOME"  OF  THE 
FISHERIES  EXHIBITION  .        •        f        ,        ,        «      677 


INTRODUCTION. 


THOUGH  this  Handbook  far  exceeds  in  length  all  the 
other  members  of  that  large  family  to  which  the  Fisheries 
Exhibition  has  given  birth,  it  cannot  pretend  to  traverse 
thoroughly  all  the  ground  indicated  by  its  title.  The 
Literature  of  Sea  and  River  Fishing  is  so  extensive,  that 
within  the  present  compass  only  a  comparatively  brief 
survey  can  be  essayed ;  and  this  must  be  mainly  confined 
to  the  literary  productions  of  our  own  country.  Even 
the  names  of  many  English  authors  must  necessarily  be 
omitted,  and  the  chief  of  them  only  find  a  place. 

Necessarily,  too,  the  literature  of  Freshwater  Fishing  will 
take  up  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  space  at  com- 
mand, as  books  on  Sea  Fishing  are  limited  in  number,  and 
generally  speaking  of  a  purely  technical  or  commercial 
character. 

Criticism  has  not  been  indulged  in  to  any  great  degree 
in  the  following  pages,  as  the  Handbook  is  principally 
intended  to  be  a  work  of  "  reference,"  and  something  in  the 
way  of  a  "guide"  to  those  who  may  desire  to  form  a 
general  idea  of  the  extent  and  character  of  our  angling 
literature. 

The  quotations  introduced  may  strike  some  readers,  who 
are  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  subject,  as  somewhat 
"  hackneyed  " ;  but  necessarily  they  are  so,  because  they 

VOL.  HI. — H.  2  M 


530    LITERATURE   OF  SEA   AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

are  the  most  appropriate  and  best  illustrative  of  the 
matter  in  hand,  just  as  the  "beaten  paths"  of  travel  are 
"  beaten "  because  they  are  the  most  interesting  and 
striking.  A  considerable  portion  of  the  quotations  is  from 
authors  of  early  or  comparatively  early  periods,  whose 
works  are  not  so  easily  accessible  to  general  readers  as  are 
those  of  more  modern  date. 

Among  the  books  to  which  the  writer  is  indebted  are 
those  mentioned  towards  the  end  of  the  first  chapter ;  but 
he  would  specially  acknowledge  the  invaluable  assistance 
of  the  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  recently  published.  A  longer 
and  fuller  chronological  survey  of  piscatory,  and  especially 
of  purely  angling  literature  than  that  which  is  here  offered 
to  angling  and  other  readers,  has  not,  he  believes,  been 
hitherto  attempted ;  and,  without  the  aid  of  the  volume 
just  mentioned,  what  has  been  achieved  would  have  been 
almost  impossible. 

The  labour  has  not  been  a  slight  one ;  and  owing  to  the 
thousands  of  references  it  has  involved,  many  mistakes  in 
names,  dates,  and  other  details  may  have  been  made.  For 
these  he  pleads  indulgence  at  the  hands  of  his  readers ; 
and  concludes  these  preliminary  remarks  with  the  hope 
that  this  little  book,  like  the  historic  cod-fish  caught  in 
Lynn  Deeps,  in  1626,  with  three  literary  treatises  in  its 
stomach,  and  served  before  the  Vice- Chancellor  at  Cam- 
bridge, will  be  found  at  least  in  some  degree  to  contain 
"  good  learning  and  entertainment" 


LITERATURE 


OP 


SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  FISHING  LITERATURE — CATA- 
LOGUES —  LIBRARIES,  ETC.  —  AUTHORS  ON  THE 
BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  FISHING. 

THE  bibliography  of  Sea  and  River  Fishing,  and  especially 
of  the  latter,  in  itself  covers  such  an  enormous  field  that 
only  a  brief  glance  at  it  is  here  possible. 

The  various  "  Catalogues  "  of  books  which  have  from 
time  to  time  been  published,  as  containing  all  or  most  of 
the  known  works  on  piscatory  subjects,  first  claim  attention. 
For  several  generations  bibliophilists  and  bibliographers — 
several  of  whom  have  had  more  or  less  interest  in  pisca- 
tory pursuits — have  been  very  busy  in  their  researches  into 
angling  literature,  and  the  catalogues  of  such  literature 
have  gradually  been  growing  in  magnitude  and  biblio- 
graphical importance.  The  last  output  of  labour  from  this 
literary  mine  has  been  the  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  by  Messrs. 
T.  Westwood  and  T.  Satchell,  a  magnum  opus  in  every  sense 
of  the  words,  and  in  itself  a  history  of  angling  literature. 
From  this  it  may  be  gathered  that  there  are  in  existence 
about  a  score  of  general  catalogues  of  books  relating  to 

2    M    2 


532     LITERATURE  OP  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

fishing  and  fish,  of  which  a  large  proportion  deal  almost 
exclusively  with  the  subject  of  angling.  One  Rittershusius, 
as  far  back  as  1597,  in  the  Prolegomena  of  an  edition  of 
Oppian,  gives  a  Catalogue  of  those  who  besides  Oppian  have 
written  something  about  fish  ;  and  then,  after  a  long  gap,  we 
have,  printed  at  Altenburg  in  1750,  Kreysig's  list  of  ancient 
writers  on  hunting,  fishing,  and  other  rural  amusements. 
Enslin  followed  in  the  same  line  in  1823,  and  Engelmann 
ten  years  later ;  both  their  works  being  published  at  Berlin. 
In  1842  Schneider  published,  also  at  Berlin,  a  continuation 
of  the  labours  of  the  two  authors  last  mentioned.  But  of 
continental  contributors  to  this  branch  of  literary  knowledge 
D.  Mulder  Bosgoed,  librarian  of  the  Rotterdam  Library, 
stands  foremost.  He  published  his  Bibliotheca  Ichthyologia 
et  Piscatoria  in  1874,  a  work  of  great  comprehensiveness 
and  accuracy,  which,  up  to  its  date,  is  a  very  complete 
bibliography  of  angling,  and  contains  notices  of  books  on 
every  conceivable  subject  connected  with  fish  and  fishing, 
and  especially  of  those  published  on  the  Continent. 

But  it  is  with  the  piscatorial  bibliographers  of  our  country 
that  we  are  more  immediately  concerned.  Several  of  these 
to  a  great  extent  confined  themselves  to  compiling  cata- 
logues of  books  on  angling  proper,  but  others  have  taken 
a  more  comprehensive  line.  In  an  interleaved  copy 'of 
C.  Bowlker's  (of  Ludlow)  work  on  angling  (1806)  was 

found  a  MS.  List  of  Angling  Books y  by  White  of 

Crickhowell,  whose  library  was  dispersed  by  auction  about 
the  year  1806;  and  this  is  probably  the  first  catalogue  of 
its  kind  made  in  this  country.  It  is  now  in  the  Denison 
collection,  but  is  of  no  great  intrinsic  value.  The  first 
of  any  real  importance,  entitled  A  Catalogue  of  Books  on 
Angling ;  with  some  brief  Notices  of  several  of  their 
Authors,  compiled  by  Sir  Henry  Ellis,  was  published  in 


FISHING  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  533 

1811.  It  contained  a  list  of  between  seventy  and  eighty 
works ;  and,  aided  by  a  revised  copy  with  MS.  additions 
(now  in  the  Denison  collection),  Mr.  Pickering,  in  1836, 
published  his  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria,  increasing  the  number 
of  works  to  1 80,  with  an  intimation  that  his  catalogue  would 
"be  found  more  extensive  than  any  hitherto  published." 
J.  Wilson,  brother  of  Professor  Wilson  of  the  "  Noctes," 
published  a  catalogue  in  1840,  but  it  contained  only  100 
works,  as  he  confined  his  enumeration  very  strictly  to  those 
which  dealt  only  with  angling.  The  next  great  advance  in 
piscatorial  bibliography  was  made  in  1847  by  the  Rev. 
G.  W.  Bethune,  who,  though  hailing  from  the  United  States, 
we  must  for  the  nonce  consider  an  Englishman.  In  his 
edition  of  Izaak  Walton  he  gives  a  List  of  such  Works  as 
relate  to  Fish  and  Fishing ;  and  these  number  300,  exclu- 
sive of  those  on  ichthyology,  but  inclusive  of  Greek  and  Latin 
authors  who  give  descriptions  of  fishing,  some  of  which  will 
be  quoted  in  the  next  chapter.  The  next  important  cata- 
logue is  that  appended  by  Mr.  J.  Russell  Smith,  the  pub- 
lisher of  Soho  Square,  to  Blakey's  Angling  Literature  in 
1856.  It  was  professedly  based  on  the  catalogues  above 
mentioned,  and  excluded  works  "  which  only  treat  inciden- 
tally on  angling ; "  but  it  claimed  to  be  "  a  complete  list 
of  English  writers  on  ichthyology."  The  number  of  works 
mentioned  is  264.  By  the  way,  it  may  here  be  noted  that 
amongst  the  books  on  angling  belonging  to  the  writer 
of  these  notes,  he  has  a  reprint  of  the  Angler's  Progress,  by 
H.  Boaz,  written  in  1789.  This  reprint  was  published  by 
J.  H.  Burn,  of  Maiden  Lane,  in  1820;  and  in  it  is  the  fol- 
lowing advertisement:  "Preparing  for  the  Press,  and 
speedily  will  be  published,  A  Bibliographical  List  of  all 
the  books  written  either  for  the  improvement  in  or  that 
are  descriptive  of  the  Art  of  Angling."  The  writer  has 


534     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

never  seen  any  notice  of  the  actual  publication  of  this 
"  List,"  and  probably  it  was  never  printed.  Mr.  John 
Bartlett,  of  Boston,  U.S.,  has  published  a  most  interest- 
ing catalogue  of  his  own  valuable  collection  of  books  on 
fish  and  fishing. 

We  now  come  to  what  may  be  called  a  new  epoch  in  the 
history  of  angling  catalogues.  In  1861,  Mr.  T.  Westwood 
— who  wields  the  fishing-rod  as  ably  as  he  does  the  pen — 
presented  the  literary  and  angling  world  with  A  New  Bib- 
liotheca  Piscatoria  ;  or  a  General  Catalogue  of  A  ngling  and 
Fishing  Literature,  with  Biographical  Notes  and  Dates. 
This  was  a  more  ambitious  attempt  in  its  line  than  any 
which  preceded  it,  and  showed  a  marked  advance  in  its 
field  of  research.  The  author  laid  the  literature  of  all  lands 
under  contribution;  and  it  was  to  his  labours  that  Herr 
Bosgoed,  before  mentioned,  was  to  a  very  great  extent 
indebted,  as  he  himself  acknowledges,  in  the  compilation 
of  his  catalogue,  in  which  nearly  600  English  works  are 
enumerated. 

But  it  would  be  superfluous  to  dwell  on  the  contents  of 
Mr.  Westwood's  book,  as  the  new  and  long-expected  Bib- 
liotheca  Piscatoria,  already  referred  to,  the  joint  work  of 
Mr.  Westwood  and  Mr.  T.  Satchell,  has  been  published 
within  the  last  few  months.  As  Mr.  Westwood's  previous 
book,  like  Aaron's  rod  which  swallowed  up  the  serpents  of 
the  Egyptian  magicians,  had  swallowed  up  all  previous 
catalogues,  and  had  in  turn  been  assimilated  by  Herr 
Bosgoed,  so  now  the  last  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  has  incor- 
porated all  its  predecessors  in  this  and  every  other  country. 
It  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  masterful 
works  in  the  whole  range  of  bibliographical  literature ;  and 
though  of  necessity,  when  we  consider  its  subject-matter, 
there  must  still  remain  addenda  et  corrigenda,  it  may  be 


FISHING  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  535 

fairly  said  to  be  as  complete  as  it  could  well  be  made,  its 
authors  having  spared  neither  time  nor  pains  to  perfect  what 
has  evidently  been  to  them  a  real  "  labour  of  love."  Its 
publication  has  been  most  opportune  at  a  time  when  fish 
and  fishing  have  become  subjects  of  special  interest,  and 
anglers,  from  the  aristocratic  capturers  of  the  lordly  salmo 
salar  down  to  the  humble  pecheurs  a  la  ligne,  are  rightly 
called  "legion."  " Piscatoribus  sacrum"  inscribed  by 
Cotton  over  his  fishery-house  on  the  Dove,  might  be  the 
appropriate  motto  of  this  book  ;  as  anglers  will  find  within 
it  interest  and  instruction  to  the  full,  while  its  purely 
literary  value  is  almost  inestimable  from  the  wealth  of 
biographical  notes,  pithy  criticisms,  and  of  quaint  and 
piquant  quotations  scattered  throughout  its  pages.  As 
regards  its  actual  contents,  suffice  it  to  say  that,  compared 
with  Mr.  T.  Westwood's  Bibliotheca,  a  small  duodecimo 
volume  of  82  pages,  this  is  a  large  octavo  of  397.  That 
enumerated  600  works,  but  in  this,  as  may  be  learned  from 
the  preface,  there  are  3158  editions,  and  reprints  of  2148 
distinct  works  registered,  including  contributions  from  "  far 
Cathay."  Of  these  2465  have  been  personally  inspected — 
1685  in  the  Denison  collection,  482  in  the  British  Museum, 
and  348  in  other  libraries.  The  Parliamentary  papers  on 
fish  and  fishing,  which  have  been  included,  amount  to  727, 
together  with  the  titles  of  341  Acts  of  Parliament ;  and 
a  separate  and  exhaustive  list  is  also  added  of  works  on 
Pisciculture.  This  will  give  some  idea  of  the  marvellous 
store  of  piscatory  information  contained  in,  or  suggested 
by,  the  volume,  which  has  been  well  and  by  no  means 
hyperbolically  described  as  a  "hagiography  for  the  enthu- 
siastic followers  of  Walton ;  a  substantial  help  to  the 
bibliographer ;  a  series  of  finger-posts  by  the  side  of 
English  history  to  guide  the  curious  student  of  diversions 


536     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

which  found  favour  with  our  forefathers ;  an  amusement 
for  the  idle  angler  as  he  notes  the  names  of  those  dis- 
tinguished of  old  in  his  craft ;  and  a  veritable  delight  to 
the  scholarly  fisherman."  In  a  word,  it  is  a  literary 
treasure  of  which  not  only  anglers  but  the  nation  may 
be  justly  proud ;  and  which,  though  only  nominally  a 
"catalogue,"  is  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the  Literature 
of  Sea  and  River  Fishing. 

It  may  be  here  mentioned  that  Professor  Brown  Goode, 
who  has  so  ably  represented  the  United  States  Section  at 
the  Fisheries  Exhibition,  has  for  some  years  been  engaged 
in  the  compilation  of  an  elaborate  bibliography  of  ichthy- 
ology, fisheries,  and  fish  culture,  which  will  doubtless  prove 
of  great  value  to  all  interested  in  fish  and  fishing  in  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

In  addition  to  the  general  catalogues  which  are  given  in 
the  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria,  there  is  a  very  interesting  list  of 
over  twenty  "  sale  "  catalogues,  in  which  books  on  angling 
are  a  special  feature.  Most  of  these  sales  were  conducted  by 
the  well-known  firm  in  which  the  name  of  "Sotheby" 
occurs,  and  they  stretch  over  a  considerable  number  of 
years.  Among  them  is  the  notice  of  the  sale,  in  March 
1854,  of  the  "valuable  and  unique  private  library  of  Mr. 
W.  P.  [William  Pickering,  before  mentioned],  consisting  of . . . 
works  on  angling,  embracing  the  first  five  and  almost 
every  other  edition  of  Izaak  Walton's  Complete  Angler,  and 
also  the  works  of  all  his  favourite  authors."  Also  the  notice 
of  the  sale,  in  July  1869,  of  the  library  of  Sir  H.  E.  Ellis, 
above  mentioned.  In  some  cases  the  price,  which  rare 
editions  of  Walton  and  other  angling  authors  fetched,  is 
given  ;  as,  for  instance,  £92  for  an  illustrated  edition  of 
Walton  and  Cotton,  published  by  Pickering,  and  £27  for  a 
copy  of  the  fourth  edition  of  Secrets  of  A  ngling,  by  J.  D.,  at 


FISHING  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  537 

the  sale  of  the  Rev.  F.  Corser's  library  in  1869 ;  £6$  for  an 
illustrated  Walton  at  the  sale  of  W.  S.  Higgs's  library  in 
1830;  and  £40  for  a  Dr.  Gardiner's  Booke  of  Angling  or 
Fishing  (1606),  at  the  sale  of  Mr.  Lynch  Cotton's  collection 
in  1856.  Dr.  Dibden,  in  his  Bibliomania,  rightly  says  that 
"catalogues  are  to  bibliographers  what  reports  are  to 
lawyers — not  to  be  read  through  from  end  to  end,  but  to  be 
consulted  on  doubtful  points."  When  priced,  and  with 
purchasers'  names,  their  importance,  both  as  standards  of 
value  and  means  of  tracing  the  proprietorship  of  rare  and 
curious  books,  is  sufficiently  obvious.  The  present  seems 
to  be  an  age  of  Bibliothecas ;  and  it  may  be  incidentally 
mentioned  that  among  recent  productions  of  this  character 
the  Bibliotheca  Nicotiana — *  A  Catalogue  of  Books  about 
Tobacco ' — which  mentions  over  400  works  of  various 
kinds,  and  was  privately  printed  in  1880,  in  connection  with 
Mr.  Bragge's  collection  of  books  and  objects  connected 
with  tobacco,  is  almost  as  great  a  success  as  the  Bibliotheca 
Piscatoria. 

Speaking  of  piscatorial  libraries,  the  authors  of  the 
Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  acknowledge  their  indebtedness  to 
several  private  collections,  including  those  of  Mr.  Joseph 
Grego,  and  Mr.  Alfred  Denison  of  Albemarle  Street.  The 
former  is  a  large  collection,  principally  of  old  English 
books,  many  of  them  very  scarce,  which  had  taken  fifty 
years  of  patient  labour  to  collect.  Anglers  and  biblio- 
philists  of  this  country  will  regret  to  hear  that  they  have 
recently  found  a  new  owner  in  the  United  States,  whither 
so  many  piscatory  libraries,  or  the  pick  of  them,  are  con- 
stantly making  their  way.  The  library  of  Mr.  Denison,  of 
Albemarle  Street,  access  to  which  the  writer  most  grate- 
fully acknowledges,  may  truly  be  said  to  be  unique,  both 
for  the  number  and  value  of  its  books  on  angling,  and 


538      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

indeed  on  all  matters  connected  with  fish  and  fishing.  It 
numbers  about  3,000  volumes,  and  yet  does  not  contain 
two-thirds  of  the  works  (or  rather,  editions)  mentioned 
in  the  BibliotJieca  Piscatoria.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
enlarge  on  the  enthusiastic  devotion  and  the  long  purse 
required  to  form  such  a  library,  or  on  its  literary  value,  as 
it  is  only  in  such  a  collection  that  the  most  rare  of  angling 
books  can  be  consulted.  Collectors  now  sigh  in  vain  for 
such  volumes,  and  hunters  of  old  bookstalls  and  other 
places  which  suggest  the  possible  presence  of  literary 
treasures  have  very  great  difficulty  in  finding  old  angling 
books.  The  value  of  these  is  constantly  rising  as  the 
search  for  them  increases,  and  bibliomania  becomes  more 
and  more  of  an  endemic.  Recently  the  writer  considered 
himself  fortunate  in  picking  up  one  of  the  volumes  by 
G.  M.  (Gervase  Markham),  dated  165.3,  which  includes  a 
dissertation  on  fishing.  Several  works  and  their  different 
editions  by  that  author  are  not  specially  scarce  ;  yet  the 
second  edition  of  his  Young  Sportsman's  Delight,  &c., 
though  imperfect,  is  now  worth  as  many  pounds  as  the 
first  sold  for  pence  in  1712.  The  only  perfect  copy  known 
to  be  in  existence  is  that  in  the  Denison  library.  Many 
of  the  works  in  this  grand  collection  are  almost  priceless. 
Among  others  there  are  two  editions  of  J.  D.'s  Secrets  of 
Angling,  of  the  second  and  third  of  which  there  are  no 
other  copies.  When  these  were  sold  at  Prince's  Sale  in  1858 
they  fetched  £6  and  £3  14^.  respectively;  but  it  would 
probably  require  two  o's  added  to  the  6  to  represent  the 
pounds  they  would  realise  now  if  offered  to  public  com- 
petition. Mr.  Denison  once  missed  another  valuable  edition 
of  J.  D.'s  Secrets ;  and  only  an  enthusiastic  collector  can 
sympathise  with  the  regret  he  feels  at  letting  slip  a  chance 
which  may  never  offer  itself  again.  Only  twice  in  this 


FISHING  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  539 

century  has  a  copy  of  Dame  Juliana  Berner's  Boke  been 
offered  in  an  auction-room.  A  well-known  dealer  in  such 
literary  pearls  of  great  price  secured  one  last  year  for 
600  guineas.  Mr.  Denison  has  since  become  the  happy 
possessor  of  the  other  in  exchange  for  £450. 

One  more  very  interesting  work  in  the  library  we  must 
briefly  glance  at.  It  was  privately  printed  for  Mr.  Denison 
himself  in  1872,  and  only  twenty-five  copies  were  struck  off. 
It  is  entitled,  A  literal  translation  into  English  of  the 
earliest  known  book  on  fowling  and  fish,  written  originally 
in  Flemish,  and  printed  in  the  year  1492.  The  Boecxken 
was  printed  (black-letter)  by  Matthias  van  der  Goes,  but 
also  contains  the  printer's  mark  of  Godfridus  Bach,  who 
married  Van  der  Goes'  widow.  It  contains  twenty-six 
chapters  of  a  very  few  lines  each,  in  eight  leaves,  with  six 
woodcuts,  and  gives  recipes  for  artificial  baits,  unguents, 
and  pastes,  and  the  periods  at  which  certain  fish  are  "  at 
their  best."  In  date  it  thus  has  the  priority  of  the  Book 
of  St.  A  Ibans,  as  far  as  fishing  goes. 

And  now  we  must  reluctantly  leave  this  storehouse  of 
literary  treasures,  so  admirably  bound  and  arranged,  in 
their  resting-places,  and  so  lovingly  cared  for  and  guarded. 
Habent  sua  fata  libelli ;  and  if  priceless  tomes,  which  re- 
ceive greater  attention  than  even  royal  nurselings,  have  any 
feelings,  they  must  rejoice  at  having  found  such  a  home  as 
that  in  Albemarle  Street,  where  they  are  the  very  joy  of 
the  soul  of  their  possessor,  and  we  hope  safe  for  a  very 
long  time  to  come  from  the  ups  and  downs  of  the  famous 
black-letter  volume  of  Dame  Juliana  Berners,  as  told  in 
Mr.  Blades's  charming  Enemies  of  Books. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  make  an  accurate  statement  as  to 
the  number  of  books  in  existence  on  angling  "  pure  and 
simple,"  as  so  many  works  in  a  greater  or  less  degree 


540      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

include  cognate  matter.  The  New  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria 
of  Westwood  (1861,  and  Supplement,  1869)  claimed  to 
"  include  650  distinct  works  on  the  sport "  of  angling  ;  but 
no  statement  appears  to  be  made  on  this  point  by  the 
authors  of  the  Bibliotheca  of  the  present  year.  Mr.  Charles 
Estcourt,  F.C.S.,  a  member  of  the  Manchester  Anglers' 
Association,  in  a  most  interesting  paper  on  the  "Biblio- 
graphy of  Angling,"  read  before  the  members,  and  pub- 
lished in  A  nglers*  Evenings,  says  that  "  the  mother-country 
possessed  in  1861  no  less  than  470  works  upon  fish  and 
fishing " ;  and  that  the  various  countries  of  the  world 
contributed  to  piscatory  literature,  as  regards  the  number 
of  works,  in  the  following  order  : — Great  Britain,  Germany, 
France,  America,  Italy,  Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Spain, 
and  Norway.  Also,  with  a  view  to  show  the  literary  position 
of  each  of  the  more  prominent  angling  countries,  he  gives 
the  following  table  as  the  result  of  an  analysis  of  publishers' 
lists  and  catalogues  up  to  the  month  of  September  1879 : — 

Britain.       Germany.      France.       America. 

Real  angling  works .     .     .  411  64  41            12 
Natural  history,  which  in-1) 

eludes  ichthyology,  pisci->  50  18  15              3 

culture,  &c j 

Poetry  and  rhyme    ...  37  ..  .. 

Reports 59             5  4 

Total.     ....      557  88  60  15 

In  this  list,  under  the  name  of  each  country,  are  included 
only  those  books  which  are  printed  in  the  language  of  that 
country.  The  grand  total  is  720,  of  which  Great  Britain 
contributes  more  than  three  times  as  many  as  the  other 
countries  put  together ;  thus  testifying  to  the  fact  that  she 
is  the  home  of,  and  great  international  instructress  in,  the 
"gentle  art."  But  after  all,  notwithstanding  the  above 


FISHING  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  541 

figures  and  statements,  we  do  not  seem  to  possess  a  really 
accurate  statement  as  to  the  relative  number  of  books  on 
angling  "pure  and  simple,"  and  on  other  piscatory  subjects, 
which  have  up  to  the  present  time  been  published  in  this 
and  other  countries. 

This  chapter  may  perhaps  be  appropriately  concluded 
with  the  mention  of  one  or  two  treatises  that  deal  with  the 
subject  in  hand,  so  that  readers  who  are  specially  interested 
in  piscatorial  bibliography  may  know  where  to  find  fuller 
information,  and  very  many  interesting  facts  connected  with 
it,  which  the  present  limitation  of  space  renders  it  impossible 
to  touch  on.     In  addition  to  the  "catalogues"  and  other 
works  above  referred  to,  such  as  Blakey's  Angling  Literature 
(J.  R.  Smith,  Soho  Square),  which,  by  the  way,  has  many 
inaccuracies  scattered  about  its  pages,  and  Mr.  Estcourt's 
paper  in  Anglers'  Evenings  (Abel  Hey  wood,  Manchester), 
may  be  mentioned  an  erudite  and  charming  little  volume 
by  Mr.  Osmund  Lambert,  entitled  Angling  Literature  in 
England  (Sampson  Low,  Marston  &  Co.,  London),  which 
briefly  surveys  the  whole  of  angling  bibliography.    Among 
articles  of  considerable   length   which   have   appeared   in 
current  literature  during  the  last  few  years,  the  reader  may 
be  referred  to  The  Fly -fisher  and  his  Library,  by  H.  R. 
Francis,  which  appeared  in  the  "  Cambridge  Essays "  in 
1856  (J.  W.  Parker  &  Son,  London),  most  pleasant  literary 
chit-chat,  but  necessarily  somewhat  discursive  and  limited 
in  its  range  ;  and  to  "  The  Angler's  Library "  in  the  July 
number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  the   current   year, 
wherein  will.be  found  much  curious  and  solid  information, 
as  well  as  light  and  entertaining  reading.     Blackwood  and 
other  magazines  have  also  of  late  years  contained  more  or 
less  lengthy  notices  on  the  bibliography  of  fishing ;  and  the 
volumes  of  Notes  and  Queries,  and  The  Angler  s  Note-Book 


542      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

(Satchell  &  Co.,  London),  may  be  consulted  with  pleasure 
and  profit.  Dr.  Badham's  A  ncient  and  Modern  Fish  Tattle 
is  another  book — one  of  the  most  interesting  ever  written 
on  fish  and  fishing — which  abounds  with  notes  on  piscatory 
bibliography. 


(   543   > 


CHAPTER  II. 

AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING,  ETC.,  BEFORE 
THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  PRINTING  INTO  ENGLAND, 
A.D.  14/4. 

IT  is  difficult  to  say  when  fishing  came  to  be  practised  by 
the  ancients  as  an  amusement.  Of  course  it  was  first 
resorted  to,  both  by  means  of  nets  and  of  hooks  and  lines, 
for  the  purpose  of  procuring  food.  But,  doubtless,  in  very 
early  times,  what  seems  to  be  the  instinctive  desire  of  man 
to  capture  animals  feres  natures,  led  him  to  pursue  fishing 
as  "  a  sport,"  and  not  merely  for  "  the  pot "  ;  and  many 
ancient  coins,  gems,  frescoes,  mural  inscriptions,  and 
other  "  antiquities "  preserved  to  the  present  day,  bear 
testimony  to  this  fact,  "the  angle"  being  frequently  re- 
presented. Certain  it  is,  too,  that  the  Greeks,  Romans, 
and  Egyptians,  during  what  may  be  called  the  historic 
period,  pursued  angling  as  a  pastime.  We  should  naturally, 
therefore,  expect  that  ancient  writers  would  allude  to,  if 
not  compose  treatises  on,  fishing  from  both  the  above 
points  of  view,  and  especially  from  that  of  "sport,"  as 
being  more  interesting  and  giving  wider  scope  for  descrip- 
tions both  in  prose  and  verse. 

Athenaeus — called  by  Suidas  ^pa^anKo^  a  term  which 
is  best  rendered  into  English  as  "a  literary  man" — who 
wrote  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  and  whose  pet 
subjects  seem  to  have  been  grammar  and  gastronomy,  cites 
in  his  writings  no  less  than  1,200  separate  works  and 
800  authors,  and  of  the  latter  the  names  of  a  very  large 
number  are  given  in  his  Deipnosophistce  ("  Banquet  of  the 


544     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Learned  ")  as  those  of  authors  who  had  written  on  fish  and 
fishing.  The  great  majority  of  their  compositions  are  un- 
fortunately lost  to  us,  but  their  names  are  a  testimony  to 
the  abundance  of  ancient  literature  of  the  net  and  angle. 

But  the  words  "ancient"  and  "literature"  are  very  com- 
prehensive, and  cover  a  very  wide  field  ;  and  it  may  be  a 
question  as  to  how  far  authors  who  only  incidentally  make 
mention  of,  or  very  briefly  describe,  fishing  of  various  kinds, 
should  be  included  among  contributors  to  angling  literature. 
Enthusiasts  in  this  matter  claim  among  them  the  authors 
of  several  books  in  the  Bible,  such  as  the  author  of  the 
Book  of  Job,  the  prophet  Amos,  Habakkuk,  and  Isaiah, 
the  prophecy  of  which  latter  concerning  the  destruction  of 
Egypt,  Bishop  Lowth  has  thus  translated  : — 

"  And  the  fishes  shall  mourn  and  lament ; 
All  those  that  cast  the  hook  in  the  river, 
And  those  that  spread  nets  on  the  surface  of  the  waters,  shall 

languish  ; 

And  they  that  work  the  fine  flax  shall  be  confounded, 
And  they  that  weave  net-work ; 
And  her  shores  shall  be  broken  up  ; 
Even  all  that  make  a  gain  of  pools  of  fish." 

But  the  Biblical  notices  of  fishing  are  really  only  evidences 
of  the  antiquity  of  the  practice,  and  of  the  "  engines  "  used 
in  its  prosecution.  Herodotus  is  claimed  as  a  piscatory 
author,  because  he  tells  us  of  the  fisheries  of  the  Lake  Mceris  ; 
and  of  course  Homer  is  pressed  into  the  service  in  conse- 
quence of  his  several  allusions  to  angling.  In  the  1 6th 
Iliad  (408),  for  instance,  reference  is  made  to  hook  and  line 
fishing,  and  the  passage  has  been  rather  freely  translated 
thus  : — 

"  As  from  some  rock  that  overhangs  the  flood 
The  silent  fisher  casts  the  insidious  food  ; 
With  fraudful  care  he  waits  the  finny  prize, 
And  sudden  lifts  it  quivering  to  the  skies." 


AUTHORS   ON  SEA   AND  RIVER  FISHING.       545 

In  the  1 2th  Odyssey  (251)  "a  very  long  fishing-rod"  is 
spoken  of;  and  in  a  passage  a  little  further  on  the  com- 
panions of  Ulysses  resort  to  fishing  "  with  crooked  hooks  "  ; 
and  yet  another  passage  refers  to  the  use  of  pieces  of  bullock's 
horn  in  fishing,  which,  by  the  way,  does  not  mean  that 
the  hook  was  made  of  this  material,  but  that  the  piece 
of  horn  was  slipped  down  the  line  to  prevent  the  fish 
biting  through  it.  The  Greek  tragedians  frequently  allude 
to  fishing.  Aristotle  shows  a  wonderful  knowledge  of  fish, 
and  in  his  Animalia  recognises  117  different  kinds.  Theo- 
critus, the  Sicilian,  who  flourished  about  270  B.C.,  and  of 
whose  Idylls  there  are  several  English  translations,  may 
fairly  claim  rank  as  an  ancient  piscatory  poet.  In  his 
2  ist  Idyll  a  fisherman  is  represented  as  recounting  a 
dream  of  the  previous  night — 

"  Methought  I  sat  upon  a  shelfy  steep, 
And  watch'd  the  fish  that  gamboll'd  in  the  deep." 

A  huge  one  takes  the  "bait  fallacious,  suspended  from 
his  rod  "  ;  and  then  is  described  the  "  playing  "  of  the  fish, 
as  best  it  could  be  played  in  an  era  before  winches  and 
running  lines  were  thought  of : — 

"  Bent  was  my  rod,  and  from  his  gills  the  blood 
With  crimson  stream  distain'd  the  silver  flood ; 
I  stretch'd  my  arm  out  lest  the  hook  should  break — 
The  flesh  so  vigorous,  and  my  hook  so  weak  ! 
Anxious  I  gaz'd  ;  he  struggled  to  be  gone  : 
You're  wounded — I'll  be  with  you,  friend,  anon — 
Still  do  you  tease  me  ? — for  he  plagu'd  me  sore. 
At  last,  quite  spent,  I  drew  him  safe  on  shore, 
Then  graspt  him  with  my  hand,  for  surer  hold  : 
A  noble  prize,  a  fish  of  solid  gold  ! " 

This  is  rather  a  poor  translation,  but  it  will  answer  its 
purpose.  Perhaps  that  by  Chapman  (Bohn,  1853)  is  the 
best. 

VOL.  in. — II;  2  N 


546      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Passing  on  to  later  times,  we  have  Virgil  in  his  Georgics 
singing, 

"  How  casting  nets  were  spread  in  shallow  brooks  ; 
Drags  in  the  deep,  and  baits  were  hung  on  hooks." 

And  after  the  Christian  era  we  have  Ovid  entering  the 
lists  of  angling  literature,  and  telling  us  in  his  Ars  Amatoria 
how 

"  The  wary  angler  in  the  winding  brook, 
Knows  what  the  fish  and  where  to  bait  his  hook  ;w 

and  how  he  plies  "  his  quivering  rod."  In  his  Halieuticon 
(if  the  fragment  be  rightly  credited  to  him,  which  some 
critics  question)  he  gives  us  much  genuine  angling  infor- 
mation, and  amusing  notices  of  the  expertness  of  different 
fish  in  escaping  from  the  angler's  hook.  Pliny  shows 
himself  a  learned  ichthyologist,  and  is  the  first  Latin  poet 
who  makes  even  cursory  mention  of  the  king  of  the  Sal- 
monidae  (S.  salar)  as  frequenting  rivers  in  Aquitaine.  He 
also  gives  many  most  interesting  accounts  of  the  modes  of 
capture  of  various  fish.  Here  is  one  of  the  capture  of  the 
Anthea,  which  is  quaint  in  itself,  and  quaint  in  the  words 
of  Ph.  Holland's  translation  : — 

"  When  the  time  serveth  there  goeth  forth  a  fisher  in  a  small 
boat  or  barge,  for  certaine  dales  together,  a  prettie  way  into  the 
sea,  clad  alwaies  in  apparell  of  one  and  the  same  colour,  at  one 
houre  and  to  the  same  place  still,  when  he  casteth  forth  a  bait  for 
the  fish.  But  the  fish  antheus  is  so  craftie  and  warie,  that  what- 
soever is  throwne  forth  hee  suspecteth  it  evermore  that  it  is  a 
meanes  to  surprise  him.  He  feareth  therefore  and  distrusteth; 
and  as  he  feareth,  so  is  he  as  warie ;  until  at  length,  after  much 
practice  and  often  using  this  device  of  flinging  meat  into  the 
same  place,  one  above  the  rest  groweth  so  hardy  and  bold  as  to 
bite  at  it  The  fisher  takes  good  mark  of  this  one  fish,  making 
sure  reckoning  that  he  will  bring  more  thither,  and  be  the  meanes 
that  he  shall  speed  his  hand  in  the  end.  At  length  this  harclie 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         547 

capitaine  meets  with  some  other  companions,  and  by  little  and 
little  he  cometh  every  day  better  accompanied  than  other,  until 
in  the  end  he  bringeth  with  him  infinite  troupes  and  squadrons 
together,  so  as  now  the  eldest  of  them  all  (as  craftie  as  they  bee) 
being  so  well  used  to  know  the  fisher,  that  they  will  snatch  meat 
out  of  his  hands;  then  he,  espying  his  time,  putteth  forth  an  hook 
with  a  bait,  and  speedily  with  a  quick  and  nimble  hand  whippeth 
them  out  of  the  water,  and  giveth  them  one  after  another  to  his 
companion  in  the  ship — who  ever,  as  they  be  snatched  up, 
latcheth  them  in  a  coarse  twille  or  covering,  and  keepes  them 
sure  ynough  from  either  strougling  or  squeaking,  that  they  should 
not  drive  the  rest  away.  The  speciall  thing  that  helpeth  this 
game  and  pretie  sport  is  to  know  the  capitaine  from  the  rest,  who 
brought  his  fellowes  to  this  feast,  and  to  take  heed  in  any  hand 
that  he  be  not  twicht  up  and  caught ;  and  therefore  the  fisher 
spareth  him,  that  he  may  flie  and  goe  to  some  other  flocke  for  to 
traine  them  to  the  like  banket.  Thus  you  see  the  manner  of 
fishing  for  these  anthiae. " 

Plutarch  also  tells  us  a  good  deal  about  fish  and  fishing, 
and  relates  the  well-known  story  of  the  angling  match 
between  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  which  makes  as  certain  an 
appearance  in  every  book  on  angling,  as  does  Macaulay's 
New  Zealander  on  the  ruins  of  London  Bridge  in  the  work 
of  every  writer  who  can  possibly  squeeze  him  into  his  pro- 
duction. Martial  shows  us  that  the  Romans  of  his  time 
knew  something  of  fly-fishing,  by  asking — 

"  Who  has  not  seen  the  scarus  rise, 
Decoy'd  and  kill'd  by  fraudful  flies  ?" 

But  we  learn  from  ^Elian,  a  contemporary  of  Martial, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  2nd  century,  that  this  art  was 
known  far  away  from  Rome.  In  Book  XV.,  Ch.  I.,  of  his 
De  Animalium  Naturd  he  says  (according  to  the  transla- 
tion from  Schneider's  edition  given  by  Mr.  Lambert)  : — 

"  I  have  heard  of  a  Macedonian  way  of  catching  fish,  and  it  is 
this  :  between  Beroca  and  Thessalonica  runs  a  river  called  the 

2    N    2 


548      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Astracus,  and  in  it  there  are/J/fc  with  spotted  (or  speckled)  skins; 
what  the  natives  of  the  country  call  them  you  had  better  ask  the 
Macedonians.     These  fish  feed  on  a  fly  which  is  peculiar  to  the 
country,  and  which  hovers  over  the  river.     It  is  not  like  flies 
found  elsewhere,  nor  does  it  resemble  a  wasp  in  appearance,  nor 
in  shape  would  one  justly  describe  it  as  a  midge  or  a  bee,  yet  it 
has  something  of  each  of  these.     In  boldness  it  is  like  a  fly,  in 
size  you  might  call  it  a  bee,  it  imitates  the  colour  of  the  wasp,  and 
it  hums  like  a  bee.     The  natives  call  it  the  Hippouros.     As  these 
flies  seek  their  food  over  the  river,  they  do  not  escape  the  obser- 
vation of  the  fish  swimming  below.     When  then  a  fish  observes 
a  fly  hovering  above,  it  swims  quietly  up,  fearing  to  agitate  the 
water,  lest  it  should  scare  away  its  prey,  then  coming  up  by  its 
shadow,  it  opens   its  jaws  and  gulps  down  the  fly,  like  a  wolf 
carrying  off  a  sheep  from  the  flock,  or  an  eagle  a  goose  from  the 
farmyard ;  having  done  this  it  withdraws  under  the  rippling  water. 
Now  though  the  fishermen  know  of  this,  they  do  not  use  these 
flies  at  all  for  bait  for  the  fish ;  for  if  a  man's  hand  touch  them, 
they  lose  their  colour,  their  wings  decay,  and  they  become  unfit 
for  food  for  the  fish.     For  this  reason  they  have  nothing  to  do 
with  them,  hating  them  for  their  bad  character ;  but  they  have 
planned  a  snare  for  the  fish,  and  get  the  better  of  them  by  their 
fisherman's  craft.     They  fasten  red  (crimson  red)  wool  round  a 
hook  and  fit  on  to  the  wool  two  feathers  which  grow  under  a 
cocks  wattles,  and  which  in  colour  are  like  wax.      Their   rod  is 
six  feet  long  and  the  line  is  of  the  same  length.    Then  they  throw 
their  snare,  and  the  fish,  attracted  and  maddened  by  the  colour, 
comes  up,  thinking  from  the  pretty  sight  to  get  a  dainty  mouthful; 
when,  however,  it  opens  its  jaws,  it  is  caught  by  the  hook  and 
enjoys  a  bitter  repast,  a  captive." 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  these  "  spotted "  fish 
were  some  kind  of  trout,  or  at  least  members  of  the 
Salmonidce  family,  who  are  still  so  open  to  having  a  rise 
taken  out  of  them  by  the  "  fraudful  fly."  ^Elian  also 
describes  minutely  a  variety  of  methods  of  fish  capture, 
and  among  them  a  very  singular  mode  of  taking  eels, 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         549 

which  is  a  much  more  ingenious  device  than  the  modern 
practice  of  "  sniggling "  with  a  mop  of  threaded  lob-worms. 
He  says  : — 

"  The  artful  eeler  pitches  upon  a  spot  favourable  for  his 
purpose  at  the  turn  of  a  stream,  and  lets  down  from  where  he 
stands,  on  the  high  bank,  some  cubits'  length  of  the  intestines  of 
a  sheep,  which,  carried  down  by  the  current,  is  eddied  and 
whirled  about,  and  presently  perceived  by  the  eels,  one  of  whom 
adventurously  gobbling  some  inches  at  the  nether  end,  endeavours 
to  drag  the  whole  away.  The  angler,  perceiving  this,  applies  the 
other  end,  which  is  fixed  to  a  long  tubular  reed  serving  in  lieu  of 
a  fishing-rod,  to  his  mouth,  and  blows  through  it  into  the  gut. 
The  gut  presently  swells,  and  the  fish  next  receiving  the  air  into 
his  mouth,  swells  too,  and  being  unable  to  extricate  his  teeth  is 
lugged  out,  adhering  to  the  inflated  intestine." 

JElian  also  speaks  of  the  Thymalus,  which  we  may  almost 
certainly  take  to  be  the  grayling,  as  he  assigns  it  to  the 
rivers  Ticeno  and  Adige,  in  which  it  still  abounds ;  the 
name  itself  is  still  associated  with  the  grayling,  which  has 
always  been  considered  to  emit  a  thyme-like  fragrance  ; 
and  the  fly,  in  accordance  with  what  -^Elian  says,  is  its 
favourite  food. 

A  voluminous  writer  on  fish  and  fishing,  who  chrono- 
logically next  presents  himself  for  mention  is  Oppian,  who 
was  born  in  the  year  183.  His  chief  work  was  his  Halieu- 
tics,  a  poem  of  five  books  in  Greek  hexameters,  which  he 
is  said  to  have  publicly  recited  in  a  theatre.  A  very  fair 
translation  of  it  is  that  of  Diaper  (not  Draper,  as  frequently 
given)  and  Jones  (Oxford,  1772).  Many  of  the  quotations 
from  his  writings,  in  their  English  form,  are  well  known  to 
all  readers  of  books  on  angling ;  but,  though  hackneyed, 
a  few  of  them  must  be  here  introduced.  The  modern 
angler  cannot  fail  to  enter  into  their  spirit,  and  feel  that  the 


550      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

fishermen  of  old  were  of  the  same  fraternity  as  "  brothers 
of  the  angle "  now.  This  is  how  JSlian  divides  fishermen 
into  classes  : — 

"  By  those  who  curious  have  their  art  defined, 
Three  sorts  of  fishers  are  distinct  assigned  ; 
The  first  in  hooks  delight,  here  some  prepare 
The  angler's  taper  length  and  twisted  hair  ; 
Others  the  tougher  heads  of  flax  entwine, 
But  firmer  hands  sustain  the  sturdy  line  ; 
A  third  prevails  by  more  compendious  ways, 
While  numerous  hooks  one  common  line  displays." 

The  following  is  a  capital  rendering  of  a  famous  pas- 
sage :— 

"A  bite  I     Hurrah  !  the  length'ning  line  extends, 
Above  the  tugging  fish  the  arch'd  reed  bends  ; 
He  struggles  hard,  and  noble  sport  will  yield, 
My  liege,  ere  wearied  out  he  quits  the  field. 
See  how  he  swims  up,  down,  and  now  athwart 
The  rapid  stream — now  pausing  as  in  thought ; 
And  now  you  force  him  from  the  azure  deep  ; 
He  mounts,  he  bends,  and  with  resilient  leap 
Bounds  into  air  !    There  see  the  dangler  twirl, 
Convulsive  start,  hang,  curl,  again  uncurl, 
Caper  once  more  like  young  Terpsichore 
In  giddy  gyres  above  the  sounding. sea, 
Till  near'd  you  seize  the  prize  with  steady  wrist, 
And  grasp  at  last  the  bright  funambulist." 

Here  is  another : — 

"  The  fisher,  standing  from  the  shallop's  head, 
Projects  the  length'ning  line  and  plunging  lead, 
Gently  retracts,  then  draws  it  in  apace, 
While  flocking  anthias  follow  and  give  chase 
As  men  their  foe,  so  these  pursue  their  fate, 
And  closely  press  the  still  receding  bait. 
Nor  long  in  vain  the  tempting  morsel  pleads, 
A  hungry  anthia  seizes,  snaps,  and  bleeds  ; 
The  fraud  soon  felt,  he  flies  in  wild  dismay, 
Whiz  goes  the  line— begins  Piscator's  play  ! 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        551 

His  muscles  tense,  each  tendon  on  the  rack, 
Of  swelling  limbs,  broad  loins,  and  sinewy  back* 
Mark  yon  fine  form,  erect  with  rigid  brow, 
Like  stately  statue  sculptured  at  the  prow, 
From  wary  hand  who  pays  the  loosening  rein 
Manoeuvring  holds,  or  lets  it  run  again  ! 
And  see  !  the  anthia  not  a  moment  flags, 
Resists  each  pull,  and  'gainst  the  dragger  drags ; 
With  lashing  tail,  to  darkest  depths  below 
Shoots  headlong  down,  in  hopes  t'  evade  the  foe. 
'  Now  ply  your  oars,  my  lads  ! '  Piscator  bawls  ; 
The  huge  fish  plunges — down  Piscator  falls  ! 
A  second  plunge,  and,  lo  !  th'  ensanguined  twine 
Flies  through  his  fissured  fingers  to  the  brine. 
As  two  strong  combatants  of  balanced  might 
Force  first  essay,  then  practise  every  sleight, 
So  these  contend — awhile  a  well-matched  pair- 
Till  frantic  efforts  by  degrees  impair 
The  anthia's  strength,  who,  drain'd  of  vital  blood, 
Soon  staggers  feebly  through  the  foaming  flood, 
Then  dying,  turns  his  vast  unwieldy  bulk 
Reversed  upon  the  waves,  a  floating  hulk. 
Tow'd  to  his  side,  with  joy  Piscator  sees 
The  still  leviathin  ;  still  on  his  knees, 
With  arms  outstretch'd,  close  clasps  the  gurgling  throat, 
Makes  one  long  pull  and  hauls  him  in  the  boat." 

There  is  a  true  piscatorial  ring  about  these  lines.  So 
there  is  in  the  following,  which  describes  the  troller  making 
ready  his  line  for  the  capture  of  sea  fish,  much  after  the 
ashion  of  modern  trollers  in  fresh  water,  with  a  dace  or 
gudgeon  on  their  gorge-hook  : — 

"He  holds  the  labrax,  and  beneath  his  head 
Adjusts  with  care  an  oblong  shape  of  lead, 
Named  from  its  form  a  dolphin  ;  plumb'd  with  this 
The  bait  shoots  headlong  through  the  blue  abyss. 
The  bright  decoy  a  living  creature  seems, 
As  now  on  this  side,  now  on  that,  it  gleams, 
Till  some  dark  form  across  its  passage  flit, 
Pouches  the  lure,  and  finds  the  biter's  bit.*1 


552      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Oppian,  however,  recommends  as  a  bait  a  living  labrax, 
when  one  is  to  be  got.  Here  is  an  account  of  how  sargues 
or  sargs  (a  species  of  Sparidcz)  were  captured  in  ancient 
days.  The  biographers  of  these  fish  say  that  the  males 
are  extremely  uxorious,  and  fortunately  are  able  to  obtain 
the  hyper-mormonistic  accompaniment  of  at  least  a  hundred 
wives  apiece ;  and  further  that  the  tribe  have  such  a  strong 
affection  for  goats,  that  when  a  herd  come  down  to  bathe 
they  flock  to  the  place,  and  there  remain  for  a  long  time. 
Hence  the  fishermen  were  in  the  habit  of  dressing  them- 
selves in  gjoat-skins  and  skinning  the  water  of  the  poor 
sargs — Credat  Judceus — 

"  When  bleating  concerts  and  the  deeper  sound 
Of  shepherds  echo  through  the  vast  profound, 
With  eager  haste  th'  unwieldy  Sargos  move, 
By  nature  slow,  but  swift  to  meet  their  love  ; 
With  wanton  gambols  greet  the  horned  fair, 
Vault  o'er  the  waves  and  flutter  in  the  air ; 
Unhappy  lovers,  who  too  soon  shall  find, 
Their  pleasures  hollow  and  their  goats  unkind. 
Deceitful  swains,  the  fatal  hint  improve, 
And  arm  the  flattering  destinies  with  love. 
A  goat-skin  o'er  his  back  the  fisher  throws, 
And  sets  th'  erected  horns  above  his  brows ; 
The  flesh  and  fat  incorporates  with  flour, 
And  scatters  o'er  the  flood  a  foodful  shower, 
The  fair  disguise  and  scented  victuals'  charms, 
With  joint  attraction  call  the  finny  swarms  ; 
They  round  the  mimic  goat  in  crowds  repair, 
Thoughtless  their  sports,  their  joys  are  insincere. 
Poor  ignorants  !  a  deadly  mate  they  find, 
His  shape  familiar,  but  estranged  his  mind. 
A  sturdy  rod  his  latent  hand  extends, 
The  flaxen  cordage  from  the  top  descends, 
The  fleshy  feet  of  goats  unhoof'd  conceal 
With  odoriferous  bait  the  barbed  steel  ; 
With  unsuspicious  haste  the  fish  devours, 
Mounts  to  the  jerk,  and  tumbles  on  the  shores." 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         553 

In  another  passage  he  relates  how  the  fishermen  of  the 
Tyrrhine  Sea  constructed  light  skiffs,  resembling  Xiphias, 
which  attracted  these  fish,  and  from  which  the  fishermen 
harpooned  them.  He  also  mentions  and  gives  the  use  of  a 
great  variety  of  ancient  nets,  to  which,  as  he  says,  he  might 
have  added  many  more  but  for  the  exigencies  of  verse  : — 

"  A  thousand  names  a  fisher  might  rehearse 
Of  nets,  intractable  in  smoother  verse." 

And  specially  he  describes  the  meshed  "  engine,"  used  for 
the  capture  of  tunny ;  so  immense,  complex,  and  intri- 
cate, that— 

"  Nets  like  a  city  to  the  floods  descend, 
And  bulwarks,  gates,  and  noble  streets  extend." 

He  thus  shows  that  the  ancients  kept  a  magnificent  stock 
of  nets,  and  probably  anticipated  in  many  instances  what 
we  imagined  to  be  modern  improvements  or  inventions. 

His  sketch  of  the  well-known  pilot  fish,  or  "whale's 
friend,"  is  very  pretty,  and  even  touching  : — 

"  Bold  in  the  front  the  little  pilot  glides, 
Averts  each  danger,  every  motion  guides ; 
With  grateful  joy  the  willing  whales  attend, 
Observe  the  leader  and  revere  the  friend  : 
True  to  the  little  chief  obsequious  roll, 
And  soothe  in  friendship's  charms  their  savage  soul. 
Between  the  distant  eyeballs  of  the  whale 
The  watchful  pilot  waves  his  faithful  tail, 
With  signs  expressive  points  the  doubtful  way, 
The  bulky  tyrants  doubt  not  to  obey, 
Implicit  trust  repose  in  him  alone, 
And  hear  and  see  with  senses  not  their  own ; 
To  him  the  important  reins  of  life  resign, 
And  every  self-preserving  care  decline." 

Under  the   Greek   name   "Echeneis,"   i.e.,   "stay-ship" 


554      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

(Latin    remora\    Oppian    well    describes    the    "sucking- 
fish":— 

"  Slender  his  shape,  his  length  a  cubit  ends, 
No  beauteous  spot  the  gloomy  race  commends  : 
An  eel-like  clinging  kind,  of  dusky  looks, 
His  jaws  display  tenacious  rows  of  hooks  ; 
The  sucking  fish  beneath,  with  secret  chains 
Within  his  teeth,  the  sailing  ship  detains." 

The "  cramp-fish "  of  the  Greeks,  or  torpedo  of  the 
moderns,  must  have  been  an  awkward  customer  to  tackle, 
if  Oppian's  description  be  correct : — 

"  The  cramp-fish  when  the  pungent  pain  alarms, 
Exerts  his  magic  pow'rs  and  passion'd  charms, 
Clings  round  the  line,  and  bids  th'  embrace  infuse 
From  fertile  cells  comprest  his  subtil  juice, 
Th'  aspiring  tide  its  restless  volume  rears, 
Rolls  up  the  steep  ascent  of  slipp'ry  hairs, 
Then  down  the  rod  with  easy  motion  slides, 
And  entering  in  the  fisher's  hand  subsides. 
On  every  point  an  icy  stiffness  steals, 
The  flowing  spirits  bind,  and  blood  congeals. 
Down  drops  the  rod  dismist,  and  floating  lies* 
Drawn  captive  in  its  turn,  the  fish's  prize. 

Some  of  Oppian's  best  bits  are  his  animated  descriptions 
of  fish  sea-fights,  in  which  the  combatants  are  as  intensely 
personified  as  his  Homeric  Greeks  and  Trojans  in  their 
hand-to-hand  combats  on  the  banks  of  the  Simois  and 
Scamander  But  unlike  mortal  heroes,  the  aqueous  bellig- 
erents of  Oppian  pull  each  other  to  pieces  without  any 
responsibility  on  their  part  or  shock  to  moral  sense  on 
ours : — 

«  Unwise  we  blame  the  rage  of  warring  fish, 
Who  urged  by  hunger  must  supply  the  wish  ; 
Whilst  cruel  man,  to  whom  his  ready  food 
Kind  earth  affords,  yet  thirsts  for  human  blood." 

From   Oppian  we  gather  that  the   ancients    were  well 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        555 

versed  in  the  use  of  all  kinds  of  medicated  and  scented 
pastes,  both  as  baits  and  ground-baits  for  fish,  and  also 
with  a  variety  of  intoxicants  and  narcotics,  by  which  fish 
could  be  rendered  senseless  and  capturable.  The  cyclamen, 

or  "  sow-bread,"  was  known  to  the  ancients,  as  it  is  to  the 

f 
Neapolitans  and  others  at  the  present  time,  as  having  a 

special  property   of  drugging  fish ;  and  the  poet  tells  us 

that— 

"  Soon  as  the  deadly  cyclamen  invades 
The  ill-starr'd  fishes  in  their  deep-sunk  glades, 
Emerging  quick  the  prescient  creatures  flee 
Their  rocky  fastnesses,  and  make  for  sea, 
Nor  respite  know  ;  the  slowly- working  bane 
Creeps  o'er  each  sense  and  poisons  every  vein, 
Then  pours  concentred  mischief  on  the  brain. 
Some  drugg'd,  like  men  o'ercome  with  recent  wine, 
Reel  to  and  fro,  and  stagger  through  the  brine  j 

.   Some  in  quick  circlets  whirl ;  some  'gainst  the  rocks 
Dash,  and  are  stunn'd  by  repercussive  shocks  ; 
Some  with  quench'd  orbs  or  filmy  eyeballs  thick 
Rush  on  the  nets  and  in  the  meshes  stick  ; 
In  coma  steep'd,  their  fins  some  feebly  ply  ; 
Some  in  tetanic  spasms  gasp  and  die  .... 
Soon  as  the  plashings  cease  and  stillness  reigns, 
The  jocund  crew  collect  and  count  their  gains." 

But  almost  irresistible  as  the  temptation  is  to  quote 
further  from  this  most  interesting  author,  even  in  his 
English  garb,  we  must  pass  on.  Arrian,  a  Greek  historian, 
who  lived  in  the  second  century,  and  rose  to  the  highest 
dignities  in  Rome,  furnishes  us  with  some  interesting 
details  of  an  almost  exclusively  ichthyophagous  com- 
munity in  India,  and  their  wonderful  skill,  both  in  the 
manufacture  and  use  of  nets  made  from  the  inner 
bark  of  palm-trees.  Towards  the  close  of  the  second 
century  we  have  Julius  Pollux,  a  Greek  writer  who,  in  one 
of  the  books  of  his  Onomasticon,  tells  us  a  good  deal  about 
fish  and  fishing. 


556      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

We  will  take  Ausonius  to  represent  the  fourth  century. 
He  is  a  notable  piscatory  writer,  and  is  the  first  Latin  poet 
who  mentions  the  salmon  under  its  present  title  : — 

"  Nee  te  puniceo  rutilantem  viscere  salmo 
Transierim." 

And  in  another  passage  : — 

"  Purpureusque  salar  stellatus  tergora  guttis." 

He  further  also  distinguishes  it  by  different  names,  accord- 
ing to  its  age,  as  it  is  distinguished  now ;  though  modern 
nomenclature,  varying  as  it  does  in  so  many  different 
districts  in  the  United  Kingdom,  leads  to  great  confusion, 
and  has  been  a  bar  to  the  advancement  of  knowledge  as 
regards  salmonoid  biology.  He  mentions  also  the  trout 
and  grayling,  the  latter  under  its  significant  title  of 
"  umbra  "  (umber),  given  it  because  of  its  quickly  passing 
out  of  sight  by  its  rapid  movements  like  a  "  shadow  "  : — 
"  Effugiens  oculis  celeri  umbra  natatu." 

Ausonius  seems  to  be  the  first  author  in  prose  or  poetry 
who  introduces  the  pike  or  jack  (Esox  lucius).  Thus  : — 

"  The  wary  luce,  midst  wrack  and  rushes  hid, 
The  scourge  and  terror  of  the  scaly  brood ;" 

and,  gastronomically  deprecating  him,  adds : — 

"  Unknown  at  friendship's  hospitable  board, 
Smokes  'midst  the  smoky  tavern's  coarsest  food." 

The  Mosella  (Moselle)  is  Ausonius's  chief  work,  in  which 
he  describes  the  beauty  of  the  river,  the  fish  therein,  and 
the  anglers  who  take  them  thereout.  Here  is  a  picture 
of  angling  in  the  passage  beginning  with  "Ille  autem 
scopulis  ; "  and  though  it  might  run  better  in  a  metrical 
translation,  reads  fairly  well  as  given  by  Mr.  Lambert : — 

"  While  the  other,  stooping  over  the  rocks  towards  the  waters 
below,  lowers  the  bending  top  of  his  limber  rod,  casting  his  hooks 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         557 

laden  with  killing  baits.  Upon  these  the  vagrant  crowd  of  fishes, 
unskilled  in  snares,  rush,  and  their  gaping  jaws  feel  too  late  the 
wounds  inflicted  by  the  hidden  steel;  their  quivering  tells  the 
fisherman  of  his  success,  and  the  wavy  rod  yields  to  the  quivering 
tremor  of  the  shaking  line  ;  and  at  once  the  angler  jerks  sideways 
his  stricken  prey  with  a  whistling  sound  (i.e.  the  rapidity  of  his 
action  in  bringing  out  his  line  makes  the  air  whistle).  The  air 
receives  the  blow,  as  when  it  resounds  with  the  cracking  of  a 
whip,  and  the  wind  hisses  from  the  air  in  motion.  The  watery 
spoils  (i.e.  caught  fish)  jump  on  the  diy  rocks,  and  dread  the 
death-dealing  beams  of  the  light  of  day.  They,  that  were  so  full 
of  vigour  in  their  native  waters,  spiritless  gasp  out  their  wasting 
lives  in  our  air ;  now  with  weakened  body  they  wriggle  feebly  on 
the  ground — the  torpid  tail  quivers  its  last ;  the  jaws  do  not  close, 
but  through  its  gills,  dying  it  gives  back  in  mortal  gasps  the 
breath  it  draws ;  as  when  the  wind  plays  on  the  fires  of  a  work- 
shop the  (opening)  mouth  of  the  beech-covered  (sided)  bellows 
alternately  draws  in  and  expels  the  blast.  Some  (fish)  I  have 
seen  even  at  the  point  of  death  gather  up  their  strength,  then 
spring  aloft  and  fling  their  curved  bodies  headlong  into  the 
stream  below  and  regain  enjoyment  of  the  waters  lost  to  hope  ; 
while  after  them  the  fisherman,  impatient  at  his  loss,  wildly  Jeaps, 
and  by  swimming  vainly  strives  to  grasp  them  again." 

It  has  been  suggested  by  Mr.  Lambert  that  as  the  Salme 
flows  into  the  Moselle,  it  was  probably  from  it  that  the 
salmon  took  its  name,  unless,  indeed,  it  was  the  fish  that 
gave  its  name  to  the  river,  just  as  "colours"  have  often 
given  their  names  to  "  materials."  Mr.  Lambert  also 
mentions  that  Ausonius  wrote  a  poem  "  on  the  oyster  " — 
a  subject  which  we  can  well  understand  does  not  readily 
lend  itself  to  poetical  treatment,  unless  the  "  blessed  bi- 
valve "  were  dilated  upon  as  being  happy  in  love,  as  well  as 
"  crossed  in  love,"  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion  in  The 
Critic  of  Sheridan. 

JEsop  in  the  sixth  century  introduced  fish  and  fishing 


558      LITERATURE  OP  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

into  his  fables ;  and  a  long  stride  brings  us  to  Cassianus 
Bassus,  who  flourished  in  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century. 
The  twentieth  book  of  his  Geoponica  is  almost  entirely 
devoted  to  fishing  and  baits. 

It  is  not  pretended  that  the  above-mentioned  authors 
exhaust  the  list  of  Greek,  Roman,  and  other  writers  on 
fish  and  fishing  during  the  first  ten  centuries ;  but  the 
extracts  given  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  subject  from 
very  early  times  gradually  gave  rise  to  a  literature  more  or 
less  its  own.  Authors  who  treated  of  the  vivaria^  or  -fish- 
stews  of  the  Romans,  might  be  quoted,  notably  Varro  (who 
wrote  De  Re  Rustica  in  his  eightieth  year),  Columella, 
Palladius,  and  several  others  also,  in  whose  works  a  good 
deal  of  halieutic  and  ichthyological  information  is  to  be 
found  scattered  up  and  down. 

Numberless  early  works  on  fish  and  fishing  have  been 
wholly  or  partially  lost  to  us,  among  which  may  be 
mentioned  those  of  piscatory  poets,  such  as  Numeneus  of 
Heraclea,  Ccecius  of  Argos,  Poseidonius  of  Corinth, 
Pancrates  the  Arcadian,  and  Leonidas  of  Tarentum.  Of 
these  only  a  few  fragments  have  been  preserved  ;  and  the 
following  translation  (Blackwood s  Magazine,  vol.  xxxviii.) 
of  an  "  Epitaph  of  an  Angler,"  by  the  last-named,  is  worth 
quoting : — 

"  Parmis,  the  son  of  Callignotus— he 
Who  troll'd  for  fish  the  margin  of  the  sea, 
Chief  of  his  craft,  whose  keen,  perceptive  search, 
The  kichle*,  scarus,  bait-devouring  perch, 
And  such  as  love  the  hollow  clefts,  and  those 
That  in  the  caverns  of  the  deep  repose, 
Could  not  escape— is  dead. 

Parmis  had  lured 

A  julis  from  its  rocky  haunts,  secured 
Between  his  teeth  the  slippery  pert,  when,  lo ! 
It  jerk'd  into  the  gullet  of  its  foe, 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        559 

Who  fell  beside  his  lines  and  hooks  and  rod, 
And  the  choked  fisher  sought  his  last  abode. 
His  dust  lies  here.     Stranger,  this  humble  grave 
An  angler  to  a  brother  angler  gave." 

The  "  Old  Fathers "  of  the  church  have  been  cited  as 
contributors  to  the  literature  offish  and  fishing,  such  as 
Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Basil,  Ambrose  of  Milan,  Athan- 
asius,  Augustine,  Isidore  of  Seville,  and  others ;  but  their 
contributions  in  most  cases  are  little  more  than  allusions. 
Isidore,  however,  in  his  De  Ordine  Creaturarum,  gives  an 
account  of  fish,  and  the  seas  and  rivers  they  inhabit ;  and 
the  well-known  passage,  referred  to  by  Izaak  Walton,  from 
the  Hexameron  ;  or,  the  Six  Days'  Work  of  Creation,  by  St. 
Ambrose,  anent  the  grayling  (Salmo  thymallus),  always 
deserves  to  be  quoted  as  a  happy  description.  The  trans- 
lation of  the  Latin  may  thus  run  : — 

"  Nor  shall  I  leave  thee  unhonoured  in  my  discourse,  O  Thy- 
mallus  (grayling),  whose  name  is  given  thee  by  a  flower  :  whether 
the  waters  of  the  Ticino  produce  thee  or  those  of  the  pleasant 
Atesis,  a  flower  thou  art.  In  fine,  the  common  saying  attests  it ; 
for  it  is  pleasantly  said  of  one  who  gives  out  an  agreeable  sweet- 
ness, he  smells  either  of  fish  or  flower :  thus  the  fragrance  of  the 
fish  is  asserted  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  flower.  What  is 
more  pleasing  than  thy  form?  more  delightful  than  thy  sweet- 
ness ?  more  fragrant  than  thy  smell  ?  The  fragrance  of  the 
honey  exhales  from  thy  body." 

So  gastronomically  enchanted  was  the  good  bishop  with 
the  grayling,  that  it  is  said  he  "never  let  it  pass  without 
the  honour  of  a  discourse." 

Perhaps  as  a  "  curiosity  of  literature "  connected  with 
fish,  the  sermon  said  to  have  been  delivered  by  St.  Anthony 
of  Padua  (351  to  356  A.D.),  to  a  "miraculous  congregation 
of  fishes,"  may  here  be  given.  It  is  taken  from  a  curious 


56o       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

little  volume  in  the  writer's  possession,  the  third  edition  of 
The  Anglers  Museum,  by  T.  Shirley,  the  first  edition  of 
which  was  published  in  1784.  The  sermon,  with  some 
introductory  and  closing  remarks,  was  prefixed  to  the  second 
edition,  and  altogether  stands  thus : — 

"  The  following  Curious  Sermon, 
preached  by  ST.  ANTHONY  of 
PADUA,  in  ITALY,  to  a  miraculous 
CONGREGATION  of  FISHES, 
extracted  from  ADDISON'S 
TRAVELS,  is  here  inserted 
for  the  Amusement  of  our 
READERS. 

"When  the  Hereticks  would  not  regard  his  preaching,  he 
betook  himself  to  the  seashore,  where  the  river  Marecchia  dis- 
embogues itself  into  the  Adriatic.  He  here  called  the  fish 
together  in  the  name  of  God,  that  they  might  hear  his  holy  word. 
The  fish  came  swimming  towards  him  in  such  vast  shoals,  both 
from  the  sea  and  river,  that  the  surface  of  the  water  was  quite 
covered  with  their  multitudes.  They  quickly  arranged  themselves 
according  to  their  several  species,  into  a  very  beautiful  congrega- 
tion ;  and,  like  so  many  rational  creatures,  presented  themselves 
before  him  to  hear  the  word  of  God.  St.  Antonio  was  so  struck 
with  the  miraculous  obedience  and  submission  of  these  poor 
animals,  that  he  found  a  secret  sweetness  distilling  upon  his  soul, 
and  at  last  addressed  himself  to  them  in  the  following  words  : — 

"'  Although  the  infinite  power  and  providence  of  God  (my 
dearly  beloved  fish)  discovers  itself  in  all  the  works  of  the 
creation,  as  in  the  heavens,  in  the  sun,  in  the  moon,  and  in  the 
stars ;  in  this  lower  world,  in  man,  and  in  other  perfect  creatures ; 
nevertheless,  the  goodness  of  the  Divine  Majesty  shines  out  in 
you  more  eminently,  and  appears  after  a  more  particular  manner, 
than  in  any  other  created  beings ;  for,  notwithstanding  you  are 
comprehended  under  the  name  of  reptiles,  partaking  in  a  middle 
nature  between  stone  and  beasts,  and  imprisoned  in  the  deep 
abyss  of  waters;  notwithstanding  you  are  tossed  among  the 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        561 

billows,  thrown  up  and  down  by  tempests,  deaf  to  hearing,  dumb 
to  speech,  and  terrible  to  behold ;  notwithstanding,  I  say,  these 
natural  disadvantages,  the  Divine  Greatness  shows  itself  ill  you 
after  a  very  wonderful  manner.  In  you  are  seen  the  mighty 
mysteries  of  an  infinite  goodness.  The  Holy  Scriptures  have 
always  made  use  of  you  as  the  types  and  shadows  of  some 
profound  sacrament.  Do  you  think  that  without  a  mystery  the 
first  present  that  God  Almighty  made  to  man  was  of  you? 
O  ye  fishes  !  Do  you  think  that  without  a  mystery  among  all 
creatures  and  animals  which  were  appointed  for  sacrifices,  you 
only  were  excepted  ?  O  ye  fishes !  Do  you  think  that  our 
Saviour  Christ,  next  to  the  Pascal  Lamb,  took  so  much  pleasure 
in  the  food  of  you  ?  O  you  fishes !  do  you  think  it  was  mere 
chance,  that  when  the  Redeemer  of  the  world  was  to  pay  a 
tribute  to  Caesar  he  thought  fit  to  find  it  in  the  mouth  of  a  fish  ? 
These  are  all  of  them  so  great  mysteries  and  sacraments,  that 
oblige  you  in  a  more  particular  manner  to  the  praises  of  your 
Creator.  It  is  from  God,  my  beloved  fish,  that  you  have  received 
being,  life,  motion,  and  sense.  It  is  He  that  has  given  you,  in 
compliance  with  your  own  natural  inclinations,  the  whole  world 
of  waters  for  your  habitations.  It  is  He  that  has  furnished  it 
with  lodgings,  chambers,  caverns,  grottos,  and  such  magnificent 
retirements  as  are  not  to  be  met  with  in  the  seats  of  kings,  or  in 
the  palaces  of  princes.  You  have  the  water  for  your  dwelling,  a 
clear  transparent  element,  brighter  than  chrystal;  you  can  see 
from  its  deepest  bottom  everything  that  passes  on  its  surface. 
You  have  the  eyes  of  a  lynx  or  of  an  Argus.  You  are  guided  by 
a  secret  and  unerring  principle,  delighting  in  everything  that 
may  be  beneficial  to  you,  and  avoiding  everything  that  may  be 
hurtful.  You  are  carried  on  by  a  hidden  instinct  to  preserve 
yourselves  and  to  propagate  your  species  ;  you  obey,  in  all  your 
actions,  works,  and  motions,  the  dictates  and  suggestions  of 
nature,  without  repugnancy  or  contradiction.  The  colds  of 
winter  and  the  heats  of  summer  are  equally  incapable  of  molesting 
you ;  a  serene  or  clouded  sky  are  indifferent  to  you ;  let  the  earth 
abound  in  fruits  or  be  cursed  with  scarcity,  it  has  no  influence  on 
your  welfare.  You  live  secure  in  rain,  and  thunders,  lightnings, 
and  earthquakes ;  you  have  no  concern  in  the  blossoms  of  spring 
VOL.  III. — H.  2  O 


562      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

or  in  the  glowings  of  summer,  in  the  fruits  of  autumn  or  the 
frosts  of  winter ;  you  are  not  solicitous  about  the  hours  or  days, 
months  or  years,  the  variableness  of  weather  or  changes  ot 
seasons.  In  what  dreadful  majesty,  in  what  wonderful  power,  in 
what  amazing  providence,  did  God  Almighty  distinguish  you 
among  all  the  species  of  creatures  that  perished  in  the  universal 
deluge!  You  only  were  insensible  of  the  mischief  that  laid 
waste  the  whole  world.  All  this,  as  I  have  already  told  you,  ought 
to  inspire  you  with  gratitude  and  praise  to  the  Divine  Majesty 
that  has  done  so  great  things  for  you,  granted  you  such  particular 
graces  and  privileges,  and  heaped  upon  you  such  distinguishing 
favours ;  and  since  all  this  you  cannot  employ  your  tongues  with 
praises  of  your  benefactor,  and  are  not  provided  with  words  to 
express  your  gratitude,  make  at  least  some  sign  of  reverence : 
bow  yourselves  at  his  name ;  give  some  show  of  gratitude ; 
according  to  the  best  of  your  capacities  express  your  thanks  in 
the  most  becoming  manner  you  are  able,  and  be  not  unmindful 
of  all  the  benefits  that  he  has  bestowed  on  you.' M 

He  had  no  sooner  done  speaking,  than,  behold  a  miracle ! 
The  fish,  as  though  they  had  been  endowed  with  reason, 
bowed  down  their  heads  with  all  the  marks  of  profound 
humility  and  devotion,  moving  their  bodies  up  and  down 
with  a  kind  of  fondness,  as  approving  what  had  been  spoken 
by  the  blessed  Father  St.  Antonio. 

The  legend  adds,  that  after  many  heretics  who  were 
present  at  the  miracle  had  been  converted  by  it,  the  saint 
gave  his  benediction  to  the  fishes  and  dismissed  them. 

Several  of  the  like  stories  of  St.  Anthony  are  repre- 
sented about  his  monument  in  a  basso-relievo. 

There  is  very  little  indeed  in  the  way  of  anything  on 
ichthyological  literature  to  dwell  on  between  the  close  of 
the  tenth  century  and  the  introduction  of  printing.  It  was 
a  period  very  barren  of  all  kinds  of  literature.  Blakey 
presses  into  the  service  of  angling  literature  of  this  period 
Juan  Ruiz,  a  Spaniard,  who  wrote  a  poem  called  The  Battle 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         563 

of  Mr.  Carnal  and  Mrs.  Lent,  in  1350,  fish  and  beasts  being 
represented  in  an  internecine  contest,  which  resulted  in  the 
victory  of  the  former.  But  this  is  hardly  to  our  purpose. 
A  recent  writer  on  angling  literature  states  that  the  oldest 
English  treatise  on  fishery  is  contained  in  the  Colloquy  of 
the  Saxon  yElfric ;  but  it  is  valueless  as  far  as  matter  is 
concerned,  though  the  list  of  both  salt  and  fresh  water  fish 
is  interesting.  A  record  of  the  different  modes  of  fishing 
with  worm,  fly,  torch  and  spear,  night  lines,  &c.,  is  to  be 
found  in  Richard  de  Fournival's  Latin  poem,  De  Vitula, 
supposed  to  have  been  written  in  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth 
century.  It  existed  only  in  manuscript  until  1861,  when  it 
was  printed  by  Aubry.  A  most  interesting  old  English 
poem  by  Piers  of  Fulham,  supposed  to  have  been  written 
about  the  year  1420,  contains  some  very  quaint  notices 
about  fish  and  their  capture.  It  is  entitled  "  Vayne  conseytes 
of  folysche  love  undyr  colour  of  fyscheng  and  fowlyng? 
Three  or  more  manuscripts  of  this  poem  are  in  existence. 
It  opens  thus  in  the  version  given  by  Blakey  : — 

"  A  man  thath  lovith  ffisshyng  and  ffowlyng  bothe, 
Ofte  tyme  that  lyff  shall  hym  be  lothe, 
In  see  in  ryver  in  ponde  or  in  poole, 
Off  that  crafte  thowe  he  knowe  the  scole, 
Thought  his  nett  never  so  wide  streiche, 
It  happith  full  ofte  hym  naught  to  ketche." 

The  author  was  evidently  a  good  sportsman  as  times 
went,  and  preferred  running  to  stagnant  waters,  though  in 
the  former  he  does  not  intend  to  stick  to  entirely  legitimate 
angling.  He  delivers  himself  on  this  wise  : — 

"  But  in  rennyng  ryvers  that  bee  commone, 
There  will  I  fisshe  and  taake  my  fortune 
Wyth  nettys,  and  with  angle  hookys, 
And  laye  weris,  and  spenteris  in  narrowe  brookys." 

2  O  2 


564      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

But  a  still  earlier  British  author  in  connection  with 
angling  is  a  Scotch  rhymster  called  Blind  Harry,  who  is 
credited  with  the  Poeticce,  in  which  lines  a  contention  about 
fishing  rights  between  Sir  William  Wallace  and  Lord  Percy 
is  related.  The  date  of  the  poem  is  put  toward  the  end 
of  the  fourteenth  century.  It  does  not  seem  to  be  recog- 
nised in  the  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria.  The  contention  de- 
scribed reminds  one  of  the  suggested  etymology  of  rivalry, 
from  rivus,  a  river;  and  certainly  the  constant  disputes 
about  "fishing  rights"  up  to  the  present  day,  e.g.  those 
connected  with  the  Thames,  which  are  still  sub  judice, 
favour  the  suggestioa 


(   565  ) 


CHAPTER  III. 

AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING,  FROM  THE 
INTRODUCTION  OF  PRINTING  INTO  ENGLAND  (1474 
A.D.)  TO  THE  TIME  OF  IZAAK  WALTON. 

THE  first  printed  book  connected  with  the  literature  of 
fishing  claims  England  as  its  nationality,  and  an  English 
lady  as  its  author.  It  is  known  as  the  Book  of  St. 
Albans,  and  was  written  (or  perhaps  it  might  be  more 
correct  to  say  "edited")  by  Dame  Juliana  Berners  (or 
Barnes),  or,  as  some  call  her,  Dame  Julyans,  and  even  plain 
"  Mrs.  Barnes,"  who  is  generally  believed  to  have  been  the 
Prioress  of  Sopwell,  near  St.  Albans.  Some  ruins  of  this 
still  remain,  and  can  easily  be  visited  by  anglers  who,  like 
the  writer,  have  the  privilege  of  whipping  the  Ver,  below 
the  city,  whose  ancient  name  of  Fmilamium  is  still  per- 
petuated by  this  pretty  trout-stream.  The  Book  of  Si. 
Albans  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  early  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  but  the  first  edition  of  it,  which  comprises 
discourses  on  hawking  and  hunting  and  "  other  commend- 
able treatyses,"  and  was  printed  by  the  "schoolmaster- 
printer"  of  St.  Albans  in  1486,  contains  nothing  about 
fishing.  The  next  edition  was  printed  by  the  famous 
printer  at  Westminster,  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  in  1496,  and  in 
this  appears,  as  an  addition  to  the  others,  a  Treatyse  of 
fysshynge.  Whether  the  good  and  learned  Dame  was  an 
angler  herself,  or  whether  she  ought  to  receive  the  full 
credit  of  originality  for  her  treatise  on  angling  (a  fact  which 


566      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

may  seriously  be  called  in  question,  judging  at  least  from 
an  old  MS.  of  much  earlier  date  in  the  Denison  collection), 
we  will  not  now  discuss.  Certain  it  is  that  she  wished  to 
encourage  the  art  of  angling  to  be  raised  in  public  estima- 
tion, as  the  following  paragraph  appended  to  her  discourse 
shows : — 

"  And  for  by  cause  that  this  present  treatyse  sholde  not  come 
to  the  hondys  of  eche  ydle  persone,  whyche  wolde  desire  it  yf  it 
were  emprynted  allone  by  itself,  and  put  in  a  lytyll  paunflet; 
therefore  I  haue  compylyd  it  in  a  greter  volume  of  dyuerse  bokys 
concernynge  to  gentyll  and  noble  men.  To  the  intent  that  the 
forsayd  ydle  persones  whyche  scholde  haue  but  lytyll  mesure  in 
the  sayd  dysporte  of  fysshyng  sholde  not  by  this  meane  vtterly 
dystroye  it." 

However,  the  good  Prioress  herself,  or  some  one  with  or 
without  her  consent— the  law  of  "  copyright "  then  being  as 
little  understood  or  observed  as  it  is  now — republished  the 
treatise  in  a  separate  form  in  the  same  year,  entitling  it 
The  Treatyse  of  Fysshynge  with  an  Angle.  It  was  "Im- 
printed at  London,  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  dwellynge  in 
Flete-street,  at  the  sygne  of  the  Sonne,"  and  must  have 
appeared  very  soon  after  the  second  edition  of  the  Book  of 
St.  Albans  in  1496.  Here,  then,  we  have  the  first  printed 
volume  of  our  angling  literature  ;  and  only  one  copy  of  it 
is  known  to  be  in  existence,  though  many  MS.  copies  of  it 
are  to  be  found  in  the  greater  libraries,  and  at  least  ten 
printed  editions  of  it  appeared  before  the  year  1600.  One 
of  the  best  fac-similes  of  the  treatise,  from  the  second 
edition  of  the  Book  of  St.  Albans  of  1496,  is  that  produced 
by  Mr.  Elliot  Stock  (Paternoster  Row),  in  1880,  with  a  most 
interesting  preface  by  the  Rev.  M.  G.  Watkins.  This,  like 
many  other  reprints  of  old  books,  which  are  one  of  the 
literary  fashions  of  the  day,  is  likely  soon  to  become  very 


A  UTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        567 

difficult  to  obtain,  only  a  limited  number  of  copies  having 
been  printed.  The  editions  of  the  combined  treatises  of 
Dame  Juliana  Berners  have  been  numerous.  Mr.  Stock  has 
also  reproduced  in  fac-simile  the  whole  of  the  original  Book 
of  1486. 

Looking  to  the  contents  of  the  Treaty 'se  of  Fysshynge 
itself,  admirers  of  old  authors  on  the  gentle  craft  can 
hardly  be  enthusiastic  in  its  praise  as  a  literary  production, 
nor  can  modern  anglers  derive  any  useful  knowledge  from 
it.  It  is  rather  as  a  literary  curiosity  than  as  a  book  of 
practical  value  that  it  must  be  regarded,  as  the  following 
extracts,  which  perhaps  had  better  be  given  in  the  more 
modern  English  of  later  editions,  will  show.  The  Dame 
introduces  her  subject  in  this  strain  : — 

"  Solomon  in  his  parables  saith  that  a  good  spirit  maketh  a 
flowering  age,  that  is,  a  fair  age  and  a  long.  And  sith  it  is  so  :  I 
ask  this  question  which  be  the  means  and  the  causes  that  induce 
a  man  into  a  merry  spirit?  Truly  to  my  best  discretion,  it 
seemeth  good  disports  and  honest  games  in  whom  a  man  joyeth 
without  any  repentance  after.  Then  followeth  it  that  good 
disports  and  honest  games  be  cause  of  man's  fair  age  and  long 
life.  And,  therefore,  now  will  I  choose  of  four  good  disports  and 
honest  games,  that  is  to  wit :  of  hunting,  hawking,  fishing,  and 
fowling." 

She  has  no  hesitation  in  saying,  "  The  best  to  my  simple 
discretion  which  is  fishing,  called  angling  with  a  rod,  and  a 
line,  and  a  hook,"  and  then  she  goes  on  to  contrast  it  with 
various  other  sports  : — 

"  Hunting  as  to  my  intent  is  too  laborious,  for  the  hunter  must 
always  run  and  follow  his  hounds  travelling  and  sweating  full  sore  ; 
he  bloweth  till  his  lips  blister ;  and  when  he  weneth  it  be  a  hare, 
full  oft  it  is  a  hedge-hog.  Thus  he  chaseth  and  wots  not  what. 
He  cometh  home  at  even,  rain-beaten,  pricked,  and  his  clothes 
torn,  wet  shod,  all  miry,  some  hound  lost,  some  surbat.  Such 


568       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

griefs  and  many  other  happeneth  unto  the  hunter,  which  for  dis- 
pleasance  of  them  that  love  it  I  dare  not  report.  Thus  truly  me 
seemeth  that  this  is  not  the  best  disport  and  game  of  the  said 
four.  The  disport  and  game  of  hawking  is  laborious  and  noisome 
also  as  me  seemeth ;  for  often  the  falconer  loseth  his  hawks,  as 
the  hunter  his  hounds,  then  is  his  game  and  his  disport  gone ; 
full  often  crieth  he  and  whistleth  till  that  he  be  right  evil  athirst. 
His  hawk  taketh  a  bow  and  list  not  once  on  him  reward ;  when 
he  would  have  her  for  to  flee,  then  will  she  bathe ;  with  misfeeding 
she  shall  have  the  fronce,  the  eye,  the  cray,  and  many  other  sick- 
nesses that  bring  them  to  the  souse.  Thus  by  proof  this  is  not 
the  best  game  and  disport  of  the  said  four.  The  disport  and 
game  of  fowling  me  seemeth  most  simple,  for  in  the  winter 
season  the  fowler  speedeth  not,  but  in  the  most  hardest  and 
coldest  weather ;  which  is  grievous ;  for  when  he  would  go  to  his 
gins  he  may  not  for  cold.  Many  a  gin  and  many  a  snare  he 
maketh ;  yet  sorrily  doth  he  fare ;  at  morn-tide  in  the  dew  he  is 
wet  shod  unto  his  tail  Many  other  such  I  could  tell,  but  dread 
of  meagre  maketh  me  for  to  leave.  Thus  me  seemeth  that 
hunting  and  hawking  and  also  fowling  be  so  laborious  and 
grievous,  that  none  of  them  may  perform  nor  be  very  mean  that 
induce  a  man  to  a  merry  spirit ;  which  is  cause  of  his  long  life 
according  unto  the  said  parable  of  Solomon." 

The  quaint  passage  is  worth  continuing : — 
"  Doubtless  then  followeth  it  that  it  must  needs  be  the  disport 
of  fishing  with  an  angle  :  for  all  other  manner  of  fishing  is  also 
laborious  and  grievous ;  often  making  folks  full  wet  and  cold, 
which  many  times  hath  been  seen  cause  of  great  infirmities. 
But  the  angler  may  have  no  cold  nor  no  disease,  but  if  he  be 
causer  himself.  For  he  may  not  lose  at  the  most  but  a  line  or  a 
hook  :  of  which  he  may  have  store  plenty  of  his  own  making  as 
this  simple  treatise  shall  teach  him.  So  then  his  loss  is  not 
grievous,  and  other  griefs  may  he  not  have,  saving  but  if  any  fish 
break  away  after  that  he  is  taken  on  the  hook,  or  else  that  he 
catch  nought :  which  be  not  grievous.  For  if  he  fail  of  one,  he 
may  not  fail  of  another,  if  he  doth  as  this  treatise  teacheth ;  but 
if  there  be  nought  in  the  water.  And  yet  at  the  least  he  hath  his 


A  UTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        569 

wholesome  walk  and  merry  at  his  ease,  a  sweet  air  of  the  sweet 
savour  of  the  mead  flowers,  that  maketh  him  hungry.  He 
heareth  the  melodious  harmony  of  fowls.  He  seeth  the  young 
swans,  herons,  ducks,  coots,  and  many  other  fowls  with  their 
broods ;  which  me  seemeth  better  than  all  the  noise  of  hounds,  the 
blast  of  horns,  and  the  cry  of  fowls  that  hunters,  falconers,  and 
fowlers  can  make.  And  if  the  angler  take  fish,  surely  there  is  no 
man  merrier  than  he  is  in  his  spirit.  Also  whoso  will  use  the 
game  of  angling,  he  must  rise  early,  which  thing  is  profitable  to 
man  in  this  wise,  that  is  to  wit,  most  to  the  heal  of  his  soul.  For 
it  shall  cause  him  to  be  holy,  and  to  the  heal  of  his  body,  for  it 
shall  cause  him  to  be  whole.  Also  to  the  increase  of  his  goods, 
for  it  shall  make  him  rich.  As  the  old  English  proverb  saith  in 
this  wise,  whoso  will  rise  early  shall  be  holy,  healthy,  and  zealous. 
Thus  have  I  proved  in  my  intent  that  the  disport  and  game  of 
angling  is  the  very  mean  and  cause  that  induceth  a  man  into  a 
merry  spirit :  which  after  the  said  parable  of  Solomon,  and  the 
said  doctrine  of  physic,  maketh  a  flowering  age  and  a  long.  And 
therefore  to  all  you  that  be  virtuous,  gentle,  and  free-born,  I 
write  and  make  this  simple  treatise,  following  by  which  ye  may 
have  the  full  craft  of  angling  to  disport  you  at  your  last,  to  the 
intent  that  your  age  may  the  more  flower  and  the  more  longer  to 
endure." 

A  curious  instance  of  literary  plagiarism  may  be  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  this  passage.  That  terribly  long- 
winded  but  entertaining  author,  old  Burton,  of  "  melancholy 
anatomy,"  evidently  had  it  in  his  eye  as  well  as  in  his  mind 
when  he  wrote — 

"  Fishing  is  akinde  of  hunting  by  water,  be  it  with  nets,  weeles, 
baits,  angling,  or  otherwise,  and  yields  all  out  as  much  pleasure  to 
some  men  as  dogs  or  hawks,  when  they  draw  their  fish  upon  the 
bank,"  saith  Nic.  Henselius,  Silesiographice,  cap.  3,  speaking  of 
that  extraordinary  delight  his  countrymen  took  in  fishing  and 
making  of  pooles.  James  Dubravius,  that  Moravian,  in  his  book 
De  Pise.,  telleth  how,  travelling  by  the  highway-side  in  Silesia,  he 
found  a  nobleman  booted  up  to  the  groins,  wading  himself,  pulling 


570     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

the  nets,  and  labouring  as  much  as  any  fisherman  of  them  all : 
and  when  some  belike  objected  to  him  the  baseness  of  his  office, 
he  excused  himself,  that  if  other  men  might  hunt  hares,  why  should 
not  he  hunt  carpes  ?  Many  gentlemen  in  like  sort,  with  us,  will 
wade  up  to  the  armholes,  upon  such  occasions,  and  voluntarily 
undertake  that  to  satisfie  their  pleasure,  which  a  poor  man  for  a 
good  stipend  would  scare  be  hired  to  undergo.  Plutarch,  in  his 
book  De  Soler.  Animal.,  speaks  against  all  fishing  as  a  filthy,  base, 
illiberall  imployment,  having  neither  wit  nor  perspicacity  in  it, 
nor  worth  the  labour.  But  he  that  shall  consider  the  variety  of 
baits,  for  all  seasons,  and  pretty  devices  which  our  anglers  have 
invented,  peculiar  lines,  false  flies,  severall  sleights,  &c.,  will  say, 
that  it  deserves  like  commendation,  requires  as  much  study  and 
perspicacity  as  the  rest,  and  is  to  be  preferred  before  many  of 
them ;  because  hawking  and  hunting  are  very  laborious,  much 
riding,  and  many  dangers  accompany  them ;  but  this  is  still  and 
quiet ;  and  if  so  be  the  angler  catch  no  fish,  yet  he  hath  a  whole- 
some walk  to  the  brook  side,  pleasant  shade,  by  the  sweet 
silver  streams ;  he  hath  good  air,  and  sweet  smels  of  fine  fresh 
meadow  flowers ;  he  hears  the  melodious  harmony  of  birds ;  he 
sees  the  swans,  herns,  ducks,  water  hens,  cootes,  &c.,  and  many 
other  fowle  with  their  brood,  which  he  thinketh  better  than  the 
noise  of  hounds,  or  blast  of  horns,  and  all  the  sport  that  they  can 
make." 

But  to  return  to  our  authoress — she  is  very  minute  in 
her  instructions  as  to  baits  and  tackle,  "roddes,"  and 
"harnays"  generally,  and  the  "  instrumentes  "  for  making 
them.  Among  several  curious  woodcuts  is  one  of  hooks  of 
eighteen  sizes  (of  something  like  the  "  Limerick "  bend), 
with  thick  shanks  and  beards,  which  she  says  are  "the 
most  subtle  and  hardest  craft  in  the  making  of  your 
harness  ; "  and  these  are  her  directions  for  their  production, 
given  (as  a  specimen)  in  the  old  spelling  :— 

"  For  smalle  fysshe  ye  shall  make  your  hokes  of  the  smalest 
quarell  nedlye  that  ye  can  fynd  of  stele,  and  in  this  wise.  Ye 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        571 

shall  put  the  quarell  in  a  redde  charkcole  fyre  tyll  that  it  be  of 
the  same  colour  that  the  fyre  is.  Thenne  take  hym  out  and  lete 
hym  kele,  and  ye  shall  fynde  hym  well  alayd  [alloyed]  for  to 
fyle.  Thenne  rayse  the  berde  with  your  knyfe,  and  make  the 
poynt  sharpe.  Thenne  alaye  him  agayn,  for  elles  he  woll  breke 
in  the  bendyng.  Thenne  bende  hym  lyke  to  the  bende  fyguryd 
hereafter  in  example.  Whan  the  hoke  is  bendyd  bete  the  hynder 
ende  abrode,  and  fyle  it  smothe  for  fretynge  of  thy  lyne.  Thenne 
put  it  in  the  fyre  agayn,  and  yene  it  an  easy  redde  hete.  Thenne 
sodaynly  quenche  it  in  water,  and  it  will  be  harde  and  strong." 

"Good"  anglers,  who  look  on  "trimmering"  as  a  crime 
second  only  in  enormity  to  wilful  murder,  and  on  "  live- 
baiting  "  of  any  kind  as  a  heinous  misdemeanour,  will  be 
shocked  to  find  our  piscatory  Dame  giving  directions  for 
the  latter,  and  adding — 

"  If  ye  lyst  to  have  a  good  sporte,  thenne  tye  the  corde  to  a 
gose  fote,  and  ye  shall  have  a  gode  halynge,  whether  the  gose  or 
the  pyke  shall  have  the  better." 

The  "twelve  manere  of  ympedyments  whyche  cause  a 
man  to  take  noo  fysshe  "  enumerated  by  the  Prioress,  may 
be  useful  in  suggesting  excuses  which  the  angler  with  an 
empty  creel  is  always  supposed  to  produce  for  his  want  of 
success.  They  are,  "  I,  badly-made  harness  ;  2,  bad  baits  ; 
3,  angling  at  wrong  time ;  4,  fish  strayed  away ;  5,  water 
thick  ;  6,  water  too  cold  ;  7,  wether  too  hot ;  8,  if  it  rain ; 
9,  if  hail  or  snow  fall  ;  10,  if  there  be  a  tempest ;  1 1,  if 
there  be  a  great  wynd  ;  12,  if  wind  be  east." 

Our  authoress  concludes  her  treatise  by  giving  all  kinds 
of  good  advice.  To  rich  anglers  she  says,  "  fish  not  in  no 
poor  man's  water,"  and  "break  no  man's  gins."  To  all, 
"  break  no  man's  hedges,"  and  "  open  no  man's  gates,  but 
that  ye  shut  them  again."  Anglers  are  to  "  use  this  foresaid 
crafty  disport  for  no  covetousness,"  but  for  "  solace  "  and 


572       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

health  to  both  body  and  soul ;  not  to  take  too  many  persons 
in  their  company,  so  that  they  may  "  not  be  let  of  their 
game "  or  prevented  "  serving  God  devoutly  in  saying 
afTectuously  their  customable  prayer;"  and,  lastly,  they 
are  not  to  be  "  too  ravenous  in  taking  game,"  or  "  to  take 
too  much  at  one  time,"  which  they  "  might  lightly  do,  if  in 
every  point  they  do  as  this  present  treatise  showeth  them." 
With  a  final  injunction  to  anglers,  that  they  "  nourish  the 
game,"  and  "  destroy  all  such  things  as  be  devourers  of  it," 
she  assures  them  that  "  if  they  do  after  this  rule  they  shall 
have  the  blessing  of  God  and  St.  Peter." 

Whether  "  Mrs.  Barnes  "  is  entitled  to  the  appellation  of 
the  "  Diana  of  the  English,"  and  "  this  Rosa  Bonheur  of 
mediaeval  literature,"  with  which  Mr.  Adams,  in  one  of  the 
Fisheries  Handbooks,  compliments  her,  though  perhaps 
somewhat  ironically,  readers  of  the  Treatyse  must  decide 
for  themselves.  They  will  certainly  find  in  its  quaint  pages 
an  ample  fund  of  amusement. 

But  though  the  introduction  of  printing  on  the  Continent, 
and  the  appearance  of  an  English  book  on  angling  only  a 
little  more  than  twenty  years  after  Caxton  set  up  his 
printing  press  in  Westminster,  might  have  been  thought 
likely  to  have  soon  called  forth  an  abundance  of  piscatory 
literature,  this  was  hardly  the  case.  Among  foreign 
authors  of  the  sixteenth  century  on  fish  and  fishing  we 
find  Dubravius,  Bishop  of  Olmutz,  who  wrote  on  fish  and 
fishponds  in  1552  ;  Heresbach,  who,  in  1594,  published  his 
four  books  on  Rustic  Occupations,  one  of  which,  on  fishing, 
has  been  translated  by  Mr.  Westwood  in  the  Angler's  Note 
Book  of  1880 ;  and  others  who  followed  much  in  their  line. 
The  names  of  Sannazarius  the  Italian  poet,  Olaus  Magnus 
Archbishop  of  Upsala,  Salviani,  Ongaro,  and  Villifranci 
occur  to  the  bibliographer;  also  those  of  Gesner  and 


AUTHORS   ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        573 

Rondeletius ;  and  later  on  in  the  seventeenth  century 
(without  paying  due  regard  to  chronological  order)  those 
of  Du  Bartas,  Du  Cange,  Cats  of  Amsterdam,  Aldrovandri, 
and  Giannettasius.  Several  of  the  above,  as  readers  of 
Izaak  Walton  remember,  are  frequently  quoted  by  him, 
but  the  works  of  most  of  them  will  not  repay  study,  being 
the  products  of  a  period  singularly  deficient  in  knowledge 
and  the  gift  of  scientific  observation  ;  while  the  poetical 
writers  among  them  seldom  rise  above  mediocrity.  As  a 
whole  they  have  but  little  interest  for  English  readers, 
whether  anglers  or  otherwise  ;  while  in  some  cases  they 
can  hardly  be  considered  as  contributors  to  piscatorial 
literature  at  all,  though  they  have  been  claimed  as  such  by 
some  bibliographers.  Several  of  them  find  no  place  in  the 
Bibliotheca  Piscatoria. 

We  are  naturally  much  more  interested  in  the  works  of 
English  writers,  and  with  these  it  may  be  presumed  that 
this  little  volume  was  intended  to  have  most  to  do.  How- 
ever much  our  literary  Prioress  of  Sopwell  may  have 
stimulated  the  practice  of  angling,  she  does  not  appear,  as 
far  as  we  know,  to  have  stimulated  angling  authorship.  It 
is  not  till  the  year  1590  that  we  come  to  another  real 
angling  author,  Leonard  Mascall,  who  at  that  date  pub- 
lished his  Booke  of  Fishing  with  Hooke  and  Line,  and  all 
other  instruments  thereunto  belonging,  a  quaint  black-letter 
quarto.  With  the  exception  of  some  remarks  upon  the 
"  preservation  of  fish  in  ponds,"  and  intructions  for  killing 
vermin,  piscatorially  it  is  no  improvement  upon  Juliana 
Indeed  the  portion  relating  to  fish  and  fishing  is  mainly 
taken,  though  very  clumsily,  from  the  Treatyse  of  the 
Prioress  ;  and  thus  Mascall  set  an  example  of  literary  theft, 
which  has  continued  to  be  a  feature  of  angling  literature  up 
to  the  present  day.  A  copy  of  the  first  edition  is  in  the 


574      LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  PISHING. 

British  Museum.  In  1596  was  published  William  Gryndall's 
Hawking,  Hunting,  Fowling,  and  Fishing  .  .  .  now  newly 
collected  by  W.  G.  Faulkener  ;  the  "  W.  G.  "  being  the  initials 
of  the  author,  and  the  "  Faulkener "  a  fancy  name  added 
because  the  volume  contained  some  remarks  on  "  the  maner 
and  order  in  keeping  of  hawkes."  It  is  little  more  than  a 
reproduction  of  the  Book  of  St.  Albans  with  variations. 
Taverner  followed  in  1600  with  Certaine  Experiments  con- 
cerning Fish  and  Fruite  "  by  him  published  for  the  benefit 
of  others." 

The  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  introduces  us 
to  a  new  kind  of  fishing  literature,  which  has  been  termed 
"Angling  Spiritualised."  It  is  forced  and  unnatural  from 
a  literary  point  of  view,  though  in  accordance  with  the 
fashion  of  symbolism  in  vogue  among  the  Caroline  divines. 
The  "  Old  Fathers,"  in  some  instances,  gave  the  cue  to  it, 
but  many  "  reverend  "  authors  and  preachers  who  affected 
it,  approached  more  than  closely  the  confines  of  the 
ludicrous.  We  cannot,  however,  forget  the  many  scriptural 
associations  with  fish  and  fishing.  The  first  of  the  divines, 
of  the  period  of  which  we  are  speaking,  to  come  out 
strongly  in  this  line,  was  Samuel  Gardiner,  D.D.  He 
published  in  1606  A  Booke  of  Angling  or  Fishing,  "wherein 
is  showed,  by  conference  with  Scriptures,  the  agreement 
between  the  Fishermen,  Fishes,  and  Fishing;  of  both 
Natures,  Temporal  and  Spirituall  ....  Mat.  iv.  19.  I 
will  make  you  fishers  of  men."  The  author  summarises 
the  contents  of  his  book  in  two  Latin  verses,  which  he 
"  delivers  in  English  thus  "  : — 

The  Church  I  gouern  as  a  shippe, 
Wee  seae  with  world  compare, 
The  Scriptures  are  the  enclosing  nettes, 
And  men  the  fishers  are." 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         575 

The  nine  chapters  (162  pages),  of  which  the  book  is  com- 
posed, elaborate  the  idea  with  tedious  simile  and  allegory. 
Hone,  in  his  Year  Book  gives  several  extracts  from  it. 
There  are  only  two  known  copies  of  the  work,  the  one  in  the 
Bodleian,  and  the  other  in  Mr.  Huth's  collection.  A  tran- 
script, prepared  for  republication,  was  made  by  the  Rev. 
H.  S.  Cotton,  and  is  now  in  the  Denison  collection.  The 
author  was  himself  "a  lover  of  the  angle."  In  1609  we 
have  Dr.  Rawlinson's  sermon — Fishermen  Fishers  of  Men — 
preached  at  Mercer's  Chapel.  Quaintly  enough  observes 
the  worthy  doctor  : — 

"  Very  likely,  that  while  I  thus  launch  forth  into  the  deepe  and 
cast  my  nette  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  it  will  fare  with  me 
as  with  other  fishermen,  who,  among  many  fish,  meet  with  some 
carps,  and  if  by  chance  they  alight  upon  a  sturdy  jack,  there  is 
great  tug  betwixt  them,  whether  thev  shall  catch  the  jack  or  the 
jack  them." 

And  further  on, 

"  It  is  fabled  by  the  poet  (Ovid,  Met.  iii.  8)  that  Bacchus  began 
his  empire  by  the  transmutation  of  mariners  into  fishes.  So  doth 
Christ,  the  true  Bacchus,  bis  genitus  (God  of  the  substance  of 
His  Father  begotten  before  the  world,  and  Man  of  the  substance 
of  His  Mother,  borne  in  the  world),  begin  His  Kingdome,  even 
the  Kingdome  of  His  Gospel,  with  the  metamorphising  of  men  into 
fishes,  yet  doth  He  not  either  transubstantiate  them  into  fishes,  like 
those  mariners,  or  ingulfe  them  into  the  bellie  of  a  fish,  like  Jonas, 
or  make  them  fish  the  one  halfe,  flesh  the  other,  like  Myrmaides — 

'  Ut  turpiter  atrum 
Desinat  in  piscetn  mulier  formosa  superne.' 

But  herein  will  He  have  them  to  symbolize  with  fishes,  that  as 
fishes  are  caught  lineis  textis,  with  a  net  of  twisted  lines,  so  must 
they  be  lineis  ex  Scriptura  contextis  with  the  net  of  God's  Word 
made  out  of  lines  taken  out  of  the  Scripture." 

Several   other   divines   followed   in    the    same    groove, 


576      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

notably  Dr.  W.  Worship  in  a  sermon  entitled  The  Fisher. 
in  1615,  and  the  Rev.  Jerome  Phillips  in  one  called  The 
Fisherman,  in  1623.  Among  laymen,  the  Hon.  R.  Boyle 
was  a  contributor  to  it  with  his  Reflections,  in  1665.  This 
edition  is  rare;  but  there  is  a  reprint  of  the  book  by 
Masson,  of  Oxford  (1848).  Readers  can  hardly  be  re- 
commended to  trouble  themselves  about  it,  except  as  a 
literary  curiosity  by  a  seventeenth  century  moraliser,  who, 
after  his  kind,  can  spin  out  long  strings  of  commonplace 
contemplations  on  such  commonplace  subjects  as  on  "  One's 
drinking  water  out  of  the  brimes  of  his  hat,"  and  on 
"Catching  a  store  of  fish  at  a  baited  place."  But  this 
style  of  literature  gradually  died  out  as  a  better  taste 
prevailed. 

Resuming  mention  of  those  who  may  truly  be  called 
contributors  to  the  literature  of  fishing,  we  come  to  one 
who  was  at  first  only  modestly  known  by  his  initials, 
J.  D.  A  notable  work,  of  very  great  interest  and  literary 
merit,  is  The  Secrets  of  A  ngling :  teaching  the  choicest  Tooles, 
Baytes,  and  Seasons,  for  the  taking  of  any  fish,  in  Pond  or 
River  ...  by  J.  D.,  Esquire.  The  first  edition  was  published 
in  1613,  and  there  are  copies  of  it  in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
and  in  the  collections  of  Mr.  Denison  and  Mr.  Huth. 
It  is  in  the  form  of  a  poem  in  three  books,  but,  though 
mention  of  it  anticipates  the  chapter  on  English  Poets  of 
the  Angles,  it  must  here  be  introduced,  because  it  may 
be  fairly  considered  as  a  practical  treatise  on  fish  and 
fishing.  Izaak  Walton,  who  quotes  from  it,  attributed  it  to 
"John  Davors,"  and  R.  Howlett,in  his  Angler's  Sure  Guide 
(1706),  to  Dr.  Donne;  while  it  has  also  been  credited 
to  no  less  than  six  different  poets  of  the  name  of 
"Davies";  but  its  authorship  was  finally  determined  in 
1811,  by  the  evidence  of  the  books  of  the  Stationers1 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         577 

Company,  in  which  the  work  was  entered  in  1612  as  being 
by  "  John  Dennys,  Esquier."  The  author  was  very  probably 
the  son  of  Hugh  Dennys,  who  came  of  an  old  Gloucester- 
shire family,  and  was  grandson  of  Sir  Walter  Dennys. 
John  Dennys  died  in  1609,  and  was  buried  at  Puckle- 
church ;  and  as  Roger  Jackson,  for  whom  the  poem  was 
first  printed  in  1613,  states  in  his  dedicatory  letter,  that  it 
was  "sent  to  him  to  be  printed  after  the  death  of  the 
author,"  who  "  intended  to  have  printed  it  in  his  life," 
there  is  every  presumption  that  the  author  is  now  identi- 
fied. There  were  four  editions  of  the  poem  printed  between 
1613  and  1652.  Only  three  perfect  copies  of  the  first 
edition  are  said  to  be  in  existence,  one  in  the  Bodleian,  the 
second  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Denison,  and  the  third  in 
that  of  Mr.  Huth,  from  which  last  Mr.  Arber  produced  his 
reprint  in  the  first  volume  of  the  English  Garner  in  1877. 
Of  the  second  edition  Mr.  Denison  has  the  only  copy 
known.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  printed  in  1620,  but  the 
date,  unfortunately,  is  cut  off.  The  only  copy  of  the  third 
edition  (1630)  is  also  in  Mr.  Denison's  collection.  There 
are  some  variations  in  the  different  editions.  On  the  title 
page  of  the  first  edition  is  an  allegorical  woodcut  represent- 
ing two  men,  one  treading  on  a/  serpent,  and  with  a  sphere 
at  the  end  of  his  line,  while  over  his  rod,  on  a  label,  is  the 

• 

inscription  : — 

"  Hold,  hooke  and  line, 
Then  all  is  mine." 

The  other  with  a  fish  on  his  hook,  labelled  thus  : — 

"  Well  fayre  the  pleasure 
That  brings  such  treasure.1* 

The  reprint  of  The  Secrets,  in  possession  of  the  writer,  is  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Westwood,  and  was  published  by  W.  Satchell 

VOL.   III.— H.  2    P 


578     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

and  Co.,  of  Tavistock  Street,  only  this  year.  Mr.  Westwood 
very  rightly  does  not  approve  of  the  "  emendations "  and 
"  modernizations  "  in  the  orthography  and  syntax  made  by 
Mr.  Arber  in  the  reprint  above  mentioned,  considering  that 
they  "rob  the  verse  of  much  of  its  ancient  air  and  aspect." 
He  therefore  gives  us  a  "  strictly  faithful  and  literal  tran- 
script of  the  edition  of  1613  ;"  and  this  is  certainly  the 
reprint  of  which  anglers  and  lovers  of  old  literature  should 
possess  themselves.  The  length  of  the  poem  in  this  reprint 
runs  to  nearly  forty  pages  of  four  stanzas  each.  It  is 
"  excellently  well "  done. 

And  now  let  us  look  into  the  poem  itself.  J.  D.'s 
work  has  probably  met  with  more  general  commendation 
from  critics  than  any  work  connected  with  angling  (hardly 
excepting  the  Complete  Angler]  in  the  whole  range  of 
literature.  Beloe,  in  his  "Anecdotes  of  Literature  and 
Scarce  Books,"  says  of  it  that  "  perhaps  there  does  not 
exist  in  the  circle  of  English  literature  a  rarer  volume :" 
and  Dr.  Badham  (attributing  it,  like  Walton,  to  "Davors") 
calls  it  an  "elaborately  beautiful  poem;"  while  in  his 
preface  to  Stock's  reproduction  of  Dame  Berners,  the 
Rev.  M.  G.  Watkins  holds  that  J.  D.'s  "verses  have, 
perhaps,  never  been  surpassed."  J.  D.  was  a  poet  as  well 
'as  an  angler  born,  and  after  Walton's  immortal  work,  no 
higher  compliment  has  ever  been  paid  to  the  sport  of 
angling.  The  poem  contains  much  point,  elevation  of 
thought  and  sweetness,  and  subtlety  of  rhythm,  as  well 
as  subtlety  of  diction  in  handling  what,  in  itself,  may 
be  considered  a  prosaic  subject,  when  mere  instructions  in 
in  the  art  of  angling  are  attempted  in  verse.  It  is  replete 
also  with  apt  classical  allusions.  To  give  a  just  idea  of 
its  scope  and  nature,  perhaps  it  would  be  well  to  present 
the  author's  table  of — 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         579 

CONTENTS. 
THE  FIRST  BOOKE  CONTAINETH  THESE  THREE  HEADS. 

(1)  The  Antiquitie  of  Angling,  with  the  Art  of  Fishing,  and  of 

Fish  in  Generall. 

(2)  The   Lawfulnesse,  Pleasure,   and    Profit   Thereof,   with   all 

Objections  Answered,  Against  it. 

(3)  To  Know  the  Season,  and  Times  to  Provide  the  Tooles,  and 

How  to  Choose  the  Best,  and  the  Manner  How  to  Make 
Them  Fit  to  Take  Each  Severall  Fish. 

THE  SECOND  BOOKE  CONTAINETH 

(1)  The  Angler's  Experience,  How  to  Use  His  Tooles  and  Baytes, 

to  Make  Profit  by  His  Game. 

(2)  What  Fish  is  not  Taken  with  Angle  and  What  Is,  and  Which 

is  Best  for  Health. 

(3)  In  What  Waters  and  Rivers  to  Finde  Each  Fish. 

THE  THIRD  BOOKE  CONTAINETH 

(1)  The  Twelve  Virtues  and  Qualities  Which  Ought  to  be  in 

Every  Angler. 

(2)  What  Weather,  Seasons,  and  Times  of  Yeere  is  Best  and 

Worst,  and  What  Houres  of  the  Day  is  Best  for  Sport 

(3)  To  Know  Each  Fishes  Haunt,  and  the  Times  to  Take  Them. 

Also  an  Obscure  Secret  of  an  Approved  Bait  Tending 
Thereunto. — D. 

It  is  no  easy  task  to  select  passages  for  quotation  from  a 
work  of  equal  merit  throughout,  but  the  following  will  give 
a  fair  idea  of  it  to  those  who  have  never  perused  the  whole. 
After  comparing  the  joys  of  angling  with  the  distractions 
and  excitements  of  town  life  and  its  pleasures,  he  "  counts 
it  better  pleasure  to  behold  " — 

"  The  hills  and  Mountaines  raised  from  the  Plaines, 
The  plaines  extended  leuell  with  the  ground, 
The  ground  deuided  into  sundry  vaines, 
The  vaines  inclos'd  with  running  riuers  rounde, 

2    P    2 


58o       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING 

The  riuers  making  way  through  nature's  chaine, 
With  headlong  course  into  the  sea  profounde  : 
The  surging  sea  beneath  the  valleys  low, 
The  valleys  sweet,  and  lakes  that  louely  flowe. 

"  The  lofty  woods,  the  forrests  wide  and  long, 
Adorn'd  with  leaues  and  branches  fresh  and  greene, 
In  whose  coole  bow'rs  the  birds  with  chaunting  song, 
Doe  welcome  with  thin  quire  the  Summer's  Queene, 
The  meadowes  faire  where  Flora's  guifts  among, 
Are  intermixt  the  verdant  grasse  betweene, 
The  siluer  skaled  fish  that  softlie  swimme 
Within  the  brookes  and  Cristall  watry  brimme." 

w  All  these,  and  many  more  of  his  creation, 
That  made  the  heauens,  the  Angler  oft  doth  see, 
And  takes  therein  no  little  delectation, 
To  think  how  strange  and  wonderfull  they  be* 
Framing  thereof  an  inward  contemplation, 
To  set  his  thoughts  from  other  fancies  free, 
And  whiles  he  lookes  on  these  with  joyfull  eye, 
His  mind  is  rapt  aboue  the  starry  skye." 

reminding  us  of  Walton's  lines,  when  he  sings  of  the 
angler  as  one — 

"  Who  with  his  angle  and  his  books 

Can  think  the  longest  day  well  spent ; 
And  praises  God  when  back  he  looks, 
And  finds  that  all  was  innocent." 

and  of  what  was  said  of  Walton,  that  he  "  made  angling  a 
medium  for  inculcating  the  most  fervent  piety  and  the 
purest  morality." 

Towards  the  close  of  the  first  book,  after  dwelling  on  the 
antiquity  of  angling,  in  which  the  rude  implements  of 
primitive  man  are  described — the  rod  a  bough  torn  from  a 
tree,  and  hooks  of  hardwood  thorns — he  thus  describes  the 
progress  of  the  art : — 

"  In  this  rude  sorte  began  this  simple  Art, 
And  so  remained  in  that  first  age  of  old, 
When  Saturne  did  Amalthects  home  impart 
Vnto  the  world,  that  then  was  all  of  gold ; 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        581 

The  fish  as  yet  had  felt  but  little  smart, 
And  were  to  bite  more  eager,  apt,  and  bold  ; 
And  plenty  still  supplide  the  place  againe 
Of  woefull  want  whereof  we  now  complaine. 

"  But  when  in  time  the  feare  and  dread  of  man 
Fell  more  and  more  on  every  liuing  thing, 
And  all  the  creatures  of  the  world  began 
To  stand  in  awe  of  this  vsurping  king, 
Whose  tyranny  so  farre  extended  than 
That  Earth  and  Seas  it  did  in  thraldome  bring  ; 
It  was  a  work  of  greater  paine  and  skill, 
The  wary  Fish  in  lake  or  Brooke  to  kill. 

"  So,  worse  and  worse,  two  ages  more  did  passe, 
Yet  still  this  Art  more  perfect  daily  grew, 
For  then  the  slender  Rod  invented  was, 
Of  finer  sort  than  former  ages  knew, 
And  Hookes  were  made  of  siluer  and  of  brasse, 
And  Lines  of  Hemp  and  Flaxe  were  framed  new, 
And  sundry  baites  experience  found  out  more, 
Than  elder  times  did  know  or  try  before. 

"  But  at  the  last  the  Iron  age  drew  neere, 
Of  all  the  rest  the  hardest,  and  most  scant, 
Then  lines  were  made  of  Silke  and  subtile  hayre, 
And  Rods  of  lightest  Cane  and  hazell  plant, 
And  Hookes  of  hardest  steele  inuented  were, 
That  neither  skill  nor  workemanship  did  want. 
And  so  this  Art  did  in  the  end  attaine 
Vnto  that  state  where  now  it  doth  remaine." 

thus  showing  that  even  in  his  time  fish  were  becoming  less 
plentiful,  and  gradually  more  "educated."  He  is  more 
particular  about  his  hooks  than  Dame  Juliana  aforesaid. 

"  That  Hook  I  loue  that  is  in  compass  round, 
Like  to  the  print  that  Pegasus  did  make 
With  horned  hoofe  upon  Thessalian  ground  ; 
From  whence  forthwith  Parnassus'  spring  outbrake. 
That  doth  in  pleasant  waters  so  abound, 
And  of  the  Muses  oft  the  thirst  doth  slake." 


582     LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

This  rather  suggests  the  "  Pennell  "  bend  of  hook, 
though  perhaps  the  "  angle  of  impact "  would  be  a  little 
too  "  indirect "  to  suit  the  theory  of  the  learned  angler  and 
"  ancologist,"  Mr.  Cholmondeley  Pennell.  Further,  ac- 
cording to  J.  D.,  these  are  the  qualities  of  a  good  hook : — 

"  His  Shank  should  neither  be  too  short  nor  long; 
His  point  not  ouer  sharp  nor  yet  too  dull ; 
The  substance  good  that  may  endure  from  wrong ; 
His  Needle  slender,  yet  both  round  and  full, 
Made  of  the  right  Iberian  metal  strong, 
That  will  not  stretch  or  break  at  every  pull ; 

Wrought  smooth  and  clean  without  one  crack  or  knot, 

And  bearded  like  the  wilde  Arabian  goat." 

Nor  does  J.  D.  forget  to  give  instructions,  and  very 
sensible  ones  too,  even  as  to  the  garb  of  the  angler,  though 
he  did  not  live  in  the  "  Cording  "  age  : —  .  . 

"  And  let  your  garments  Russet  be  or  gray, 

Of  colour  darke,  and  hardest  to  descry  : 

That  with  the  Raine  or  weather  will  away, 

And  least  offend  the  fearfull  Fishes  eye  : 

For  neither  Skarlet  nor  rich  cloth  of  ray 

Nor  colours  dipt  in  fresh  Assyrian  dye, 

Nor  tender  silkes,  of  Purple,  Paule,  or  golde, 
Will  serue  so  well  to  keep  off  wet  or  cold." 

His  descriptions  of  the  various  baits  to  be  used  by 
anglers,  and  instructions  in  fishing  for  various  fish,  will  in 
many  instances  hold  good  in  the  present  day.  Here  is  a 
picture  of  an  angler  "  dibbing,"  or  "  dapping,"  for  chub, 
trout,  &c. : — 

"  See  where  another  hides  himselfe  as  slye, 
As  did  Acteon  or  the  fearefull  Deere  ; 
Behinde  a  withy,  and  with  watchfull  eye 
Attends  the  bit  within  the  water  cleere, 
And  on  the  top  thereof  doth  moue  his  flye, 
With  skilfull  hand,  as  if  he  liuing  were. 

Soe  how  the  Chub,  the  Roche,  the  Dace,  and  Trout, 
To  catch  thereat  doe  gaze  and  swimme  about. 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         583 

"  His  Rod,  or  Cane,  made  darke  for  being  scene, 
The  lesse  to  feare  the  warie  Fishe  withall : 
The  Line  well  twisted  is,  and  wryught  so  cleane 
That  being  strong,  yet  doth  it  shew  but  small, 
His  Hooke  not  great,  nor  little,  but  betweene, 
That  light  vpon  the  watry  brimme  may  fall, 
The  Line  in  length  scant  halfe  the  Rod  exceedes, 
And  neither  Corke,  no  Leade  thereon  it  needes." 

His  description  of  gudgeon-fishing  also  stands  now,  if 
we  only  substitute  a  "  Thames  punt "  for  the  "  little  boate," 
and  for  a  "  pole  "  the  "  small-tooth  combe,"  as  the  Thames 
professionals  call  the  "  gudgeon-rake." 

"  Loe,  in  a  little  Boate  where  one  doth  stand 
That  to  a  Willow  Bough  the  while  is  tide, 
And  with  a  pole  doth  stirre  and  raise  the  sand ; 
Where  as  the  gentle  streame  doth  softly  glide, 
And  then  with  slender  Line  and  Rod  in  hand, 
The  eager  bit  not  long  he  doth  abide. 
Well  Leaded  is  his  Line,  his  Hooke  but  small, 
A  good  big  Corke  to  beare  the  stream  withall. 

"  His  baite  the  least  red  worme  that  may  be  found 
And  at  the  bottome  it  doth  alwayes  lye ; 
Whereat  the  greedy  Goodgion  bites  so  sound 
That  Hook  and  all  he  swalloweth  by  and  by  : 
See  how  he  strikes,  and  puls  them  vp  as  round 
As  if  new  store  the  play  did  still  supply. 

And  when  the  bit  doth  dye  or  bad  doth  proue 

Then  to  another  place  he  doth  remoue. 

"  This  fish  the  fitted  for  a  learner  is 
That  in  the  Art  delights  to  take  some  paine ; 
For  as  high  flying  Haukes  that  often  misse 
The  swifter  foules,  are  eased  with  a  traine, 
So  to  a  young  beginner  yeeldeth  this, 
Such  readie  sport  as  makes  him  proue  again 

And  leads  him  on  with  hope  and  glad  desire, 

To  greater  skill,  and  cunning  to  aspire." 

It  is  curious  to  notice  the  variations  from  the  first  edition 


584     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

of  J.  D.,  which  Walton  has  in  his  quotation  of  six  stanzas 
in  the  first  edition  of  the  Complete  Angler  (1653).  All  four 
editions  of  The  Secrets  had  appeared  before  Walton's  book, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  say  from  which  he  quoted,  or  whether 
some  part  was  quoted  from  memory ;  and  the  writer  can- 
not, without  reference,  which  would  be  a  very  difficult 
matter,  state  what  variations  occur  in  the  editions  them- 
selves. But  his  idea  is  that  Walton  made  the  alterations 
"  on  his  own  hook/'  so  to  speak,  and  more  particularly  in 
the  first  stanza  quoted.  In  the  Westwood  reprint  of  J.  D. 
it  reads  thus : — 

"  O  let  me  rather  on  the  pleasant  Brinke 
Of  Tyne  and  Trent  possesse  some  dwelling  place  ; 
Where  I  may  see  my  Quill  and  Corke  down  sinke, 
With  eager  bit  of  Barbill,  Bleike,  or  Dace : 
An  on  the  World  and  his  Creator  thinke, 
While  they  proud  Thais  painted  sheat  imbrace. 
And  with  the  fume  of  strong  Tobacco's  smoke, 
All  quaffing  round  are  ready  for  to  choke." 

In  Walton's  version  it  runs  : — 

u  Let  me  live  harmlessly,  and  near  the  brink 

Of  Trent  or  Avon  have  a  dwelling  place ; 
Where  I  may  see  my  quill,  or  cork,  down  sink 

With  eager  bite  of  Perch,  or  Bleak,  or  Dace  ; 
And  on  the  world  and  my  Creator  think  : 

Whilst  some  men  strive  ill-gotten  goods  t'  embrace ; 
And  others  spend  their  time  in  base  excess 
Of  wine,  or  worse,  in  war  and  wantonness." 

In  addition  to  the  other  "  variations/*  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  three  last  lines  of  Walton's  stanza  are  entirely  substi- 
tuted for  those  of  J.  D. ;  and  as  old  Izaak  was  fond  of  his 
pipe,  like  the  majority  of  "good"  anglers,  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  escape  the  conclusion  that  he  deliberately 
made  the  substitution,  because  he  would  not  help  to 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         585 

perpetuate  what   he   considered  an   implied  libel   on  the 
"  divine  herb." 

The  next  piscatorial  author  to  be  mentioned  is  Gervase 
Markham,  whose  various  works,  and  editions  of  them,  are 
so  various  and  complicated  that  no  less  than  four  and  a 
half  pages  are  devoted  to  them  in  the  Bibliotheca  Pisca- 
toria.  All  of  them  contain  more  or  less  of  disquisitions 
on  fish  and  fishing,  combined  with  "  Res  rusticae."  His 
first  work  was  published  in  1613,  the  year  of  the  1st 
Edition  of  J.  D.,  and  was  entitled  The  English  Husband- 
man, in  ''two  bookes."  But  the  first  book,  and  also  the 
second  part  of  the  second  book,  were  sold  separately.  It 
is  in  this  second  part,  dated  1614,  and  known  as  The 
Pleasures  of  Princes  ;  Goodman's  Recreations,  that  we  find 
"  a  discourse  on  the  general  art  of  fishing  with  an  angle, 
&c.,"  which  is  evidently  a  prose  version  of  J.  D.'s  Secrets 
or,  as  Mr.  Westwood  calls  it,  "a  transmigration,"  adding 
that  "  the  transmuting  process  was  effected  by  no  unskil- 
ful hand,  and  without  too  much  sacrifice  of  the  precious 
metal  of  the  original,"  a  compliment  which  very  few  such 
experiments  deserve.  "This  small  Treatise  in  Rime,  now, 
for  the  better  understanding  of  the  reader,  put  into  prose," 
as  Markham  speaks  of  it  in  his  Country  Contentments,  &c. 
(6th  Ed.,  1649),  is  interesting  as  a  contemporary  recogni- 
tion, and  the  only  one,  of  J.  D.  It  would  answer  no  good 
purpose  to  enumerate  the  many  productions  of  Markham, 
extending,  as  they  did,  down  to  the  year  1707.  One  in 
the  possession  of  the  writer,  entitled  A  Way  to  Get  Wealth 
(1653),  has  already  been  mentioned  in  Chapter  I.,  and  its 
further  title,  "  Containing  six  principall  Vocations  or  Call- 
ings in  which  every  good  Husband  or  Housewife  may 
lawfully  employ  themselves,"  suggests  the  kind  of  Olla 
Podrida  volumes  produced  by  our  author.  It  contains 


586      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

descriptions  of,  and  instructions  on,  almost  every  conceiv- 
able country  business  and  recreation,  dissertations  on 
physic,  chyrurgery,  cookery,  brewing,  horticulture,  book- 
keeping, distilling,  "  ordering  of  feasts,"  the  enrichment  of 
the  Weald  in  Kent — cum  multis  aliis  qua  mine  describere 
longum  est. 

It  is  very  probable  that  Markham  received  some  ex- 
traneous help  in  the  composition  of  some  of  his  treatises  ; 
but  presuming  them  to  be  his  own  productions,  let  us  take 
one  or  two  specimens  of  his  style.  For  example — 

"  Since  Pleasure  is  a  Rapture,  or  power  in  this  last  Age,  stolne 
into  the  hearts  of  men,  and  there  lodged  up  with  such  a  carefull 
guard  and  attendance,  that  nothing  is  more  supreme,  or  ruleth 
with  greater  strength  in  their  affections,  and  since  all  are  now 
become  the  sounes  of  Pleasure,  and  every  good  is  measured  by 
the  delight  it  produceth ;  what  worke  unto  men  can  be  more 
thankfull  then  the  Discourse  of  that  pleasure  which  is  most  comely, 
most  honest,  and  giveth  the  most  liberty  to  Divine  Meditation  ? 
And  that  without  all  question  is  the  Art  of  Angling,  which  having 
ever  bin  most  hurtlessly  necessary,  hath  bin  the  Sport  or  Recrea- 
tion of  God's  Saints,  of  most  holy  Fathers,  and  of  many  worthy 
and  Reverend  Divines,  both  dead,  and  at  this  time  breathing." 

Our  author's  ideal  of  an  angler  is  a  very  high  one.  He 
must  be,  to  use  a  common  expression,  a  superlatively 
"good  all-round  man" — ad omnia paratus. 

"  A  skilfull  Angler  ought  to  be  a  generall  scholler,  and  scene  in 
all  the  liberall  sciences,  as  a  grammarian,  to  know  how  either  to 
write  or  discourse  of  his  art  in  true  and  fitting  termes,  either 
without  affectation  or  rudeness.  Hee  should  have  sweetness  of 
speech  to  perswade  and  intice  others  to  delight  in  an  exercise 
so  much  laudable.  Hee  should  have  strength  of  arguments  to 
defend  and  maintaine  his  profession  against  envy  or  slander. 
Hee  should  have  knowledge  in  the  sunne,  moone,  and  starres, 
that  by  their  aspects  hee  may  guesse  the  season ableness,  or 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         587 

unseasonableness  of  the  weather,  the  breeding  of  the  stormes, 
and  from  what  coasts  the  winds  are  ever  delivered. 

"  Hee  should  be  a  good  knower  of  countries,  and  well  used  to 
high  wayes,  that  by  taking  the  readiest  pathes  to  every  lake, 
brook,  or  river,  his  journies  may  be  more  certaine  and  lesse 
wearisome.  Hee  should  have  knowledge  of  proportions  of  all 
sorts,  whether  circular,  square,  or  diametricale,  that  when  hee 
shall  be  questioned  of  his  diurnal  progresses,  he  may  give  a 
geographical  description  of  the  angles  and  channels  of  rivers, 
how  they  fall  from  their  heads,  and  what  compasses  they  fetch 
in  their  several  windings.  He  must  also  have  the  perfect  art  of 
numbering,  that  in  the  sounding  of  lakes  or  rivers,  hee  may  know 
how  many  foot  or  inches  each  severally  contayneth,  and  by 
adding,  substracting,  or  multiplying  the  same,  hee  may  yie'd  the 
reason  of  every  river's  swift  or  slow  current.  Hee  should  not  be 
unskillfull  in  musick,  that  whensoever  either  melancholy,  heavi- 
nesse  of  his  thought,  or  the  perturbation  of  his  owne  fancies, 
stirreth  up  sadnesse  in  him,  he  may  remove  the  same  with  some 
godly  hymne  or  antheme,  of  which  David  gives  him  ample 
examples. 

"  Hee  must  then  be  full  of  humble  thoughts,  not  disdaining, 
when  occasion  commands,  to  kneele,  lye  down,  or  wet  his  feet  or 
fingers,  as  oft  as  there  is  any  advantage  given  thereby  unto  the 
gaining  the  end  of  his  labour.  Then  hee  must  be  strong  and 
valiant,  neither  to  be  amazed  with  stormes  nor  affrighted  with 
thunder,  but  to  hold  them  according  to  their  natural  causes  and 
the  pleasure  of  the  Highest :  neither  must  he  like  the  foxe  which 
preyeth  upon  lambs,  imploy  all  his  labour  against  the  smallest 
frie,  but,  like  the  lyon,  that  seazeth  elephants,  thinke  the  greatest 
fish  which  swimmeth  a  reward  little  enough  for  the  paines  which 
he  endtireth.  Then  must  he  be  prudent,  that  apprehending  the 
reasons  why  the  fish  will  not  bite,  and  all  other  casuall  im- 
pediments which  hinder  his  sport,  and  knowing  the  remedies 
for  the  same,  he  may  direct  his  labours  to  be  without  trouble- 
somenesse." 

But  here  we  had  better  say  farewell  to  Gervase  Mark- 
ham,  lest  angling  readers  should  feel  too  proud  in  con- 


588       LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

templating  the  picture  painted  of  them,  or  too  desponding 
at  the  thought  of  how  far  they  fall  below  the  high  standard 
set  before  them. 

In  1614  also  was  published  A  Jewel  for  Gentrie,  shortly 
described  in  the  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  as  "  a  repetition  of 
the  book  of  St.  Alban,  somewhat  methodised  and  polished." 
And  now  we  pass  on  to  an  important  work  published 
shortly  before  the  appearance  of  Walton's  Complete  A  ngler. 
This  is  Thomas  Barker's  Art  of  Angling,  wherein  are  dis- 
covered many  rare  secrets  very  necessary  to  be  known  by  all 
that  delight  in  that  recreation.  It  was  published  in  1651, 
i.e.  two  years  before  Walton's  book,  and  another  edition 
appeared,  without  the  author's  name,  in  1653,  i.e.  the  same 
year  as  Walton's.  In  1657  the  work  appeared  with  the 
additional  title  of  Barker's  Delight  prefixed,  and  by  this 
name  it  is  generally  known,  though  on  the  title-page  it  is 
termed  "  the  second  edition,"  i.e.  of  the  Art  of  Angling,  of 
which  it  is  an  enlargement.  Another  edition  was  published 
in  1659,  and  there  have  been  "Reprints"  of  this  and  the 
editions  of  1651  and  1653,  but  both  these  and  the  originals 
are  rare.  Barker's  Delight,  having  been  called  by  himself 
"The  Second  Edition,"  has  led  to  much  confusion,  and 
bibliographers,  in  dealing  with  him,  unfortunately  per- 
petuated this  by  speaking  of  the  different  editions  without 
sufficient  indications  whether  they  are  referring  to  the 
original  Art  of  Angling  or  the  Delight,  and  even  in  the 
Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  the  reader  gets  sorely  puzzled. 
Barker  seems  to  have  been  a  chef,  as  he  says  in  his 
Delight : — "  I  have  been  admitted  into  the  most  Ambas- 
sadors that  have  come  to  England  this  forty  years,  and  do 
wait  on  them  still  at  the  Lord  Protector's  charge,  and  I  am 
duly  paid  for  it."  This  statement,  however,  does  not 
necessarily  imply  that  he  was  an  actual  cook,  though  his 


A  UTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.         589 

many  directions  about  the  cookery  of  fish  show  him  well 
versed  in  the  mageiric  art,  and  he  also  states  that  he  takes 
as  much  pleasure  in  the  "  dressing  of  fish  as  in  the  taking 
of  them."  Barker  also  tells  us  that  he  was  no  scholar  : — "  I 
doe  crave  pardon  for  not  writing  Scholler  like,"  and  only 
professes  to  give  the  result  of  his  own  "experience  and 
practice."  The  Delight  of  1659  was  dedicated  to  "The 
Right  Honourable  Edward  Lord  Montague,  Generall  of 
the  Navy,  and  one  of  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  the 
Treasury,"  and  in  the  "Author's  Epistle"  he  throws  down 
this  chivalrous  challenge  : — 

"  I  am  now  grown  old  ....  I  have  written  no  more  but  my 
own  experience  and  practice.  ...  If  any  noble  or  gentle  angler, 
of  what  degree  soever  he  be,  have  a  mind  to  discourse  of  any  of 
these  wayes  and  experiments,  I  live  in  Henry  the  ;th's  Gifts,  the 
next  door  to  the  Gatehouse  in  Westm.  My  name  is  Barker, 
where  I  shall  be  ready,  as  long  as  please  God,  to  satisfie  them, 
and  maintain  my  art,  during  life,  which  is  not  like  to  be 
long." 

No  doubt  if  old  Barker  were  now  in  the  flesh,  he  would 
be  to  the  fore  in  "Angling  Sweepstakes,"  and  ready  to 
dispute  with  any  one  for  a  wager  the  title  of  "  Champion 
Roach-fisher,"  which  is  affected  by  modern  adepts  in 
this  art 

Some  idea  of  Barker's  quaintness  of  style  may  be 
gathered  from  the  following  passage,  with  which  the  body 
of  the  work  begins  ; — 

"  Noble  Lord,  under  favour,  I  will  compliment  and  put  a  case 
to  your  Honour.  I  met  with  a  man,  and  upon  our  discourse,  he 
fell  out  with  me,  having  a  good  weapon  but  neither  stomach  nor 
skill :  I  say  this  man  may  come  home  by  Weeping  Cross,  I  will 
cause  the  clerk  to  toll  his  knell.  It  is  the  very  like  case  to  the 
gentleman  angler  that  goeth  to  the  river  for  his  pleasure :  this 


59o      LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

angler  hath  neither  judgment  nor  experience,  he  may  come  home 
light-laden  at  his  leisure." 

To  Barker  must  be  given  the  credit,  or  rather  discredit, 
of  discovering  and  counselling  the  use  of  salmon-roe  as  a 
bait  He  says  : — 

"I  have  found  an  experience  of  late,  which  you  may  angle 
with,  and  take  great  store  of  fish.  .  .  .  The  bait  is  the  roe  of  a 
salmon,  or  trout,  if  it  be  a  large  trout,  that  the  spawnes  be  any- 
thing great.  If  I  had  but  known  it  twenty  years  ago,  I  would 
have  gained  a  hundred  pounds,  onely  with  this  bait.  I  am  bound 
in  duty  to  divulge  it  to  your  Honour,  and  not  to  carry  it  to  my 
grave  with  me.  The  greedy  angler  will  murmur  at  me,  but  for 
that  I  care  not." 

Following,  too,  in  the  wake  of  Dame  Juliana  Berners, 
he  recommends  the  "  goose-trimmer  " — 

"  The  principal  sport  to  take  a  pike  is  to  take  a  goose  or 
gander,  or  duck :  take  one  of  the  pike  lines,  tie  the  line  under 
the  left  wing,  and  over  the  right  wing,  about  the  body,  as  a  man 
weareth  his  belt;  turn  the  goose  off  into  the  pond  where  the 
pikes  are;  there  is  no  doubt  of  sport,  with  great  pleasure,  betwixt 
the  goose  and  the  pike  ;  it  is  the  greatest  sport  and  pleasure  that 
a  noble  gentleman  in  Shropshire  doth  give  his  friends  entertain- 
ment with." 

Barker  brings  us  to  what  may  be  called  the  Waltonian 
era,  which  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  next  chapter ;  and  it 
must  be  confessed  that,  from  a  purely  critical  point  of 
view,  our  fishing  literature  of  the  period  just  traversed 
cannot  be  held  in  very  high  estimation.  A  good  deal  of 
it  is  interesting  enough  for  its  originality  and  quaintness, 
and  also  for  the  insight  it  gives  us  into  the  art  of  fishing 
as  practised  by  our  forefathers,  and  the  "engines"  and 
baits  they  used  in  prae-Waltonian  times  ;  and,  it  may  almost 
be  added,  for  its  evidence  of  rank  plagiarism  among 


AUTHORS  ON  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.        591 

many  authors.  It  has  its  interest,  too,  and  value  from  a 
bibliographical  standpoint.  But  beyond  this,  little  can  be 
said  in  its  praise.  Allowance,  however,  must  be  made,  in 
consideration  of  "the  state  of  learning"  during  many 
generations  after  the  introduction  of  printing,  and  of  the 
somewhat  limited  range  of  the  subject  treated  of  by  pisca- 
torial authors.  Doubtless  among  those  of  the  period  we 
have  been  surveying,  J.  D.  stands  out  as  the  "bright 
particular  star  " — velut  inter  ignes  luna  minores. 


(  592  ) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IZAAK  WALTON — HIS  CONTEMPORARIES  AND  SUCCESSORS 
TO   END  OF  THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

THE  very  mention  of  the  name — clarum  et  venerabile — of 
Izaak  Walton  in  connection  with  the  literature  of  angling, 
suggests  a  task  of  far  greater  magnitude  than  can  be  here 
accomplished,  especially  as  the  notices  of  authors  before 
his  time  have  stretched  to  far  greater  length  than  was 
anticipated,  and  those  after  him  have  yet  to  be  dealt  with. 
Indeed  a  volume  of  no  slight  dimensions  would  be  required 
to  do  justice  to  Walton  and  his  book  ;  and  even  a  biblio- 
graphical record  of  the  various  phases  and  mutations  of 
the  Complete  Angler  as  Mr.  Westwood  has  shown  in  his 
Chronicle  of  Izaak  Walton  (1864),  affords  subject  matter 
for  a  volume  in  itself,  and  yet  be  unexhausted.  This  will 
be  even  better  understood  when  it  is  mentioned  that  the 
fifty-three  editions  chronicled  by  Mr.  Westwood  in  his 
volume  just  mentioned  have  been  increased  to  ninety  by 
himself  and  his  coadjutor  Mr.  Satchell,  and  that  their 
enumeration,  with  short  bibliographical  notes  on  some  of 
them,  takes  up  no  less  than  twenty  pages  in  the  Bibliotheca 
Piscatoria.  A  new  edition  of  the  Chronicle  is  now  in  the 
press,  with  notes  and  additions,  by  T.  Satchell,  and  its  pub- 
lication may  be  expected  before  Christmas. 

Let  us  glance  at  a  few  of  the  chief  of  these  "  Waltons." 
The  first  edition  of  the  Complete  Angler  was  published 
in  1653,  and  it  was  duly  advertised  by  "the  enterpris- 


IZAAK  WALTON.  593 

ing  publisher"  of  the  period.  The  announcement  ran  in 
The  Perfect  Diurnall  from  the  Qth  to  the  1 6th  of  May, 
1653,  thus:— 

"The  Compleat  Angler,  or  the 
Contemplative  Man's  Recreation,  being 
a  discourse  of  Fish  and  Fishing,  not 
unworthy  the  perusal  of  most  Anglers, 

of  1 8  pence  price.     Written  by  Iz.  Wa 

printed  for  Richard  Marriot, 

to      be      sold      at      his      Shop     in     Saint 
Dunstan's       Churchyard.        Fleet       Street." 

It  was  similarly  advertised  in  the  Mercurius  Politicus 
from  the  iQth  to  the  26th  of  May. 

There  was  no  indication  of  the  name  of  the  author  on 
the  title-page,  and  he  only  signs  himself  Iz.  Wa.  at  the 
foot  of  the  "  Letter  of  Dedication  "  to  John  Offley,  and  of  the 
"  Address  to  the  Reader."  The  first  sentence,  ending  with 
"  Recreation,"  of  the  title  was  engraved  on  a  scroll,  which 
has  "  classic "  dolphins  above  and  below,  with  a  string  of 
fish  pendent  on  either  side,  and  the  whole  resting  on  a 
shell.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  word  "  Cvmpleat "  which 
appears  on  the  scroll  is  printed  "Complete"  on  all  the 
pages  of  the  book,  and  since  then  the  word  seems  to  have 
been  printed  indiscriminately  in  either  form,'  according  to 
the  fancy  of  Walton's  editors,  though  most  editions  have 
"  Complete"  On  the  title-page  also  appeared  the  text — 
"  Simon  Peter  said,  I  go  a  fishing  ;  and  they  said,  we  also 
will  go  with  thee.  John  21,  3."  A  well  preserved  and 
perfect  copy  of  this  edition  is  now  worth  about  £50,  and 
perhaps  more,  and  he  who  obtains  one  becomes  in  his  way 
as  much  of  a  hero  as  the  owner  of  a  winner  of  the  Derby, 
or  the  capturer  of  the  largest  salmon  or  Thames  trout  of 
the  season.  The  second  edition,  published  in  1655,  was 
VOL.  III.— H.  2  Q 


594      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

"  much  enlarged,"  indeed  almost  rewritten  by  the  author  ; 
commendatory  verses  by  seven  writers  are  for  the  first 
time  inserted ;  a  third  interlocutor  in  the  person  of 
Auceps  is  introduced ;  and  Venator  is  substituted  for 
Viator.  It  has  been  surmised  that  these  characters 
were  suggested  to  Walton  by  the  work  of  Heresbach, 
mentioned  in  the  last  chapter.  The  third  and  fourth 
editions  appeared  in  1661  (the  edition  of  1664  being  really 
only  that  of  1661)  and  1668,  corrected  and  enlarged, 
but  not  to  the  same  extent  as  that  of  1655.  We 
now  come  to  the  fifth  and  very  important  edition,  from 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  last  in  which  Walton  had  a  hand, 
or  which  was  published  in  his  lifetime.  It  appeared  in 
1676.  Seven  years  later,  and  the  old  man  laid  down  his 
pen  as  he  had  already  laid  aside  his  rod,  and  full  of  years 
and  honours  was  gathered  to  his  rest.  This  edition  was  in 
three  parts,  which,  as  indicated  on  the  title-page,  might 
"  be  bound  together  or  sold  each  of  them  severally."  The 
first  part  was  Walton's  own  Complete  Angler ;  the  second 
consisted  of  Instructions  how  to  Angle  for  a  Trout  or 
Grayling  in  a  Clear  Stream,  written  at  the  request  of 
Walton  by  his  intimate  friend,  and  brother  angler  Charles 
Cotton,  of  Beresford ;  and  the  third,  The  Experienced 
Angler,  by  Colonel  Robert  Venables.  The  whole  were 
comprised  under  the  title  of  The  Universal  Angler.  These 
five  editions  together  not  very  long  ago  realised  over  .£100, 
but  this  is  probably  a  little  above  their  market  value. 

Except  on  the  supposition  that  Walton's  work  for 
an  interval  lacked  appreciation,  or  that  the  sport  of 
angling  did  not  increase  in  popularity,  it  is  difficult 
to  account  for  the  great  gap  between  the  fifth  edition  of 
1676  and  the  sixth,  which  did  not  make  its  appearance  till 
1750.  This  last  was  the  work  of  the  Rev.  Moses  Browne, 
the  author  of  Piscatory  Eclogues,  to  whom  we  shall  refer 


IZAAK  WALTON.  595 

in  a  later  chapter,  and  claims  note  from  the  fact  that 
its  editor  had  the  bad  taste,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
to  tamper  with  his  author,  under  the  idea  that  by 
pruning,  amending,  and  adding  to  the  original  text,  he 
was  adapting  it  to  the  supposedly  refined  taste  of  the 
time.  Reverend  lovers  of  old  Izaak  can  only  regard 
Browne's  work  as  next  door  to  sacrilege.  In  1760  another 
editor  comes  on  the  stage  in  the  person  of  Mr.  John  (after- 
wards Sir  John)  Hawkins.  Subsequent  editions  and 
reprints  of  Hawkins,  which  number  some  twenty-five  in 
all,  covering  at  intervals  a  period  stretching  down  to  1857, 
abound  with  notes,  explanatory,  critical,  historical,  and 
biographical,  and  much  useful  miscellaneous  information. 
Moses  Browne  figures  again  as  a  Waltonian  editor  in  1772, 
and  some  interest  attaches  to  his  edition  of  this  year, 
because  it  is  said  it  was  undertaken  at  the  suggestion  of 
Dr.  Johnson,  who,  though  ever  to  be  execrated  by  anglers 
for  his  "  worm  and  fool "  libel,  was  one  of  the  foremost 
admirers  of  the  Complete  Angler.  Major's  first  edition  was 
published  in  1823,  and  was  followed  by  another  in  1824,  both 
being  well  supplied  with  copper-plate  and  wood  engravings, 
which  took  the  public  fancy.  The  first  edition  issued  by 
Mr.  Pickering,  the  publisher,  dates  in  the  year  1825,  and 
was  followed  by  others  from  the  same  house,  the  most 
important  of  which  was  that  of  1835-6,  in  two  grand 
imperial  octavo  volumes.  It  was  edited  by  Sir  Harris 
Nicolas,  and  profusely  illustrated  by  Stothard  and  Inskipp. 
Though  open  to  criticism  in  some  respects,  it  is  a  noble 
tribute  to  Walton,  and  must  ever  remain  one  of  the 
grandest  ornaments  of  an  angler's  library.  Other  editions 
of  Nicolas  have  been  published,  and  the  last,  of  1875,  will 
be  found  an  excellent  book  of  general  reference  on  all 
matters  Waltonian.  A  special  feature  of  the  Nicolas 

2  Q  2 


596      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

editions  is  the  division  of  Walton's  dialogues  into  "  Five 
Days,"  which  thus  bring  out  the  dramatic  character  of  the 
work.  In  Walton's  first  edition,  though  it  is  divided  by 
the  author  into  thirteen  chapters,  the  dialogue  evidently 
occupies  five  separate  days,  and  "  spaces  "  in  the  printing 
show  where  the  conversation  ends  on  each  night.  Major's 
fourth  edition  was  published  in  1844,  and  of  it  Mr.  West- 
wood,  in  his  Chronicle,  says  that  "  it  approaches  more  nearly 
to  our  ideal  of  an  edition  consistent  in  all  its  parts  than  any 
of  its  predecessors  or  successors."  The  Rev.  Dr.  Bethune, 
an  American,  speaking  of  the  illustrations  in  it,  says,  "Art 
could  scarcely  go  further,  and  no  more  elegant  volume 
could  find  a  place  in  a  library."  Dr.  Bethune  is  no  mean 
judge,  for  he  also  has  entered  the  lists  as  an  editor  of 
Walton,  and  is  one  of  the  most  ardent  admirers  of  the 
Complete  Angler  beyond  the  great  ocean.  His  first  edition 
was  published  in  New  York  in  1847,  and  contains  almost 
all  one  would  seek  to  know  about  Walton  and  his  work, 
and  much  interesting  matter  of  all  kinds,  including  papers 
on  American  fishing,  and  a  very  extensive  catalogue  of 
works  on  angling.  It  is  well  worthy  of  the  commendation 
awarded  to  it  by  Mr.  Westwood,  when  he  says  that 
"  nowhere  else  do  we  find  united  so  complete  a  body  of 
angling-book  statistics,  and  so  large  an  accumulation  of 
collateral  data."  Dr.  Bethune's  second  edition  appeared 
in  1880,  with  some  additions  and  corrections.  No  angler's 
library  should  be  without  a  Bethune.  The  editions  by 
"  Ephemera "  (Edward  Fitzgibbon)  are  well  known ;  the 
first  appeared  in  1853,  and  the  last  in  1878.  Christopher 
Davies,  whose  admirable  work  on  the  East  Anglian  broads 
and  rivers  has  just  been  published,  is  among  the  recent 
editors  of  Walton,  his  volume  being  dated  1878.  The 
very  last  Complete  Angler,  published  only  two  or  three 


IZAAK  WALTON.  597 

months  ago,  and  consequently  not  included  in  the  Biblio- 
theca,  is  another  '<  Major,"  from  the  firm  of  Nimmo  &  Bain 
(King  William  Street,  W.C.).  It  is  most  beautifully  printed, 
handsomely  bound,  and  profusely  illustrated  by  masters 
of  the  limning  art,  two  impressions  of  each  of  eight  original 
etchings  being,  the  one  on  Japanese,  and  the  other  on 
Whatman  paper.  This  edition  will  hold  its  own  among 
the  best.  Only  500  copies  were  printed,  and  it  is  now  very 
difficult  to  obtain  one. 

The  lovers  and  admirers  of  Walton,  anglers  and  literary 
men  who  know  their  Complete  Angler  well,  its  associations 
and  history,  and  have  the  privilege,  if  only  occasionally,  of 
spending  pleasant  hours  in  a  Waltonian  library,  can  readily 
sympathise  with  the  words  and  feelings  of  Mr.  Westwood, 
when  on  the  completion  of  his  Chronicle  on  which  he  had 
so  long  and  lovingly  laboured,  he  says  : — 

"  Here  our  task  ends — the  ultimate  milestone  on  the  long  road 
of  more  than  two  hundred  years  being  reached  at  last.  Through 
our  window,  as  we  write  these  closing  lines,  streams  cheerily  (and 
with  a  skimmer  of  young  leaves  and  buzzing  of  insect  wings),  the 
May  sunshine — that  sunshine  that,  of  yore,  gladdened  Piscator  on 
his  way  through  the  Leaside  meadows  to  his  sport  at  matin-song, 
and  that  broods,  we  are  fain  to  believe,  with  a  softened  radiance 
now,  on  his  honoured  grave  in  the  grey  pile  of  Winchester.  Peace 
be  to  his  ashes  ! — for  his  fame  we  have  no  fear ;  the  bygone 
centuries  have  given  their  consecration  to  his  work,  the  centuries 
to  come  will  ratify  that  consecration  anew.  How  much  of  good 
and  great  the  future  may  have  in  store  for  it,  it  is  not  our  province 
to  predict.  Suffice  it  that  looking  up  to  the  shelves  of  our 
Angling  Library,  and  to  the  Fifty-three  several  editions  chronicled 
in  these  pages,  we  must  say  already  for  the  Father  of  Fishermen, 
what  he  were  Jx>o  modest  to  say  for  himself  could  he  return 

amongst  us — 

"  Si  monumentura  quaeris 

Circumspice  ! " 


598       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

But  though  the  time  and  treasure  expended  on  these 
many  editions  have  raised  a  mighty  monument  to  the  fame 
of  Walton — cere  perennius — still  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  a  further  multiplication  of  them  would  answer  any 
good  purpose,  unless  an  edition  has  got  something  really 
new  and  important  to  contribute  to  "  Waltonology."  It 
seems  unreasonable  that  authors  should  merely  edit  a 
Walton,  as  some  seem  to  have  done,  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  overloading  it  with  notes — more  suitable  for  digestion 
into  the  form  of  an  "  Angler's  Manual."  Perhaps  to  some 
the  raison  (Tetre  of  an  edition  of  the  Complete  A  ngler  may 
be  the  alleged  fact  that  there  are  in  existence  five  hundred 
collectors  who  make  a  point  of  buying  a  copy  of  every  one 
that  comes  out ;  but  it  is  possible  to  have  too  much  even 
of  a  good  thing.  It  is  a  different  matter  with  editions 
de  luxe.  Such  an  one  was  recently  contemplated  by 
Messrs.  Sampson  Low,  Marston  and  Co.,  to  be  edited  by 
Mr.  Francis  Francis,  whose  illness  is  deplored  by  the 
literary  as  well  as  angling  world.  All  rejoice  to  hear  that 
he  is  now  progressing  towards  recovery,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  publishers  with  his  assistance  may  yet  be  able 
to  carry  out  their  intentions.  What  would  the  angler-biblio- 
philist  give  for  the  production  of  another  old  Walton,  which 
may  have  hitherto  escaped  the  notice  of  bibliographers  ? 
This  is  an  age  of  discovery  of  antiquities,  literary  and 
otherwise,  and  though  we  do  not  wish  to  give  encourage- 
ment to  piscatorial  Shapiras  (or  Sapphiras),  the  finder  of  a 
genuine  old  Walton  on  any  skin  would  surely  have  his 
reward.  Are  all  cupboards,  shelves,  and  chests,  in  out- 
of-the-way  nooks  and  corners  yet  exhaustively  searched  ? 

Up  to  the  present  time  ninety-four  editions  of  Walton 
have  been  chronicled,  and  two  more  are  to  be  added  to  this 
list,  making  in  all  ninety-six — a  number  which  will  favour- 


IZAAK  WALTON.  599 

ably  compare  with  the  editions  of  Shakespeare,  Bunyan, 
and  the  Christian  Year. 

An  admirable  facsimile  reprint  of  the  first  edition  of  the 
Complete  Angler  was  executed  by  Mr.  Elliot  Stock,  of 
Paternoster  Row,  in  1876,  the  very  tint  and  texture  of  the 
antique  paper  being  reproduced,  with  the  small  pages  of 
"  fat  "  type  and  its  long  s's  ;  while  the  art  of  photography 
revived  the  Delphinic  title-page,  the  quaint  head-pieces,  and 
the  "  cuts  "  of  the  terrible  fish.  But  like  the  original  first 
edition,  it  is  now  very  scarce. 

The  Complete  Angler  was  well  received  by  Walton's 
contemporaries,  of  whom  "  Delightful "  Barker  was  one ; 
and  to  him  Walton  in  the  "Fourth  Day"  acknowledges 
himself  indebted  for  his  "directions  for  fly-fishing,"  which 
he,  through  the  medium  of  Piscator,  proceeds  to  give  "  with 
a  little  variation."  Richard  Franck,  however,  a  Cromwellian 
trooper,  an  Independent  of  the  sour  Puritan  type,  and  a 
stupendously  pretentious  writer,  but  an  angler  of  some  expe- 
rience, was  the  exception.  In  his  Northern  Memoirs  (in 
which  he  gives  an  account  of  fly-fishing  in  Scotland), 
published  in  1694,  though  (as  he  says  on  his  title-page) 
"writ  in  1658,"  does  not  hesitate  to  charge  full  tilt  against 
Walton  on  this  wise — 

"  However,  Izaak  Walton  (late  author  of  the  Compleat  Angler) 
has  imposed  upon  the  world  this  monthly  novelty,  which  he  under- 
stood not  himself;  but  stuffs  his  books  with  morals  from  Dubravius 
and  others,  not  giving  us  one  precedent  of  his  own  practical 
experiments,  except  otherwise  where  he  prefers  the  trencher  before 
the  trolling-rod ;  who  lays  the  stress  of  his  arguments  upon  other 
men's  observations,  wherewith  he  stuffs  his  indigested  octavo ;  so 
brings  himself  under  the  angler's  censure,  and  the  common 
calamity  of  a  plagiary,  to  be  pitied  (poor  man)  for  his  loss  of 
time,  in  scribbling  and  transcribing  other  men's  notions.  These 
are  the  drones  that  rob  the  hive,  yet  flatter  the  bees  they  bring 
them  honev." 


6oo      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

This  is  a  hard  hit ;  and  it  would  appear  that  the  author, 
who  was  also  a  practical  angler  and  salmon-fisherman,  had 
on  one  occasion  a  personal  argument  on  matters  piscatorial 
(and  perhaps  religious  and  poetical)  with  Walton.  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  however,  who,  in  1821,  published  an  edition 
of  Franck  with  preface  and  notes,  comes  to  Walton's 
rescue,  though  he  credits  Franck  with  practical  angling 
knowledge.  He  says  : — 

"  Probably  no  readers  while  they  read  the  disparaging  passages 
in  which  the  venerable  Izaak  Walton  is  introduced,  can  forbear 
wishing  that  the  good  old  man,  who  had  so  true  an  eye  for  Nature, 
so  simple  a  taste  for  her  most  innocent  pleasures,  and  withal,  so 
sound  a  judgment,  both  concerning  men  and  things,  had  made 
this  northern  tour  instead  of  Franck;  and  had  detailed  in  the 
beautiful  simplicity  of  his  Arcadian  language,  his  observations  on 
the  scenery  and  manners  of  Scotland.  Yet  we  must  do  our  author 
the  justice  to  state,  that  he  is  as  much  superior  to  the  excellent 
patriarch  Izaak  Walton,  in  the  mystery  of  fly-fishing,  as  inferior  to 
him  in  taste,  feeling,  and  common  sense.  Franck's  contests  with 
salmon  are  painted  to  the  life,  and  his  directions  to  the  angler 
are  generally  given  with  great  judgment." 

Byron,  who  had  seldom  a  good  word  for  any  one,  had 
his  fling  at  old  Izaak,  when  he  says — 

"  And  angling,  too,  that  solitary  vice, 
Whatever  Izaak  Walton  sings  or  says ; 
The  quaint,  old,  cruel  coxcomb,  in  his  gullet 
Should  have  a  hook,  and  a  small  trout  to  pull  it." 

Some  persons  say  they  can  see  an  expression  of  cruelty 
in  Walton's  portraits  ! 

And  even  a  modern  author  on  angling,  who  must  at 
least  be  given  credit  for  the  courage  of  his  opinions,  says 
of  Walton  and  his  book — 

"I  am  free  to  confess  I  have  derived  neither  pleasure  nor 
profit.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  his  day  the  worthy  citizen  was 
an  excellent  angler  j  he  was  also  a  simple-minded,  kindly,  prosy, 


IZAAK  WALTON.  601 

and  very  vain  old  gentle-woman  ....  I  would  not  whisper  it 
at  the  "Walton's  Head,"  or  the  "Walton's  Arms,"  or  hint  at  it 
at  the  "  Jolly  Angler's  "  or  the  "  Rest,"  or  any  other  resort  of  his 
so-called  disciples,  but  to  my  readers  I  will  impart  my  private 
conviction,  that  there  is  now  at  least  little  practically  to  be 
learnt  from  Izaak  Walton's  Complete  Angler,  and  that  the  reading 
of  it  is  rather  heavy  work  than  otherwise." 

Every  one  has  a  right,  as  it  is  said,  to  his  own  opinion, 
and  to  the  pleasure  derived  from  thinking  that  singularity 
may  be  mistaken  for  cleverness.  And  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  the  deficiency  of  a  reader  being  visited  on  a  writer. 
But  perhaps  in  reference  to  no  book  ever  written  has  there 
been  such  a  universal  cKorus  of  praise,  from  the  day  of  its 
publication  to  the  present  time  ;  and  for  once  in  a  way  the 
showers  of  "  commendatory  verses,"  which  after  a  fashion 
of  the  time  fell  on  the  Complete  Angler,  were  justly  deserved. 
A  very  long  catena  of  eminent  critics,  past  and  present, 
might  be  adduced  who  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  the 
book  and  the  author's  literary  merits,  which  he  showed 
also  in  his  admirable  Lives  of  Donne,  Wotton,  Hooker, 
Herbert,  and  Sanderson.  Not  to  go  back  very  far,  Dr. 
Johnson,  as  before  mentioned,  was  a  great  admirer  of 
Walton  ;  and  Charles  Lamb  thus  writes  to  Coleridge  in  a 
letter  dated  October  28,  1796  :— 

"  Among  all  your  quaint  readings  did  you  ever  light  upon 
Walton's  Complete  Angler  ?  I  asked  you  the  question  once  before  ; 
it  breathes  the  very  spirit  of  innocence,  purity,  and  simplicity  of 
heart ;  there  are  many  choice  old  verses  interspersed"  in  it ;  it 
would  sweeten  a  man's  temper  at  any  time  to  read  it ;  it  would 
Christianize  every  discordant,  angry  passion ;  pray  make  yourself 
acquainted  with  it." 

Hazlitt,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Wordsworth,  and  Hallam,  all 
considered  the  Complete  Angler  as  a  triumph  of  literary 
skill.  The  last-mentioned  says  that  our  "  Golden  age  "  of 


602       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

literature  began  "with  him  who  has  never  since  been 
rivalled  in  grace,  humour,  and  invention,"  and  he  adds — 

"Walton's  Cumplcat  Angler,  published  in  1653,  seems  by  the 
title  a  rtrange  choice  out  of  all  the  books  of  half  a  century ;  yet 
its  simplicity,  its  sweetness,  its  natural  grace,  and  happy  inter- 
mixture of  graver  strains  with  the  precepts  of  angling,  have 
rendered  this  book  deservedly  popular,  and  a  model  which  one 
of  the  most  famous  among  our  late  philosophers,  and  a  successful 
disciple  of  Izaak  Walton  in  his  favourite  art  (Sir  Humphrey 
Davy)  has  condescended  (in  his  Salmonid)  to  imitate." 

Among  the  most  recent  weighty  testimonies  to  Walton  as 
an  author  was  that  accorded  to  him  a  few  years  ago  by  the 
Dean  of  Lichfield  on  the  unveiling  of  a  marble  bust  of 
Walton  in  St.  Mary's  Church,  Stafford,  in  which  town  he 
was  born,  and  in  which  church  he  was  baptized  in  1593. 
The  Dean  also  dwelt  eloquently  on  Walton's  character  ;  but 
as  that  does  not  directly  concern  us  here,  suffice  it  to  say 
that  from  what  is  well  known  of  his  life,  it  accorded  with  a 
very  high  Christian  standard.  He  was  remarkable  for  his 
integrity,  his  simplicity,  his  peaceable  disposition,  for  the 
warmth  and  steadfastness  of  his  friendship,  for  his  loyalty 
to  his  sovereign,  for  his  humility  and  devotion  towards 
God.  The  times  in  which  he  lived  were  amongst  the  most 
critical  in  our  national  history.  His  long  life  stretched 
over  the  last  ten  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  reached 
onwards  to  within  two  years  of  the  end  of  that  of 
Charles  II.,  and  during  the  whole  of  that  eventful  period 
"honest  Izaak"  (as  he  was  called  by  his  familiars)  pursued 
the  even  tenour  of  his  way,  mourning  over  the  calamities 
which  he  could  not  avert,  thanking  God  for  the  measure  of 
good  which  he  enjoyed,  and  endeavouring  to  stamp  on 
others  the  impress  of  his  own  pure  and  contented  spirit. 

December  the  15th  next  will  be  the  two  -  hundredth 
anniversary  of  his  death  beneath  the  shadow  of  Winchester 


IZAAK  WALTON.  603 

Cathedral,  in  which  his  body  lies.  We  would  venture  to 
suggest  that  it  would  be  well  and  appropriate  that  some 
special  notice  should  be  taken  of  this  bicentenary  of  his 
departure.  And  might  not  a  more  worthy  monument  be 
raised  to  him  within  the  Cathedral  walls  or  elsewhere  ? 

Even  in  this  critical  age  the  Complete  A  ngler  is  acknow- 
ledged to  be  one  of  the  most  perfect  idylls  written  in  any 
age  or  country.  As  Guillim  is  to  the  herald,  Blackstone 
to  the  legist,  and  Hawker  to  the  fowler,  so  is  Walton  to 
the  disciples  of  the  "  gentle  art ;  "  and  though  many  of  the 
ichthyological  statements  in  the  Complete  Angler  are  not  in 
accordance  with  the  modern  knowledge  of  zoology,  or  its 
angling  directions  a  reliable  guide  to  modern  fishermen,  it 
will  doubtless  remain  a  standard  English  classic  "  for  all 
time,"  and  the  best  A  ngler' s  Companion,  "which  age  cannot 
wither  nor  custom  stale."  The  angling  bibliographer  and 
poet-angler,  Mr.  Westwood,  thus  sings  its  praises  in  his 
Lay  of  the  Lea  : — 

"  Now  in  the  noontide  heat 

Here  I  take  my  seat. 
Izaak's  book  beguiles  the  time— of  Izaak's  book  I  say, 

Never  dearer  page 

Gladden'd  youth  or  age  ; 
Never  sweeter  soul  than  his  bless'd  the  merry  May. 

"  For  while  I  read, 

'Tis  as  if,  indeed, 
Peace  and  joy  and  gentle  thoughts  from  each  line  were  welling ; 

As  if  earth  and  sky 

Took  a  tenderer  dye, 
And  as  if  within  my  heart  fifty  larks  were  trilling. 

"  Ne'er  should  angler  stroll, 

Ledger,  dap,  or  troll, 
Without  Izaak  in  his  pouch  on  the  banks  of  Lea  ;<— 

Ne'er  with  worm  or  fly 

Trap  the  finny  fry, 
Without  loving  thoughts  of  him,  and — Benedicite  /" 


604     LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

There  is  no  need  to  give  quotations  from  a  book  that 
most  anglers  know  by  heart,  but  if  immediately  after  the 
encomiums  on  Walton  the  bathos  be  not  too  painful,  we 
will  reproduce  the  famous  "  frog  "  passage,  and  directions 
for  "  live-baiting."  This  is  the  first  passage — 

"  Put  your  hook  into  his  mouth,  which  you  may  easily  do  from 
the  middle  of  April  till  August ;  and  then  the  frog's  mouth  grows 
up,  and  he  continues  so  for  at  least  six  months  without  eating, 
but  is  sustained,  none  but  He  whose  name  is  Wonderful  knows 
how :  I  say,  put  your  hook,  I  mean  the  arming-wire,  through  his 
mouth  and  out  at  his  gills  ;  and  then  with  a  fine  needle  and  silk  sew 
the  upper  part  of  his  leg,  with  only  one  stitch,  to  the  arming-wire  of 
your  hook ;  or  tie  the  frog's  leg,  above  the  upper  joint,  to  the 
armed-wire ;  and,  in  so  doing,  use  him  as  though  you  loved  him, 
that  is,  harm  him  as  little  as  you  may  possibly,  that  he  may  live 
the  longer." 

And  this  is  the  second,  which  shows  that  Walton  did  not 
repudiate  the  ideas  of  Dame  Juliana  Berners,  or  of  his 
friend  Barker : — 

"  Or  if  you  bait  your  hooks  thus  with  live  fish  or  frogs,  and  in 
a  windy  day,  fasten  them  thus  to  a  bough  or  bundle  of  straw,  and 
by  the  help  of  that  wind  can  get  them  to  move  across  a  pond  or 
mere,  you  are  like  to  stand  still  on  the  shore  and  see  sport 
presently,  if  there  be  any  store  of  pikes.  Or  these  live  baits 
may  make  sport,  being  tied  about  the  body  or  wings  of  a  goose 
or  duck,  and  she  chased  over  a  pond.  And  the  like  may  be  done 
with  turning  three  or  four  live  baits,  thus  fastened  to  bladders, 
or  boughs,  or  bottles  of  hay  or  flags,  to  swim  down  a  river, 
whilst  you  walk  quietly  alone  on  the  shore,  and  are  still  in 
expectation  of  sport.  The  rest  must  be  taught  you  by  practice ; 
for  time  will  not  allow  me  to  say  more  of  this  kind  of  fishing 
with  live  baits." 

The  "bottles  of  hay  or  flags"  thus  early  suggest  the 
"liggering"  business,  by  which  sportsmen  (save  the  mark!) 


IZAAK  WALTON.  605 

have  well-nigh  depopulated  of  their  jack  some  of  the  best 
Norfolk  "Broads." 

And  now  by  way  of  contrast  we  will  add  the  famous — 
it  might  almost  be  said  "  immortal " — passage  anent  the 
nightingale,  which  more  than  one  divine  have  quoted  in 
their  sermons  and  commentaries — 

"  But  the  nightingale,  another  of  my  airy  creatures,  breathes 
such  sweet  loud  music  out  of  her  little  instrumental  throat,  that 
it  might  make  mankind  to  think  miracles  are  not  ceased.  He 
that,  at  midnight,  when  the  very  labourer  sleeps  securely,  should 
hear,  as  I  have  very  often,  the  clear  airs,  the  sweet  descants,  the 
natural  rising  and  falling,  the  doubling  and  redoubling  of  her 
voice,  might  well  be  lifted  above  earth,  and  say,  'Lord,  what 
music  hast  thou  provided  for  the  Saints  in  Heaven,  when  thou 
affordest  bad  men  such  music  on  Earth.' " 

Among  Walton's  contemporaries  who  were  writers  on 
fish  and  fishing  Barker  has  been  already  mentioned. 
Colonel  Robert  Venables  too,  a  strong  royalist,  has  been 
spoken  of  as  the  writer  of  the  Experienced  Angler,  which 
was  first  published  in  1662  (though  Mr.  Estcourt  says 
1661),  and  afterwards  in  the  Universal  Angler,  or  fifth 
edition  of  Walton,  in  1676.  This  treatise  has  gone  through 
six  editions,  the  last  dating  1827.  The  second  edition, 
the  date  of  which  is  uncertain,  was  destroyed  in  the  Great 
Fire  of  London.  Walton  contributed  a  courtly  commenda- 
tion of  the  volume  addressed  to  his  "  ingenious  friend  the 
author "  ;  but  though  there  is  some  fair  reading  in  it,  it 
cannot  rank  in  a  high  class  of  its  kind.  The  remarks  of 
the  Colonel  on  what  was  two  centuries  ago,  and  is  still,  a 
vt-vata  qucestio,  namely,  the  respective  merits  of  "  up  "  and 
"  down  "  stream  fishing,  are  in  favour  of  the  "  downites." 
They  will  give  an  example  of  his  style  : — 

"  Fish  are  frightened  with  any,  the  least,  sign  or  motion  ;  there- 


6o6      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

fore  by  all  means  keep  out  of  sight,  either  by  sheltering  yourself 
behind  some  bush  or  tree,  or  by  standing  so  far  off  the  River's 
side,  that  you  can  see  nothing  but  your  flie  or  flote ;  to  effect  this, 
a  long  Rod  at  ground,  and  a  long  Line  with  the  artificial  flie,  may 
be  of  use  to  you.  And  here  I  meet  with  two  different  opinions 
and  practices  ;  some  always  cast  their  flie  and  bait  up  the  water, 
and  so  they  say  nothing  occurreth  to  Fishes  sight  but  the  Line : 
others  fish  down  the  River,  and  so  suppose  (the  Rod  and  Line 
being  long)  the  quantity  of  water  takes  away  or  at  least  lesseneth 
the  Fishes  sight :  but  the  other  affirm,  that  Rod  and  Line,  and 
perhaps  yourself,  are  seen  also.  In  this  difference  of  opinions  I 
shall  only  say,  in  small  Brooks  you  may  angle  upwards,  or  else  in 
great  Rivers  you  must  wade,  as  I  have  known  some,  who  thereby 
got  the  Sciatica,  and  I  would  not  wish  you  to  purchase  pleasure  at 
so  dear  a  rate ;  besides,  casting  up  the  River  you  cannot  keep 
your  Line  out  of  the  water,  which  we  noted  for  a  fault  before ; 
and  they  that  are  this  way  confess  that  if  in  casting  your  flie,  the 
Line  fall  into  the  water  before  it,  the  flie  were  better  uncast, 
because  it  frights  the  Fish  •;  then  certainly  it  must  do  it  this  way, 
whether  the  flie  fall  first  or  not,  the  Line  must  first  come  to  the 
Fish  and  fall  on  him,  which  undoubtedly  will  fright  him :  there- 
fore my  opinion  is  that  you  angle  down  the  River,  for  the  other 
you  traverse  twice  so  much,  and  beat  not  so  much  ground  as 
downwards." 

The  length  of  this  last  sentence,  its  composition  and 
punctuation,  are  to  be  noted.  The  Colonel  was  hardly 
good  company  for  Walton  and  Cotton. 

Cotton,  Walton's  other  collaborateur  in  the  Universal 
Angler  (or  fifth  edition),  and  great  personal  friend,  has 
already  been  mentioned.  His  remarks  on  trout  and 
grayling  fishing  are  still  for  the  most  part  sound;  and 
his  literary  work,  which  like  Walton  he  threw  into  dialogue 
form,  does  not  fall  far  below  the  standard  of  "the  master." 
It  was  Walton,  Cotton,  and  Venables,  the  three  joint 
parents  of  the  Universal  Angler,  that  the  anonymous 


IZAAK  WALTON.  607 

author  of  The  Innocent  Epmtre,  first  published   in  1697, 
thus  apostrophises  : — 

"  Hail  great  Triumvirate  of  Angling  !  hail, 
Ye  who  best  taught,  and  here  did  best  excel." 

But,  as  it  has  been  remarked  in  reference  to  Dame 
Juliana  Berners'  treatise,  that  it  gave  no  stimulus  to 
angling  authorship,  so  it  may  be  noted  in  reference  to 
the  Walton  and  Cotton's  Complete  Angler,  that  it  seems 
to  have  had  the  effect  of  making  anglers  rather  shy  ot 
authorship.  Perhaps  this  may  be  construed  into  a  com- 
pliment to  the  joint  authors  ;  but  anyhow,  the  fact  remains 
that  during  a  period  of  a  hundred  years,  dating  from  the 
fifth  edition  of  the  Complete  A  ngler,  or,  as  it  might  be  put, 
down  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  a  very  few 
works  on  angling  made  their  appearance,  though  the 
Complete  Angler  by  that  time  had  gone  through  fifteen 
editions.  Barlow's  extremely  scarce  book,  The  severale 
wayes  of  hunting,  hawking,  and  faking,  according  to  the 
English  manner,  was  published  in  1671. 

In  1674  appeared  the  Gentleman's  Recreation,  by  Nicholas 
Cox,  another  of  those  strange  "combination"  books,  contain- 
ing treatises  on  several  sports  and  country  pastimes,  and  all 
kinds  of  odds  and  ends  connected  with  rural  pursuits. 
Such  volumes  for  a  long  period  are  a  marked  feature  of 
the  literature  connected  with  fish  and  fishing.  But  Cox's 
book  is  a  bad  sample  of  its  kind,  though  it  has  gone 
through  several  editions.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  an 
original  book,  but  a  compilation,  or  rather  a  "cribbing," 
from  Gervase  Markham  and  other  authors  ;  and  in  the 
second  place,  the  author  is  a  dealer  in  miracles,  marvels, 
superstitions,  astrology,  necromancy,  and  what  not.  The 
Accomplish*  Ladies'  Delight,  published  in  the  following  year 


608     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

is  another  "  combination  and  compilation  "  volume,  in  which 
the  author  (probably  a  lady)  gives  directions  for  "  preserv- 
ing, physick,  beautifying,  and  cookery,"  and  "also  some 
new  and  excellent  secrets  and  experiments  in  the  art  of 
angling,"  which  latter  are  freely  borrowed  from  Barker, 
Walton,  and  others.  The  book  is  interesting,  as  giving 
evidence  that  there  were  lady  anglers  at  this  period ;  and 
part  v.  of  the  tenth  edition  (1719)  is  entitled  "The  female 
angler,  instructing  ladies,  &c." 

Mr.  W.  Gilbert's  Angler's  Delight  of  1676,  is  a  quaint 
book,  of  which  the  author  says  in  the  title — "  The  like 
never  before  in  print !  "  He  gives  his  readers  "  the  method 
of  fishing  in  Hackney  Marshes,  and  the  names  of  the  best 
stands  there,"  and  bids  them  "go  to  Mother  Gibert's, 
at  the  Flower  de  Luce,  at  Clapton,  near  Hackney,"  where 
"whilst  you  are  drinking  a  pot  of  ale, -bid  the  maid  make 
you  two  or  three  pennyworth  of  ground-bait  and  some 
paste  (which  they  do  very  neatly  and  well)."  He  suggests 
an  angler's  outfit  as  follows  :  "  A  good  coat  for  all  weathers  ; 
an  apron  to  put  your  ground-bait,  stones,  and  paste  in  ;  a 
basket  to  put  your  fish  in,  &c.,  ....  and  if  you  have  a  boy 
to  go  along  with  you,  a  good  neat's  tongue  and  a  bottle  of 
Canary  should  not  be  wanting  ;  to  the  enjoyment  of  which 
I  leave  you."  A  few  weeks  ago  a  barbel  was  taken  in  the 
Thames  as  low  as  Chelsea ;  but  our  author  speaks  of  this 
fish  frequenting  London  Bridge  in  his  time.  In  a  later 
edition  he  tells  us  how  to  "  fox  fish  "  with  what  he  calls 
"  Oculus  India  Berries  ; "  but  he  cautions  his  readers  "  that 
they  practice  not  this  without  a  licence  from  the  owners, 
least  the  whipping-post  or  pillory  be  their  reward" 
Chetham's  Angler's  Vade-mecum  was  first  published  in 
1 68 1.  The  authors  of  the  " Bibliotheca  Piscatoria "  credit 
him  with  being  an  "original"  writer,  and  not  a  mere 


IZAAK  WALTON.  609 

manual  compiler,  adding  that  he  is  "never  servile,  nor 
plagiaristic,  always  honest,  sometimes  a  little  surly."  He 
touches  on  the  still  vexed  question  of  the  mixture  of  silk 
and  hair  in  fishing-lines,  declaring  in  favour  of  "  all  of  hair 
or  all  of  silk."  The  following  recipe  for  an  unguent  to 
allure  fish,  and  its  use  cannot  fail  to  provoke  a  smile  : — 

"Of  Man's  Fat,  Cat's  Fat,  Heron's  Fat,  and  of  the  best  Assa- 
foetida,  of  each  two  Drams ;  Mummy,  finely  powdered,  two  Drams ; 
Cummin-seed  finely  powdered,  two  Scruples,  and  of  Camphor, 
Galbanum,  and  Venice  Turpentine  of  each  one  Dram;  Civet- 
grains  two.  Make  according  to  Art,  all  into  an  indifferent  thin 
Oyntment,  with  the  Chymical  Oyls  of  Lavender,  Annise,  and 
Camomil,  of  each  an  equal  quantity,  and  keep  the  same  in  a 
narrow-mouthed  and  well-glassed  galley-pot  close  covered  with  a 
Bladder  and  Leather ;  and  when  you  go  to  Angle,  take  some  of  it 
in  a  small  pewter  Box,  made  taper,  and  anoint  eight  inches  of  the 
Line  next  the  Hook  therewith,  and  when  washed  off  repeat  the 
same.  This  Oyntment  which  for  its  excellency,  Unguentum 
Piscatorum  mirabile,  prodigiously  causes  Fish  to  bite,  if  in  the 
hand  of  an  Artist  that  angles  within  water,  and  in  proper  Seasons 
and  Times,  and  with  suitable  Tackle  and  Baits  fit  and  proper  for 
the  River,  Season  and  Fish  he  designs  to  catch.  The  Man's  Fat 
you  may  get  of  the  London  Chyrurgeons,  &c.  *  •  *  *  I  forbore 
(for  some  reasons)  to  insert  the  same  in  my  fifth  edition ;  but  now 
since  its'  divulged,  value  it  not  the  less,  but  treat  it  as  a  jewel." 

R.  Nobbes,  who  was  probably  Vicar  of  Applethorp  and 
Wood-Newton,  in  Northamptonshire,  first  published  his 
Complete  Trailer,  or  the  Art  of  Trolling,  in  1682.  He  is 
often  spoken  of  as  the  "  Father  of  trolling,"  by  writers  on 
angling ;  but  it  is  a  title  of  piscatory  honour  to  which  he 
has  no  just  right,  as  this  method  of  "jacking"  is  treated  of 
in  many  of  the  works  already  mentioned.  It  may,  how- 
ever, be  allowed  that  his  discourse  upon  it  is  the  first  of 
any  length,  and  he  may  be  credited  with  having  treated 
VOL.  in.— II.  2  R 


6io      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

this  branch  of  angling  very  systematically,  and  of  dissemin- 
ating more  correct  views  of  it  than  had  hitherto  appeared. 

Blome's  Gentleman's  Recreation,  in  1686,  is  another  of 
the  "  Inquire-within-upon-Everything "  type  of  books, 
which  have  almost  as  many  subjects  treated  of  in  them  as 
has  that  tediously  interesting  "Anatomy  of  Melancholy," 
by  Burton  ;  and  Northern  Memoirs,  by  Franck,  the  author 
already  alluded  to  as  tilting  at  Walton,  was  published  in  1694. 
We  cannot  forbear  quoting  the  following  delicious  little 
bit  of  his  re  the  grayling  : — 

"The  umber  or  grayling  is  an  amourous  fish  that  loves  his 
life ;  his  mouth  waters  after  every  wasp,  as  his  fins  flutter  after 
every  fly ;  for  if  it  be  but  a  fly,  or  the  produce  of  an  insect,  out 
of  a  generous  curiosity,  he  is  ready  to  entertain  it.  Smooth  and 
swift  streams  enamour  him,  but  not  a  torrent ;  yet,  for  this  fly- 
admirer,  there  is  another  bait— the  munket  or  sea-green  grub, 
generated  amongst  owlder  trees,  also  issues  from  willows,  sallow, 
&c.  Fish  him  finely,  for  he  loves  curiosity,  neat  and  slender 
tackle,  and  lady-like.  You  must  touch  him  gently,  for  he  is 
tender  about  the  chaps;  a  brandling  will  entice  him  from  the 
bottom,  and  a  gilt-tail  will  invite  him  ashore." 

The  True  Art  of  Angling,  by  J.  S.,  was  first  published  in 
1696,  and  has  passed  through  many  editions.  Only  a  few 
of  the  earlier  ones  have  escaped  the  wear  and  tear  of  time. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  this  J.  S.  was  none  other  than 
the  owner  of  the  good  old  English  name  of  John  Smith, 
who  in  1684  published  one  of  those  numerous  patchwork 
books,  containing  treatises  on  a  multiplicity  of  rural  sports 
and  pastimes.  John  Smith,  in  his  volume,  included  the 
"  making  of  fireworks,"  and  the  "  noble  recreation  of 
ringing."  This  brings  us  to  the  close  of  the  Waltonian 
period  and  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

All  interested  in  old  angling  literature  will  rejoice  to 


ISAAK  WALTON.  611 

hear  that  in  continuation  of  their  "  Library  of  Old  Fishing 
Books,"  Messrs.  Satchell,  of  Tavistock  Street,  have  in  pro- 
gress the  publication  of  the  following  rare  volumes  (in 
uniform  Roxbro'  binding)  : — 

1.  An  older  form  of  the  Treaty se  of  Fysshynge  wyth  an  Angle 

(circa  1450),  printed  from  a  manuscript  in  the  collection 
of  Mr.  Denison,  with  preface  and  glossary  by  Thomas 
Satchell. 

2.  The  Treaty  se  of  Fysshynge  wyth  an  Angle,  first  printed  by 

Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  1496,  with  preface  and  glossary  by 
Thomas  Satchell. 

3.  The  Pleasures  of  Princes  (1614),  by  Gervase  Markham,  with 

introduction  by  Thomas  Westwood. 

4.  Conrad  Heresbach's  De  Piscatione  Compendium  (1570),  with 

a  translation  by  Miss  Ellis  and  introduction  by  Thomas 
Westwood. 

5.  A  Book  of  Fishing  with  Hook  and  Line  (1590),  by  L.[eonard] 

M.[ascall]. 

6.  A  Briefve  Treatis  of  Fishing,  with  the  Art  of  Angling  (1596), 

by  W.plliam]  G.fryndall]. 

7.  Book  xx  of  the  Geoponika  of  Cassianus  Bassus  (circa  950), 

with  a  translation  of  the  Greek  and  notes. 

8.  A  Jewell '  fdr  Gentrie  (1614). 

9.  Richard    de    Fournivall's    De    Vetula    (1470),   with    Jean 

Lefevre's  translation. 


2  R   2 


C  612   ) 


CHAPTER  V. 

AUTHORS  ON  FISH  AND  FISHING  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY. 

• 

THE  angling  literature  of  this  period  need  not  detain  us 
long,  as  its  authors  are  neither  numerous,  instructive,  nor 
models  in  the  way  of  composition.  Indeed  it  cannot  be 
said  that  there  is  one  among  them  who  has  left  his  mark, 
unless  it  be  the  author  of  The  Young  Man's  Companion^ 
1703,  whose  production  has  been  described  as  "a  sand- 
wich of  pastime  and  piety,  the  one  following  the  other 
as  inevitably  as  ham  follows  beef  at  a  picnic."  This 
is  a  sample  of  it — 

"  Having  cast  into  the  river  half  the  grains,  and  an  hour  being 
past,  you  have  no  bites  of  good  Roches,  you  may  conclude  either 
the  season  is  not  good,  or  there  are  Perch  or  Pike  there.  Then 
go  to  some  other  place  to  angle  for  Roches ;  if  you  had  baited 
the  place  when  you  first  came  to  the  river,  the  better.  .... 
Honest  angler,  as  often  as  thou  art  weary,  meditate  on  these 

verses : 

"  Cease  then  my  soul  to  dote  on  or  admire 
This  splendid  world  which  is  reserved  for  fire  ; 
Decline  the  company  of  sinners  here, 
As  thou  wouldst  not  be  shackled  with  them  there. 

"  When  you  have  done  angling,  go  and  see  if  a  pike  hath 
swallowed  the  Roche,  the  bait,  and  if  you  perceive  he  is  not  a  little 
one,  draw  him  very  gently  towards  you,  and  when  he  sees  you 
away  he  flies ;  let  go  and  give  him  all  the  line  you  can,  then 
draw  him  gently  again  to  tire  him.  When  he  is  weary,  you  may 
easily  draw  him  to  the  bank-side  and  take  him.  Then  will  thy 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.      613 

mind  be  so  stayed  with  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  this  verse 
may  not  disagree  with  thy  thoughts,  viz. : 

"  When  weary  anglers  in  the  night  do  sleep, 
Their  fancies  on  their  float  still  watching  keep." 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  conceive  how  any  one  could 
dream  of  putting  such  mawkish  trash  into  print. 

The  century  has  been  called  a  "  leaden  "  one,  and  is  not 
undeserving  of  the  title.  The  Secrets  of  A  ngting,  by  C.  B., 
in  1705,  is  little  more  than  a  compilation,  though  fairly  put 
together ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Country  Gentle- 
man's Vade-mecum,  by  Jacob,  in  1717.  Saunders's  Compleat 
Fisherman,  in  1724,  is  a  very  far  better  work,  giving  a  good 
deal  of  information  on  the  English  waters  and  fishing  in 
different  parts  of  the  Continent ;  and  it  is  interesting  from 
the  fact  that  in  it  is  the  first  mention  in  any  book  on 
angling  with  "  silk-worm  gut."  Pepys,  however,  in  his  Diary 
(March  i8th,  1677),  says  :  "This  day  Mr.  Caesar  told  me  a 
pretty  experiment  of  his  angling  with  a  minikin,  a  gutt-string 
varnished  over,  which  keeps  it  from  'swelling,  and  is  beyond 
any  hair  for  strength  and  smallness.  The  secret  I  like 
mightily."  As  a  matter  of  fact  gut  came  into  pretty 
general  use  after  the  middle  of  this  century.  The  Gentle- 
man Angler  of  1726  does  not  contain  much  that  was  new 
in  the  way  of  piscatory  information,  but,  under  different 
names  and  in  different  forms,  it  passed  through  several 
editions,  and  seems  to  have  been  appreciated.  Its  special 
interest  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  the  first  book  on  angling 
in  which  we  read  of  rings  for  the  rod  and  the  use  of  the 
winch : — 

"  It  will  be  very  convenient  to  have  Rings,  or  Eyes  (as  some 
call  them)  made  of  fine  Wire,  and  placed  so  artificially  upon  your 
Rod  from  the  one  End  to  the  other,  that  when  you  lay  your  Eye 
to  one,  you  may  see  through  all  the  rest ;  and  your  Rod  being 


614      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

thus  furnished,  you  will  easily  learn  from  thence  how  to  put  Rings 
to  all  your  other  Rods.  Through  these  Rings  your  Line  must 
run,  which  will  be  kept  in  a  due  Posture,  and  you  will  find  great 
Benefit  thereby.  You  must  also  have  a  Winch  or  Wheel  affixed 
to  your  Rod,  about  a  Foot  above  the  End,  that  you  may  give 
Liberty  to  the  Fish,  which,  if  large,  will  be  apt  to  run  a  great  way 
before  it  may  be  proper  to  check  him,  or  before  he  will  voluntarily 
return."  • 

The  volume  also  contained  "short  plain  instructions, 
whereby  the  most  ignorant  beginner  may  in  a  little  time 
become  a  perfect  artist  in  angling  for  Salmon."  The  "  little 
time  "  even  now,  with  all  modern  appliances,  often  takes  a 
"  lifetime." 

The  British  Angler,  by  Williamson,  in  1740,  is  a  mode- 
rately good  manual  as  times  went,  and,  like  most  others, 
dealt  largely  with  "  pastes."  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the 
great  majority  of  angling  authors,  who  devote  a  consider- 
able space  to  this  department  of  fraudful  baits  seldom 
recommend  them  personally.  Richard  Brooks,  M.D.,  is 
another  of  the  many  appropriators  of  other  men's  labours, 
suggesting  that  Sic  vos  non  vobis  might  be  an  appropriate 
motto  for  many  a  book  on  angling.  His  Art  of  Angling, 
in  1740,  assumed  the  form  of  a  dictionary.  Richard  and 
his  son  Charles  Bowlker  were  famous  anglers  at  Ludlow, 
and  authors 'too,  their  Art  of  Angling,  improved  in  all  its 
parts,  especially  fly  fishing,  being  really  instructive.  There 
seems  to  be  some  confusion  in  reference  to  their  joint  and 
separate  authorship.  The  first  edition  appeared  about  1758, 
and  after  that  six  other  editions  before  the  death  of  the  son 
Charles  Bowlker  in  1779.  Since  then  there  have  been  six 
more  editions,  the  last  dating  as  late  as  1839.  "The  vora- 
city of  the  Pike"  is  a  favourite  ichthyological  topic. 
Bowlker  the  younger  has  a  story  about  it : — 

"  My  father  catched  a  Pike  in  Barn-Meer  (a  large  standing 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.     615 

water  in  Cheshire),  was  an  ell  long,  and  weighed  thirty-five  pounds, 
which  he  brought  to  Lord  Cholmondely ;  his  lordship  ordered  it 
to  be  turned  into  a  canal  in  the  garden,  wherein  were  abundance 
of  several  sorts  of  fish.  About  twelve  months  after  his  lordship 
draw'd  the  canal,  and  found  that  this  overgrown  Pike  had  devoured 
all  the  fish,  except  one  large  Carp,  that  weighed  between  nine  and 
ten  pounds,  and  that  was  bitten  in  several  places.  The  Pike  was 
then  put  into  the  canal  again,  together  with  abundance  of  fish 
with  him  to  feed  upon,  all  which  he  devoured  in  less  than  a  year's 
time ;  and  was  observed  by  the  gardener  and  workmen  there,  to 
take  the  ducks,  and  other  water-fowl  under  water.  Whereupon 
they  shot  magpies  and  crows,  and  threw  them  into  the  canal, 
which  the  Pike  took  before  their  eyes  :  of  this  they  acquainted 
their  lord  ;  who,  thereupon,  ordered  the  slaughterman  to  fling  in 
calves-bellies,  chickens-guts,  and  suchlike  garbage  to  him,  to  prey 
upon  :  but  being  soon  after  neglected,  he  died,  as  supposed,  for 
want  of  food." 

Shirley's  Anglers'  Museum,  or  "  the  whole  art  of  float  and 
flyfishing,"  published  in  1784,  is  an  unpretentious  but  well- 
written  and  practical  little  book.  A  well-executed  portrait 
of  "  Mr.  John  Kirby,  the  celebrated  angler,"  who  was 
Keeper  of  Newgate  and  died  in  1804,  is  prefixed  to  the 
third  edition.  The  North  Country  Angler,  or  "the  art 
of  angling  as  practised  in  the  Northern  Counties  of  Eng- 
land," which,  Mr.  Chatto  says,  "  ought  to  have  been  called 
'The  North  Country  Poacher,'"  was  published  in  1786. 
Best's  Concise  Treatise  on  the  Art  of  Angling  appeared  in 
1787,  since  when  eleven  further  editions  have  been  pub- 
lished, 1838  being  the  date  of  the  last.  Best  was  keeper 
of  His  Majesty's  Drawing  Room  in  the  Tower  of  London, 
and  was  evidently  a  good  practical  angler.  He  has  no  less 
than  30  pages  of  his  book  on  the  "  Prognostics  of  Weather" 
to  be  observed  by  anglers. 

During  this  century  several  editions  of  what  may  be 
called  the  "  standard  "  authors  on  angling  were  issued  at 


616      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

intervals,  but  the  authors  above  mentioned  comprise  nearly 
all  in  this  country  who  essayed  to  deal  with  matters  pisca- 
torial. If  other  periods  had  not  been  more  prolific  of 
fishing  literature,  collectors  of  books  on  angling  would  have 
but  a  beggarly  array  of  almost  empty  shelves. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

AUTHORS  ON   FISHING  IN  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

THE  nineteenth  century  list  of  English  piscatory  authors  is 
very  different  to  that  of  the  last,  both  in  quantity  and 
quality.  A  recent  writer  on  angling  bibliography  has  said 
that  "  originality  is  scarce  among  them."  But  we  venture 
to  differ  with  him.  The  subject-matter  of  angling,  as  has 
been  before  remarked,  is  necessarily  of  a  somewhat  limited 
range  ;  and  there  must,  of  course,  be  some  similarity  in  the 
works  of  those  writers  who  treat  mainly  of  it  in  its  purely 
practical  aspect,  and  especially  in  reference  to  the  more 
common  branches  of  the  art.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  should 
be  inclined,  notwithstanding  the  multitude  of  angling  works 
which  have  been  published  during  the  present  century,  to  con- 
sider the  diversity  of  style  and  matter  as  a  marked  feature 
in  the  angling  literature  of  that  period.  Authors,  gene- 
rally speaking,  have  taken  a  variety  of  lines,  as  they  them- 
selves differ  from  each  other  in  their  fancies  for  this  or  that 
particular  variety  of  fishing,  in  their  variety  of  experiences 
and  variety  of  literary  bent.  Thus  readers  have  a  vast 
choice  of  works  put  before  them  to  suit  their  different  wants 
and  tastes — works  scientific,  descriptional,  "  informational," 
and  humbly  didactic.  Moreover,  hardly  any  two  anglers 
will  be  found  to  agree  as  to  which  are  their  favourite 
authors  ;  at  one  time,  or  rather  for  one  purpose,  prefer- 
ring one,  and  at  another  time,  and  for  another  purpose, 
another  ;  or,  finding  that  different  authors  suit  their  different 
moods  at  different  times,  or  supply  the  particular  reading  or 


618       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

information  they  require  on  some  particular  branch  of 
fishing,  or  for  some  particular  angling  expedition.  Thus,  if 
there  is  no  very  great  amount  of  absolute  "  originality  " 
among  our  angling  authors,  there  is  an  abundant  supply  of 
diversity,  and  though  in  one  sense  they  may  be  like  one 
another,  they  are  "  like  in  difference." 

The  angling  works  of  the  present  century  being  so  nume- 
rous, we  must  perforce  limit  ourselves  to  only  the  mere 
mention  by  name  of  many  of  them  ;  and,  as  the  great 
majority  of  them  are  easily  obtainable,  we  shall  not  to  any 
great  extent  call  in  the  aid  of  quotations  from  them,  espe- 
cially as  this  and  the  following  chapter  are  intended  rather 
for  the  purposes  of  reference  and  "  indication  "  than  of 
criticism. 

Taylor's  Angling  in  all  its  Branches,  published  in  1800, 
is  a  compendious  and  fairly  written  manual,  and  recom-^ 
mended  by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas  in  his  editions  of  Walton  ; 
and  Daniels'  Rural  Sports  of  the  following  year  contains  a 
good  deal  of  readable  matter  on  fish  and  fishing.  The 
Kentish  Angler  of  1804  is  one  of  the  rare  local  books,  and 
may  still  be  consulted  with  profit.  Mackintosh's  Driffield 
Angler,  of  1806,  is  still  worth  reading,  especially  by  anglers 
in  Midland  streams.  Robert  Salter  published  his  Modern 
Angler  in  1811;  but  must  not  be  confounded  with 
Thomas  Frederick  Salter,  a  well-known  hatter  of  his 
time,  whose  Anglers'  Guide,  published  in  1814,  has  gone 
through  a  dozen  or  so  editions,  and  may  still  be  called  a 
standard  work.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Bainbridge's  Fly- 
fisliers'  Gziide,  1816,  the  last  edition  of  which  was  published 
in  1840.  It  was  illustrated  with  coloured  plates  repre- 
senting upwards  of  forty  flies  of  the  most  useful  kind, 
copied  from  nature,  and  well  taught  how 

"  To  lightly  on  the  dimpling  eddy  fling 
The  hypocritic  fly's  unruffled  wing." 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.     619 

Carroll's  Anglers'  Vade-mecum,  of  1818,  was  probably  the 
first  book  on  angling  which  gave  flies  coloured  by  hand. 

We  will  here  pay  our  Transatlantic  cousins  the  compli- 
ment of  including  Washington  Irving  among  "  English  " 
authors,  and  quoting  a  passage  from  The  Angler,  which 
appeared  in  his  Sketch  Book  of  Geoffrey  Crayon,  Gent.,  in 
1820:— 

"  There  is  certainly  something  in  angling  that  tends  to  produce 
a  gentleness  of  spirit,  and  a  pure  sincerity  of  mind.  As  the 
English  are  methodical  even  .in  their  recreations,  and  are  the 
most  scientific  of  sportsmen,  it  has  been  reduced  among  them  to 
a  perfect  rule  and  system.  Indeed  it  is  an  amusement  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  mild  and  highly-cultivated  scenery  of  England, 
where  every  roughness  has  been  softened  away  from  the  land- 
scape. It  is  delightful  to  saunter  along  these  limpid  streams, 
which  meander  like  veins  of  silver  through  the  bosom  of  this 
beautiful  country;  leading  us  through  a  diversity  of  small 
scenery ;  sometimes  winding  through  ornamented  grounds ; 
sometimes  running  along  through  rich  pasturage,  where  the  fresh 
green  is-  mingled  with  sweet-smelling  flowers ;  sometimes  ven- 
turing in  sight  of  villages  and  hamlets ;  and  then  running 
capriciously  away  into  shady  retirements.  The  sweetness  and 
serenity  of  nature,  and  the  quiet  watchfulness  of  the  sport, 
gradually  bring  on  pleasant  fits  of  musing ;  which  are  now  and 
then  greatly  interrupted-  by  the  song  of  the  bird,  the  distant 
whistle  of  a  peasant,  or  perhaps  the  vagary  of  some  fish  leaping 
out  of  the  still  water,  and  skimming  transiently  about  its  glassy 
surface." 

The  year  1828  is  marked  by  Sir  Humphrey  Davy's  Sal- 
monia,  which  was  reviewed  by  Professor  Wilson  (Christopher 
North)  in  Blacltwood,  and  in  the  Quarterly  by  Sir  Walter 
Scott.  The  dialogue  may  be  a  little  too  formal,  and  Halieus 
rather  too  particular  a  gentleman  for  an  angler  who  often 
has  to  "  rough  it ; "  and  certainly  the  whole  book,  though 
modelled  on  the  Complete  Angler,  lacks  the  freshness, 


620     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

simplicity,  and  geniality  of  Walton's  style.  Still  it  is  a 
most  delightful  contribution  to  English  angling  literature, 
and  will  doubtless  ever  remain  a  prime  favourite  in  the 
angler's  library. 

The  decade  dating  from  1830  was  prolific  of  angling 
authors.  In  1832  Jesse  published  his  Gleanings,  "with 
maxims  and  hints  for  an  angler;"  and  later  on  appeared 
his  A  nglers*  Rambles,  of  which  he  said — 

"  Fish,  nature,  streams,  discourse,  the  line,  the  hook, 
Shall  form  the  motley  subject  of  my  book." 

Richard  Penn,  a  great-grandson  of  William  Penn,  of 
Pennsylvania  fame,  published,  in  1833,  a  partly  practical 
and  partly  humorous  book,  which  has  gone  through  four 
editions,  entitled  Maxims  and  Hints  for  an  Angler  and 
Miseries  of  Fishing,  etc.  This  is  one  of  the  "  Maxims  "  : — 

"  If  during  your  walks  by  the  river-side  you  have  marked  any 
good  fish,  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  other  persons  have  marked 
them  also.  Suppose  the  case  of  two  well-known  fish,  one  of 
them  (which  I  will  call  A)  lying  above  a  certain  bridge,  the 
other  (which  I  will  call  B)  lying  below  the  bridge.  Suppose 
further  that  you  have  just  caught  B,  and  that  some  curious  and 
cunning  friend  should  say  to  you,  in  a  careless  way,  '  Where  did 
you  take  that  fine  fish  ?'  a  finished  fisherman  would  advise  you 
to  tell  your  inquiring  friend  that  you  had  taken  your  fish  just 
above  the  bridge,  describing,  as  the  scene  of  action,  the  spot 
which,  in  truth,  you .  know  to  be  still  occupied  by  the  other 
fish,  A.  Your  friend  would  then  fish  no  more  for  A,  supposing 
that  to  be  the  fish  which  you  had  caught ;  and  whilst  he  inno- 
cently resumes  his  operations  below  the  bridge,  where  he  falsely 
imagines  B  still  to  be,  A  is  left  quietly  for  you,  if  you  can  catch 
him." 

And  here  is  a  brace  of  "  Miseries  " — 

"  Taking  out  with  you  as  your  aide-de-camp  an  unsophisticated 
lad  from  the  neighbouring  village,  who  laughs  at  you  when  you 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.     621 

miss  hooking  a  fish  rising  at  a  fly,  and  says,  with  a  grin,  *  You 
can't  vasten  'em  as  my  vather  does.' 

"  Telling  a  long  story  after  dinner,  tending  to  show  (with  full 
particulars  of  time  and  place)  how  that,  under  very  difficult 
circumstances,  and  notwithstanding  very  great  skill  on  your  part, 
your  tackle  had  been  that  morning  broken  and  carried  away  by 
a  very  large  fish ;  and  then  having  the  identical  fly,  lost  by  you 
on  that  occasion,  returned  to  you  by  one  of  your  party,  who 
found  it  in  the  mouth  of  a  trout,  caught  by  him,  about  an  hour 
after  your  disaster,  on  the  very  spot  so  accurately  described  by 
you — the  said  very  large  fish  being,  after  all,  a  very  small  one." 

The  Angler  in  Wales  (1834),  by  Captain  Medwin,  the 
friend  and  fellow  traveller  of  Byron,  may  be  mentioned  as 
an  instance  of  an  execrably  bad  book,  which  has  deservedly 
received  some  terrible  "slatings."  For  instance,  Chatto 
says  of  the  author — "  he  might  as  well  have  called  his  book 
'  The  Angler  in  Hindostan ;' "  and  this  is  how  another 
critic  and  angler  epitomizes  it — "The  book  is  a  medley, 
and  by  no  means  a  good  one,  made  up  apparently  from 
the  odds  and  *nds  of  some  MS.  collection  of  anecdotes. 
Mesmerism  and  dog-otters,  snuff-taking  and  second-sight, 
affectionate  terriers  and  literary  lions,  portraits  of  young 
ladies,  beautiful  as  Diana  and  bewitchingly  familiar  with 
the  slang  of  horse-jockeys,  tales  of  Welsh  courtship, 
scandal,  love,  lunacy,  and  murder,  'are  jumbled  antitheti- 
cally jowl  by  cheek.'  Even  where  the  narrator  deviates 
into  his  subject,  we,  glean  but  a  minimum  of  information 
from  his  pages.  I  have,  in  my  time,  fished  extensively, 
and  to  some  purpose,  in  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  Wales. 
Captain  Medwin  may  have  done  the  same,  but,  if  so,  he 
kept  his  secret  with  the  fidelity  of  Junius.  His  book 
nowhere  shows  us  how  it  was  done.  There  is  little  or  no 
useful  information  about  the  flies,  the  seasons,  or  the 
stations  most  favourable  to  the  angler.  Instead  thereof,  a 


622      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

great  deal  of  space  is  devoted  to  fishing  with  salmon  roe,  a 
bait  which  he  seems  to  think  an  important  novelty,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  he  shows  utter  ignorance  of  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  to  be  made  the  deadly  lure  which,  under 
certain  circumstances,  it  too  surely  is." 

Mr.  Chatto,  just  mentioned,  himself  entered  the  lists  an 
author  in  the  next  year  (1835)  under  the  pseudonym  of 
"  Fisher ;"  and  his  A  nglers  Souvenir  is  a  clever  and  useful 
book,  and  deserving  of  the  last  edition  published  in  1877 
with  Mr.  G.  Christopher  Davies,  no  mean  angling  author, 
as  its  editor. 

We  now  come  to  a  book  which,  though  to  some  extent 
superseded  by  other  and  fuller  works,  may  almost  be  said 
to  mark  a  new  era  of  angling  literature.  It  is  the  Art  of 
Angling  in  Scotland,  by  Thomas  Tod  Stoddart,  published 
in  1835.  He  published  other  works  later  on,  notably  the 
Angler's  Companion  in  1853,  of  which  no  fly-fisherman 
should  fail  to  obtain  a  copy  when  he  can.  Stoddart  is  a 
most  practical  instructor,  and  was  the  first  to  thoroughly 
exhaust  the  subject  of  fishing  with  a  worm  in  clear  water. 
There  does  not  seem  much  connection  between  poets  and 
worms,  but  Stoddart  was  one  of  the  former,  and  his 
writings  show  that  he  felt  all  the  poetry  of  angling. 
Another  great  authority  on  fly-fishing  comes  next  in  the 
person  of  Alfred  Ronalds,  whose  Fly-Fishers  Entomology, 
first  published  in  1836,  and  since  then  gone  through  seven 
editions,  will  long  remain  a  standard  authority  in  its  par- 
ticular line.  No  one  whp  aims  at  being  a  scientific  fly- 
fisherman  or  fly-maker  should  be  ignorant  of  the  contents 
of  this  book,  the  excellently  executed  plates  giving,  with 
some  trifling  inaccuracies,  a  coloured  representation  of  the 
natural  fly,  and  of  that  to  be  produced  artificially.  The 
book  is  a  great  authority,  especially  for  what  may  be  called 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.      623 

Midland  Counties  waters.  In  1839  T.  C.  Hofland,  author, 
artist,  and  fisherman,  dedicated  the  first  edition  of  his 
British  Angler's  Manual  to  Sir  Francis  Chantrey.  This 
and  subsequent  editions  are  enriched  with  engravings  and 
woodcuts  from  pictures  and  drawings  by  the  author  himself 
and  other  well-known  artists.  There  are  few  books  on 
piscatorial  shelves  which  more  fully  accord  with  the  spirit 
of  a  true  angler  and  a  true  artist. 

The  year  1840  is  associated  with  three  authors  of  mark. 
The  first  is  James  Wilson  (brother  of  "Christopher  North"), 
author  of  The  Rod  and  Gun,  and  contributor  of  many 
most  genial,  entertaining  and  instructive  articles  on  fish 
and  fishing  in  almost  every  branch  of  the  art,  to  Black- 
woods  Magazine.  The  second  is  J.  Colquhoun,  the  author 
of  The  Moor  and  the  Loch,  which  reached  its  fifth  edition  in 
1880.  There  are  few  books  which  are  more  worthy  of  the 
favour  with  which  it  has  been  so  Icng  received  by  the 
naturalist,  the  sportsman,  and  even  the  general  reader. 
Without  much  pretension  to  be  called  a  naturalist  (so 
modestly  says  the  author  of  himself),  he  has  always 
endeavoured  to  keep  his  eyes  open  as  the  wilder  points  of 
nature  were  unfolded  before  him,  and  no  part  of  his 
mountain  life  has  given  him  such  unmixed  pleasure  as 
watching  the  minute  and  tender  care  of  the  great  Parent 
of  all  good  in  adapting  the  creatures  of  the  storm  to  their 
lonely  solitudes,  and  spreading  before  them  a  table  in  the 
wilderness.  It  is  this  happy  mixture  of  ardour  as  a  sports- 
man, and  fresh  devoutness  of  spirit  which  imparts  so  true 
and  lasting  a  charm  to  the  whole  volume.  The  habits  and 
haunts  of  birds,  beasts,  and  fish  have  never  been  more 
brightly,  truly,  and  picturesquely  described  than  in  these 
glowing  and  pleasant  pages.  Mr.  Colquhoun  is  essentially 
a  gentleman  and  sportsman  ;  and  he  may  claim  to  be  the 


624     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

first  authority  of  his  time  on  the  wary  Salmo  ferox,  and  its 
capture  in  the  larger  Scotch  lochs.  The  third  author 
associated  with  1840  is  a  poor  shoemaker  of  Kelso,  of  the 
name  of  John  Younger,  who  had  a  great  local  reputation 
as  an  angler  and  fly-dresser.  He  gave  his  experiences  to 
the  world  in  his  River  Angling  for  Salmon  and  Trout, 
which  a  fly-fisherman  will  do  well  to  read  if  he  comes 
across  it.  Younger,  too,  is  a  bit  of  a  poet,  as  several  of  his 
compositions  quoted  in  Mr.  Henderson's  My  Life  as  an 
A  ngler  testify. 

Mr.  Edward  Chitty,  Barrister-at-Law,  published  his  very 
instructive  Illustrated  Fly-fisher 's  Text-book  in  1841  ;  and  in 
the  same  year  Blacker,  the  well-known  fishing-tackle  maker 
of  Dean  Street,  Soho,  who  died  a  few  years  ago,  his  Art  of 
A  ngling,  wherein  are  illustrated  with  plates  the  various 
stages  of  the  artificial  fly  before  it  is  finished.  In  1842, 
the  articles,  which  during  many  years  previously  had  been 
written  by  Professor  John  Wilson  for  BlackwoocFs  Magazine, 
were  published  under  the  title  of  The  Recreations  of  Chris- 
topher North,  a  name  which  will  be  associated  with  angling 
as  long  as  the  sport  is  pursued.  Professor  Wilson  was  a 
prince  among  anglers  and  among  men,  and  though  he  com- 
bined the  characters  of  artist,  poet,  philosopher,  and  philan- 
thropist, yet  he  still  stands  out  as  a  perfect  individuality. 
Let  every  angler  possess  his  Christopher  North,  if  only  as 
a  specimen  of  angling  literature  of  the  most  happy,  spirited, 
and  withal  polished  style,  though  abounding  with  what 
might  almost  be  called  the  "slang"  of  angling.  Just  a 
quotation  as  a  specimen,  in  which  the  Professor  describes 
killing  trout  in  Loch  Awe  when  they  were  "  well  on  "  : — 

"  Lie  on  your  oars,  for  we  know  the  water.  The  bottom  of 
this  shallow  bay — for  'tis  nowhere  ten  feet — is  in  places  sludgy, 
and  in  places  firm  almost  as  green-swatd,  for  we  have  waded  it  of 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.      625 

yore,  many  a  time  up  to  our  chin,  till  we  had  to  take  to  our  fins — 
there  !  Mr.  Yellowlees  was  in  right  earnest,  and  we  have  him  as 
fast  as  an  otter.  There  he  goes,  snoring  and  snuving  along,  as 
deep  as  he  can — steady,  boys,  steady — and  seems  disposed  to 
pay  a  visit  to  Rabbit  Island.  There  is  a  mystery  in  this  we  do 
not  very  clearly  comprehend ;  the  uniformity  of  our  friend's  con- 
duct becomes  puzzling ;  he  is  an  unaccountable  character.  He 
surely  cannot  be  an  eel;  yet,  for  a  trout,  he  manifests  an  un- 
natural love  of  mud  on  a  fine  day.  Row  shoreward — Proctor,  do 
as  we  bid  you — she  draws  but  little  water ;  run  her  bang  up  on 
that  green  line,  then  hand  us  the  crutch,  for  we  must  finish  this 
affair  on  terra  firma.  Loch  Awe  is  certainly  a  beautiful  piece  of 
water.  The  islands  are  disposed  so  picturesquely,  we  want  no 
assistance  but  the  crutch.  Here  we  are,  with  elbow  room,  and 
on  stable  footing ;  and  we  shall  wind  up,  returning  from  the 
water's  edge  as  people  do  from  a  levee,  with  their  faces  towards 
the  king.  Do  you  see  them  yellowing,  you  Tory  ?  What  bellies  ! 
Why,  we  knew  by  the  dead  weight  that  there  were  three,  for  they 
kept  pulling  one  against  another ;  nor  were  we  long  in  discover- 
ing the  complicated  movement  of  triplets.  Pounders  each,  same 
weight  to  an  ounce ;  same  family,  all  bright  as  stars.  Never 
could  we  endure  angling  from  a  boat.  What  loss  of  time  getting 
the  whoppers  whiled  into  the  landing-net !  What  loss  of  peace  of 
mind  in  letting  them  off,  when  their  snouts,  like  those  of  Chinese 
pigs,  were  within  a  few  yards  of  the  gunwale ;  and  when,  with  a 
last  convulsive  effort,  ttey  whaumled  themselves  over,  with  their 
splashing  tails,  and  disappeared  for  ever.  Now  for  five  flies 
— wind  on  our  back — no  tree  within  an  acre — no  shrub  higher 
than  the  bracken — no  reed,  rush,  or  water-lily  in  all  the  bay. 
What  hinders  that  we  should,  what  the  Cockneys  call,  whip  with  a 
dozen  ?  We  have  set  the  lake  afeed  ;  epicure  and  glutton  are 
alike  rushing  to  destruction.  Trouts  of  the  most  abstemious 
habits  cannot  withstand  the  temptation  of  such  exquisite  evening 
fare,  and  we  are  much  mistaken  if  here  be  not  an  old  dptard — a 
lean  and  slippery  pantaloon — who  had  long  given  up  attempting 
vainly  to  catch  flies,  and  found  it  as  much  as  he  could  do  to  over- 
take the  slower  sort  of  worms.  Him  we  shall  not  return  to  his 
VOL.  in II.  2  S 


626      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING.       , 

native  element,  to  drag  out  a  pitiable  existence,  but  leave  him 
where  he  lies,  to  die — he  is  dead  already — 

"  *  For  he  is  old,  and  miserably  poor.' 

Two  dozen  in  two  hours  we  call  fair  sport,  and  we  think  they  will 
average  not  less,  Proctor,  than  a  pound.  Lascelles  and  North 
against  any  two  in  England !  We  beseech  you  only  look  at 
yonder  noses,  thick  as  frogs,  as  pow  heads  !  There,  that  was 
lightly  dropped  among  them,  each  fatal  feather  seeming  to  melt 
on  the  water  like  a  snowflake.  We  have  done  the  deed,  Proctor ; 
we  have  done  the  deed.  We  feel  that  we  have  five.  Observe 
how  they  will  come  to  light  in  succession,  a  size  larger  and  larger, 
with  a  monster  at  the  tail  fly.  Even  so.  To  explain  the  reason 
why  would  perplex  a  Master  of  Arts.  Five  seem  about  fifty, 
when  all  dancing  about  together  in  an  irregular  figure  ;  but  they 
have  sorely  ravelled  our  gear.  It  matters  not,  for  it  must  be 
wearing  well  towards  eight  o'clock,  and  we  dine  at  sunset." 

And  yet  a  few  lines  more — 

"  Whirr,  whirr,  whirr  !  SALMO  FEROX,  as  sure  as  a  gun  !  The 
maddened  monster  has  already  run  out  ten  fathoms  of  chain 
cable.  His  spring  is  not  so  sinewy  as  a  salmon's  of  the  same 
size ;  but  his  rush  is  more  tremendous,  and  he  dives  like  one  of 
the  damned  in  Michael  Angelo's  'Last  Judgment.'  All  the 
twelve  barbs  are  gorged,  and  not  but  with  the  loss  of  his  torn-out 
entrails  can  he  escape  death.  Give  us  an  oar,  or  he  will  break 
the  rope.  There,  we  follow  him  at  equal  speed,  sternmost ;  but 
canny  canny  !  for  if  the  devil  doubles  upon  us  he  may  play  mis- 
chief yet,  by  getting  under  our  keel.  That  is  noble !  There  he 
sails,  some  twenty  fathoms  off,  parallel  to  our  pinnace,  at  the  rate 
of  six  knots,  and  bearing — for  we  are  giving  him  the  butt — right 
down  upon  the  Laracha  Ban,  as  if  towards  spawning  ground,  in 
the  genial  month  of  August ;  but  never  again  shall  he  enjoy  his 
love.  See  I  he  turns  up  a  side  like  a  house.  Ay,  that  is  indeed 
a  most  commodious  landing  place,  and  ere  he  is  aware  of  water 
too  shallow  to  hide  his  back  fin,  will  be  whallopping  upon  the 
yellow  sand." 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.      627 

Scrope,  another  excellent  and  spirited  writer,  though 
taking  a  more  limited  range,  makes  his  bow,  in  1843,  with 
his  Days  and  Nights  of  Salmon- Fishing  in  the  Tweed.  The 
book,  even  apart  from  its  angling  interest,  is  well  worth 
reading  as  a  bright  and  elegant  literary  composition,  in 
which  quaint  legend  and  humorous  anecdote  were  never 
better  told.  An  enthusiastic  angler-author,  though  he  has 
unbounded  admiration  for  many  angling  works,  says  that 
"  t/ie  book  of  angling  has  not  yet  been  written,"  adding, 
that  "to  write  it  would  indeed  require  more  extensive 
practice  than  is  often  attained,  or  perhaps  even  desirable, 
and  a  singular  combination  of  endowments.  We  shall 
hardly  see  the  gifts  of  Professor  Wilson,  Sir  Humphrey 
Davy,  and  Mr.  Scrope  united  in  one  man  ;  and  yet,  I  con- 
fess, little  short  of  such  a  union  would  complete  my  ideal 
of  the  author." 

Blakey — "  Palmer  Hackle,  Esq." — began  publishing  his 
books  in  1846,  but  they  hardly  rise  above  the  level  of 
mediocrity,  though  they  contain  some  useful  topographical 
information  as  to  fishing  waters  in  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland.  Edward  Fitzgibbon,  so  long  well  known  and  appre- 
ciated in  the  angling  columns  of  BelFs  Life  as  "  Ephemera," 
published  his  Handbook  of  Angling  in  1847,  and  his  Book  of 
the  Salmon  three  years  afterwards.  Though  many  anglers 
have  questioned  the  correctness  of  some  of  his  views,  both 
books  will  hold  their  own,  and  will  repay  careful  study,  the 
former  especially  by  the  humbler  class  of  anglers  who  have 
not  salmon  and  trout  fishing  at  their  command. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Newland,  a  "  Tractarian  "  leader  in  the 
prae-Ritualistic  days,  and  as  able  a  wielder  of  the  fly-rod 
as  of  the  pen,  published  The  Er.ne ;  its  Legends  and  its  Fly- 
fishing, in  1851,  and  three  years  later  Forest  Scenes  in 
Norway  and  Sweden  ;  being  extracts  from  the  Journal  of  a 

2    S     2 


628      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Fisherman— ddightfal  books  of  a  high  literary  cast,  inter- 
spersed with  much  humour.     The  present  writer  often  had 
the  pleasure  of  chatting  with  him  when  he  was  Vicar  of 
St.  Mary  Church,  South  Devon,  where  he  died.     He  was  a 
most  charming  raconteur  especially  of  piscatory  -  incidents. 
Dr.  Badham's  Prose  Halieutics ;   or  Ancient  and  Modern 
Fish  Tattle,  was  welcomed  by   a  very  large   number   of 
readers  in  1854.     It  has  been  already  mentioned  as  one  of 
the  most  interesting  books  of  its  kind  ever  written,  and  it 
would  be  almost  easier  to  say  what  there  is  not  in  it  than 
what  there  is,  comprising  as  it  does   an   almost  endless 
variety  of  chit-chat,  and  that,  too,  of  the  most  learned  kind 
about  fish  and  fishing.    Dr.  Badham  is  particularly  "  great " 
on  opsophagy.    In  the  same  year  Robert  Knox,  M.D.,  who 
affected  to  be  a  scientific  naturalist  and  special  authority 
on  Salmonoid  biology,  cannot  be  said  to  have  added  lustre 
to  angling  literature  by  the  publication  of  his  Fish  and  Fish- 
ing in  the  lone  Glens  of  Scotland.     Though,  perhaps,  hardly 
deserving  of  the  terrible  lashing  the  book  and  its  author  get 
at  the  hands  of  Mr.  H.  R.  Francis ;  still,  a  writer  who  lays 
down   angling  and  ichthyological   law  in   an   offensively 
authoritative  manner,  muddles  up  Salmo  salar  and  Salmo 
fario,  denies  the  Highlands  the  credit  of  being  an  angling 
country,  and  describes  the  Test  as  a  "  quiet  muddy  stream  " 
—almost  puts  himself  beyond  the  pale  of  toleration.     It  is, 
however,  but  fair  to  the  author  to  say  that  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  interesting  reading  in  his  book,  apart  from  its  many 
blemishes. 

W.  C.  Stewart's  Practical  A ngler ;  or,  the  Art  of  Trout 
Fishing,  is  another  of  the  books  which  no  fly-fisherman 
should  leave  unstudied.  The  first  edition  of  the  Practical 
Angler  appeared  in  1857,  and  the  last  in  1877,  five  years 
after  the  author's  death.  Mr.  Stewart  was  known  as  one 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.       629 

of  the  most  accomplished  trout  fishers  of  his  day,  and 
especially  in  "  clear  water."  He  elaborates  this  particular 
phase  of  angling,  and  discusses  exhaustively,  and  with 
great  fairness,  all  the  vexata  qucestiones  of  the  fly-fisher's 
vocation,  such  as  "  up  "  or  "  down  "  stream  fishing,  the 
colour  and  make  of  flies,  the  pliability  of  fly-rods,  &c. 
Some  "outsiders"  are  inclined  to  smile  when  anglers 
speak  of  the  education  of  modern  fish  ;  but  this  is  what 
Mr.  Stewart  says  on  the  subject : — 

"  Much  fishing,  besides  to  a  certain  extent  thinning  the  trout, 
operates  against  the  angler's  killing  large  takes,  by  making  the 
remaining  trout  more  wary,  and  it  is  more  from  this  cause  than 
the  scarcity  of  trout  that  so  many  anglers  return  unsuccessful 
from  much-fished  streams.  The  waters  also  now  remain  brown- 
coloured  for  such  a  short  time  that  the  modern  angler  is  deprived, 
unless  on  rare  occasions,  of  even  this  aid  to  his  art  of  deception ; 
and  the  clearness  of  the  water,  and  the  increased  wariness  of  the 
trout,  are  the  main  causes  why  the  tackle  of  fifty  years  ago  would 
be  found  so  faulty  now.  Fifty  years  ago  it  was  an  easy  thing  to 
fill  a  basket  with  trout ;  not  so  now.  Then  there  were  ten  trout 
for  one  there  is  now.  The  colour  of  the  water  favoured  the 
angler,  and  the  trout  were  comparatively  unsophisticated.  Now 
filling  a  basket  with  trout,  at  least  in  some  of  our  southern  streams 
open  to  the  public,  when  they  are  low  and  clear,  is  a  feat  of  which 
any  angler  may  be  proud.  .  .  .  Angling  is,  in  fact,  every  day 
becoming  more  difficult,  and  consequently  better  worthy  of  being 
followed  as  a  scientific  amusement.  So  far  from  looking  upon 
the  increase  of  anglers  with  alarm,  it  ought  to  be  regarded  with 
satisfaction ;  the  more  trout  are  fished  for,  the  more  wary  they 
become ;  the  more  wary  they  are,  the  more  skill  is  required  on 
the  angler's  part,  and,  as  the  skill  an  amusement  requires  consti- 
tutes one  of  its  chief  attractions,  angling  is  much  better  sport  now 
than  it  was  fifty  years  ago." 

But  as  we  are  now  finding  ourselves  in  company  of  contem- 
porary contributors  to  angling  literature,  the  great  majority 


630     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

of  whom  are  still  alive  and  "  plying  the  angle,"  it  would  be 
beyond  our  original  purpose  to  do  much  more  than  men- 
tion some  of  their  names  and  chief  productions.  During  the 
last  twenty-five  years  many  have  been  very  active  both 
with  their  rods  and  pens,  and  it  may  be  fairly  said  that 
success  has  attended  both  their  piscatory  and  literary 
efforts.  We  need  by  no  means  be  ashamed  of  the  angling 
literature  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  Charles  Kings- 
ley,  in  his  Chalk  Stream  Studies,  which  first  appeared  in 
Fraser's  Magazine  for  September,  1858,  shows  us  the  kind 
of  man  an  angler  can  be,  and  the  kind  of  angler  a  man 
can  be,  as  he  also  does  in  his  Life  and  Letters,  published 
by  his  widow.  The  first-named  little  book  is  a  mine  of 
information  to  the  fly-fisher,  and  charming  reading  in  all 
respects.  The  last  quotation  we  shall  indulge  in  is  one  of 
his  pictures  of  English  scenery : — 

"  Let  the  Londoner  have  his  six  weeks  every  year  among  crag 
and  heather,  and  return  with  lungs  expanded  and  muscles  braced 
to  his  nine  months'  prison.  The  countryman,  who  needs  no  such 
change  of  air  and  scene,  will  prefer  more  home-like  though  more 
homely  pleasures.  Dearer  to  him  than  wild  cataracts  or  Alpine 
glens  are  the  still  hidden  streams  which  Bewick  has  immortalized 
in  his  vignettes,  and  Creswick  in  his  pictures ;  the  long  glassy 
shadow,  paved  with  yellow  gravel,  where  he  wades  up  between 
low  walls  of  fern-fringed  rock,  between  nut  and  oak  and  alder,  to 
the  low  bar  over  which  the  stream  comes  swirling  and  dimpling, 
as  the  water-ousel  flits  piping  before  him,  and  the  murmur  of  the 
ring-dove  comes  soft  and  sleepy  through  the  wood.  There,  as  he 
wades,  he  sees  a  hundred  sights,  and  hears  a  hundred  tones, 
which  are  hidden  from  the  traveller  on  the  dusty  highway  above. 
The  traveller  fancies  that  he  has  seen  the  country.  So  he  has, 
the  outside  of  it  at  least ;  but  the  angler  only  sees  the  inside.  The 
angler  only  is  brought  close  face  to  face  with  the  flower  and  bird 
and  insect  life  of  the  rich  river  banks,  the  only  part  of  the  land- 
scape where  the  hand  of  man  has  never  interfered,  and  the  only 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURA.      631 

part  in  general  which  never  feels  the  drought  of  summer,  *  the 
trees  planted  by  the  water-side,  whose  leaf  shall  not  wither.' " 

In  1858,  too,  Mr.  Francis  Francis  makes  his  first  appear- 
ance in  print  with  his  Angler's  Register,  and  ever  since 
then  he  has  been  a  busy  writer,  as  the  columns  of  the 
Field  and  contemporary  periodical  literature  bear  witness. 
His  magnum  opus  is  A  Book  on  Angling,  first  published  in 
1867,  since  which  date  it  has  passed  through  several  editions, 
and  is  long  likely  to  remain  one  of  the  chief  and  most  reliable 
text-books  for  anglers  of  all  kinds.  Probably  no  fisherman 
living  has  had  greater  experience  in  almost  all  the  waters 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  in  all  kinds  of  fishing,  and 
therefore  he  is  one  of  the  safest  guides  an  angler  can  follow. 
The  medical  profession  supplies  another  piscatory  author 
in  the  person  of  Mr.  W.  Wright,  "  Surgeon- Aurist  to  her 
late  Majesty  Queen  Charlotte,  &c,"  who  in  1858  published 
his  Fishes  and  Fishing  ..."  anatomy  of  their  senses,  their 
loves,  passions,  and  intellects."  It  is  a  curious  medley  of 
selections  apparently  from  his  note-book,  but  fairly  in- 
teresting, and  flavoured  with  good  anecdotes.  "Otter's" 
Complete  Guide  to  Spinning  and  Trolling  first  appeared  in 
1859,  and  has  gone  through  several  editions,  as  has  also 
his  Modern  Angler,  first  published  in  1864.  Captain  Alfred, 
of  Moorgate  Street,  is  the  "Otter"  in  question ;  and  as  he 
has  had  great  experience  and  success  as  an  angler,  espe- 
cially in  the  Thames  and  other  waters  within  easy  reach 
of  London,  those  who  go  the  "  home  circuit "  will  find  his 
pleasantly  written  little  book  most  helpful.  Captain  Alfred 
is  also  a  most  skilful  painter  of  fish. 

Another  Master  in  piscatorial  Israel,  and  of  almost 
boundless  experience  like  Mr.  Francis  Francis,  is  Mr.  H. 
Cholmondeley  Pennell.  His  first  book,  Spinning  Tackle, 
appeared  in  1 862,  and  his  A  ngler  Naturalist,  Fishing  Gossip, 


632     LITERA  TURE  Of  SEA  AND  RIVER  PISHING. 

and  other  works,  have  followed.  His  Book  of  the  Pilce  is, 
perhaps,  the  best  piscatorial  monograph  ever  written,  and 
exhaustive  of  the  subject  with  which  it  deals.  Mr.  H.  C. 
Cutliffe's  little  book,  The  Art  of  Trout  Fishing  in  Rapid 
Streams,  1863,  is  written  mainly  in  reference  to  North 
Devon,  but  is  applicable  more  or  less  to  rapid  streams 
everywhere,  and  though  rather  prolix,  should  be  read  by 
all  fly-fishers  who  have  to  deal  with  such  waters.  It  had 
become  very  difficult  to  obtain  a  copy  of  this  book,  but 
Messrs.  Sampson  Low  &  Co.  have  recently  issued  a  new 
edition.  The  Fisherman's  Magazine  was  published  in 
monthly  numbers,  under  the  editorship  of  Mr.  Cholmon- 
deley  Pennell,  during  the  years  1864  and  1865,  and  "by 
arrangement "  ceased  to  exist  when  Land  and  Water  made 
its  appearance.  Anglers  should  always  secure  it  when 
they  can,  as  many  of  our  best  angling  writers  contributed 
to  it,  and  it  is  replete  with  all  kinds  of  fishing  gossip  and 
miscellaneous  articles  of  interest  to  all  fishermen.  The 
Autobiography  of  the  late  Salmo  Salar,  Esq.,  by  Mr.  G. 
Rooper,  made  a  hit  in  1867 ;  and  his  other  works,  Flood, 
Field,  and  Forest,  and  Thames  and  Tweed,  contain  pleasant 
sketches  in  great  variety.  Mr.  Greville  Fennell,  almost 
better  known  as  Greville  F.  in  the  pages  of  the  Field 
and  other  current  literature,  began  to  supply  anglers  in 
1867  with  TJie  Rail  and  the  Rod,  which  gave  them  a  great 
deal  of  information  as  to  waters  to  be  reached  by  the 
various  main  lines  of  railway,  which  still  for  the  most  part 
holds  good.  His  Book  of  the  Roach  (1870)  is  another  well 
executed  piscatorial  monograph. 

Among  works  of  a  semi-pastoral  and  idyllic  character, 
combined  with  that  of  angling  proper,  Mr.  W.  Senior's 
("Red  Spinner")  Waterside  Sketches,  1875,  and  Mr.  G.  C. 
Davies'  Angling  Idylls,  1876,  stand  out  conspicuous.  Both 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.       633 

authors  have  produced  other  works,  the  features  of  which 
are   their  pleasant  easy   style   of   narrative   and   accurate 
picture-painting  of  angling  surroundings.     Here  comes  in 
for  mention  one  of  the  most  remarkable  books  ever  issued 
in    connection   with  angling   literature.      It  is  entitled   A 
Quaint  Treatise  on  Flees  and  the  Art  a'   A rtyfichall  Flee 
Making,    and  was  brought  out  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Aldam,  a 
noted  fly-fisherman  in  his  day,  in  1876.     The  treatise  was 
written,  according  to  the  title-page,  "  By  an  Old  Man  well 
known  on  the  Derbyshire  streams  a  century  ago,"  and  is 
printed  from  the  old  MS.,  "never  before  published,"  in  rare 
old  large  type,  with  double  red-line  borders  and  spacious 
margin.     The   editorial   notes  are   by   Mr.   Aldam.     The 
unique  feature  of  the  handsome  quarto  is  the  introduction 
of  very  thick   cardboard    leaves,  containing,  in  sunk,  gilt- 
edged  panels,  pattern  flies  and  the  materials  for  making 
them.     Each  compartment  has  the  pattern  fly  made  in  the 
best  style,  the  feathers,  hackle,  silk,  hair,  and  twist,  which 
are  necessary  for  its  exact  manufacture,  each  separate,  and 
securely   fastened   down — an  idea  which   may  have  been 
suggested  by  the  earlier  editions  of  Black er's  Art  of  Fly- 
making,  which  have  specimens  of  flies  wafered  to  the  page. 
In  Mr.  Aldam's  book  there  are  twenty-two  flies  given  in  the 
way  described,  and  they   "  kill "  as  well  now  as  in  the  days 
of  the  "  Old   Man."    But  few  copies  of  this  unique  book 
were   brought   out,  in   consequence   of    the  expense    and 
labour  involved  in  producing  each.     Its  original  price  was 
necessarily  a  high  one,  but  it  commands  nearly  double  that 
now,  and  is  worth  it,  if  only  as  a  work  of  art ;  but  it  is 
seldom  that  a  copy  is  found  on  sale.     None  but  a  perfect 
enthusiast  could  have  conceived  and  carried  out  a  work  like 
this.     Mr.  J.  P.  Wheeldon's  Angling  Resorts  near  London, 
published  in  1878,  is,  like  all  the  productions  of  his  facile 


634      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

pen,  full  of  instruction  and  interest,  and  redolent  of  a 
genial  spirit  Perhaps,  when  he  is  less  busy  with  periodical 
literature,  he  will  supply  us  with  a  further  instalment  of  a 
more  permanent  character. 

In  January  1880  Messrs.  Satchell  &  Co.  began  to  issue 
T lie  Anglers'  Note-Book  and  Naturalists'  Record,  in  separate 
numbers,  which  formed  a  volume  by  the  end  of  June  in  that 
year.  It  is  a  kind  of  "  Notes  and  Queries  "  production,  to 
which  many  well-known  scholars  and  angling  writers  con- 
tributed ;  and  anglers  and  others  will  be  glad  to  hear  that 
a  new  series  is  in  contemplation.  In  this  year  the  Messrs. 
Satchell  brought  out  a  new  edition  of  My  Life  as  an  Angler, 
by  Mr.  William  Henderson,  the  first  edition  of  which  is 
most  beautifully  illustrated  by  Clement  Burlison ;  and 
it  would  not  be  far  wrong  to  say  that  this  is  one  of  the 
most  important  contributions  to  angling  literature  of  late 
years.  It  is  one  of  those  books,  like  "  The  Complete 
Angler,"  whose  special  charm  is  that  it  seems  to  make 
the  reader  personally  acquainted  with  the  author,  the 
manner  of  man  he  is,  or  was,  and  able  fully  to  sympathise 
with  him.  There  is  no  modern  book  upon  angling  and 
its  surroundings  which  could  be  put  into  the  hands 
of  novice  or  veteran  with  greater  chances  of  charming 
both  alike.  It  holds  a  copious  store  of  information  and 
anecdote,  and  reflects  in  every  page  its  author's  contented 
spirit,  kindly  heart,  and  ripe  experience.  A  sound  and 
carefully-compiled  manual  for  all  kinds  of  fishing  is  Mr. 
J.  H.  Keene's  Practical  Fisherman,  published  in  1881.  One 
of  its  features  is  that  it  contains  full  descriptions  of  all 
kinds  of  fishing-tackle,  and  admirably  plain  directions.  The 
Scientific  Angler,  by  the  late  David  Foster,  of  Ashbourne, 
was  a  welcome  addition  to  angling  literature  in  1882. 
British  Field  Sports,  published  last  year  by  Mackenzie 


AUTHORS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.     635 

of  Ludgate  Hill,  E.G.,  contains  pleasant  angling  reading. 
Among  recent  angling  publications  of  value  are  several 
brought  out  by  Messrs.  Sampson  Low,  Marston,  &  Co. 
One  is  entitled  An  Anglers  Strange  Experience,  the 
character  of  which  may  be  partly  surmised  by  the 
additional  title  of  "A  Whimsical  Medley,  and  an  Of- 
Fish-a\\  Record  without  A-£rz<^-ment.  By  Cotswold 
Isys,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  All-soles,  late  Scholar  of  Winch- 
ester.  Now  Ready.  Profusely  Illustrated  in  a  Style  never 
before  App-roac/i-ed"  The  second  is  Float  Fishing  and 
Spinning  in  the  Nottingham  style,  by  J.  W.  Martin  ("  Trent 
Otter  "),  which  Thames  anglers  and  others  wedded  to  their 
own  style  of  tackle  and  fishing  would  do  well  to  read.  The 
third  is  a  revised  edition  of  Michael  Theakston's  British 
Angling  Flies,  by  Mr.  F.  M.  Walbran.  The  first  edition  was 
published  in  1862,  but  has  long  been  out  of  print.  It 
received  the  high  commendation  of  Charles  Kingsley,  in  his 
Chalk  Stream  Studies  above  mentioned,  and  was  well  worth 
reviving.  It  is  now  improved  by  a  modification  of  the  con- 
fusing nomenclature  of  flies  adopted  by  the  author.  The 
Angler's  Complete  Guide  and  Companion,  by  Mr.  G.  Little, 
the  well-known  fishing-tackle  maker  of  Fetter  Lane,  E.C. 
(who,  by  the  way,  has  most  deservedly  been  awarded  one 
of  the  Gold  Medals  and  other  distinctions  at  the  Fisheries 
Exhibition),  is  among  the  last  contributions  to  angling 
literature,  and  deserving  of  special  mention  for  the  seventy- 
six  hand-coloured  illustrations  of  the  best  known  flies. 
May  we  not  expect  some  contribution  to  angling  literature 
from  the  pen  of  that  accomplished  fisherman,  Mr.  A.  G. 
Jardine  ?  It  would  be  more  than  welcomed  by  all  anglers. 
From  this  brief  survey  of  the  angling  literature  of  the 
present  century,  even  though  many  names  are  omitted  from 
it,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  has  flowed  on  in  a  continuous 


636     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

and  increasing  stream.  Judging  from  all  appearances,  it  is 
likely  to  continue  so  to  do.  The  Fisheries  Exhibition,  by 
setting  every  one  talking  about  fish  and  fishing,  has  estab- 
lished what  may  almost  be  called  an  "ichthyomania  ;"  and 
the  rapidly  increasing  number  of  anglers  will  naturally  stimu- 
late angling  authorship.  Moreover,  as  there  is  no  finality 
in  the  art  of  angling,  and  fish  become  more  and  more 
"  educated,"  so  that  the  angler  has  to  be  constantly  refin- 
ing upon  his  tackle,  lures  and  methods,  dissertations  on  the 
subject  in  all  its  branches  follow  almost  as  a  matter  of 
course.  Thus  "  of  making  of  many  books  "  on  angling,  we 
may  presume,  there  will  be  "  no  end  " ;  but,  however  many 
there  be,  and  however  interesting  and  useful  in  their  way 
anglers  and  would-be  anglers  may  find  them,  they  must 
bear  in  mind  the  caution  given  by  Izaak  Walton  in  his 
« Epistle  to  the  Reader"  :— 

"  Now  for  the  art  of  catching  fish,  that  is  to  say,  how  to  make 
a  man  that  was  none  to  be  an  angler  by  a  book.  He  that  under- 
takes it  shall  undertake  a  harder  task  than  Mr.  Hales,  that  in  a 
printed  book  undertook  to  teach  the  art  of  fencing,  and  was 
laughed  at  for  his  labour.  Not  but  that  many  useful  things 
might  be  observed  out  of  that  book,  but  that  the  art  was  not  to 
be  taught  by  words  j  nor  is  the  Art  of  Angling? 


C  637   ) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING. 

RIGHTLY  has  a  poet  observed  that — 

"  The  power  of  waters  over  the  minds  of  poets  has  been 
acknowledged  from  the  earliest  ages ;  through  the  flumina  amem 
sylvasque  inglorius  of  Virgil,  down  to  the  sublime  apostrophe 
to  the  great  rivers  of  the  earth  by  Armstrong,  and  the  simple 
ejaculation  of  Burns  : — 

"  *  The  Muse  na  Poet  ever  fand  her, 
Till  by  himsel'  he  learned  to  wander 
Adown  some  trotting  burn's  meander 
And  no  think  lang.' " 

This  has  been  partly  testified  to  by  the  quotations 
already  given  in  chapter  II.  from  ancient  poetical  authors, 
whose  theme  has  been  fish  and  fishing,  many  of  whom 
have  been  happy  both  in  themselves  and  in  their  English 
translators.  We  now  come  to  the  English  piscatory  poets 
themselves.  But  here,  again,  there  is  some  little  difficulty 
as  to  who  can  fairly  be  included  in  the  category ;  and 
perhaps  it  would  not  be  well  to  draw  too  hard  and  fast  a 
line  in  this  manner,  but  to  include  those  who  make  more 
or  less  lengthy  allusions  to  fishing  and  sing  the  praises 
of  angling. 

It  would  savour  of  optimism  to  argue  that  English 
piscatory  poetry  generally  maintains  a  high  standard  ;  but 
we  cannot  help  thinking  that  Mr.  Westwood  is  a  little  hard 
on  our  authors  when  he  says,  "  To  some  three  or  four  of 
them  may  be  assigned  a  place —shall  we  say  midway,  by 


638      LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

courtesy  ? — on  the  ledges  of  Parnassus ;  the  rest  are 
innocent  of  all  altitudes  whatsoever,  except  those  of  Grub 
Street  garrets,  or  the  stilts  of  an  absurd  vanity."  Many  of 
them  have  taken  admirable  advantage  of  what  may  be 
called  the  "  surroundings  "  of  angling,  and  have  dressed  up 
the  art  itself,  which,  at  the  best,  only  offers  a  limited  field 
for  description,  with  true  and  beautiful  pictures  of  the 
scenes  amid  which  it  is  followed.  One  of  the  great  charms 
of  angling  is  that,  of  all  sports,  it  affords  the  best  oppor- 
tunities of  enjoying  the  wonders  and  beauties  of  nature  ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  develops  a  love  of  nature,  and 
creates  a  taste  for  the  study  of  various  celestial  and  terres- 
trial phenomena.  This  sentence  may  sound  like  an  introduc- 
tion to  a  heavy  essay ;  but  it  is  true  that  whatever  be  the 
season  of  the  year,  whether  the  angler  be  casting  his  fly  on 
the  early  rivers  of  the  west  of  England  or  northern  Caledonia, 
mid  the  cold  winds  and  storms  of  February  and  March,  or 
later  on  beneath  the  more  genial  skies  of  April  and  May, 
or  basking  in  the  summer's  sun  on  the  bosom  of  the 
Thames,  as  he  is  lazily  indifferent  whether  his  bait  tempts 
the  fish  or  not,  or  pursuing  his  pastime  during  the  soft 
autumn  days,  or  the  chill  and  short  daylight  hours  of  winter, 
whether  he  be  strolling  along  the  margin  of  the  swift-rushing 
streams  of  Wales  and  Scotland,  with  mountain  and  moor- 
land round  him,  or  of  the  more  gently  flowing  rivers  of  the 
South,  which  meander  through  the  rich  water-meadows 
curtained  by  hanging  woods,  or  angling  patiently  on  lonely 
loch  or  by  side  of  sedgy  pool— the  sights  and  sounds  of 
nature  are  ever  present  to  him,  as  she  reveals  herself 
in  her  various  moods  and  phases.  It  is  not,  of  course, 
meant  that  all  anglers  are  keen  lovers  of  nature,  or  observant 
of  natural  phenomena  ;  but  the  great  majority  certainly  are 
so,  and  become  more  and  more  interested  every  year  in  all 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  639 

they  see  and  hear  about  their  paths.  He  spake  truly  in  the 
" Old  Play":— 

"  Trust  me,  there  is  much  Vantage  in  it,  sir ; 
You  do  forget  the  noisy  pother  of  mankind, 
And  win  communion  with  sweet  Nature's  self, 
In  plying  our  dear  craft." 

And  so  not  unfrequently,  nay,  it  very  often  happens  that 
the  angler  is  led  to  investigate  the  habits  of  the  birds, 
beasts,  and  insects,  which  present  themselves  to  him  as  he 
follows  his  vocation,  and  the  marvels  of  the  lives  of  the 
innumerable  creatures  which  tenant  the  earth,  air,  and 
water ;  and  thus  he  becomes  an  enthusiastic,  though,  of 
course,  not  always  a  scientific  naturalist ;  while  the  trees  of 
the  forest  and  the  flowers  of  the  field  are  another  endless 
source  of  interest  and  study. 

And  further,  though  all  anglers  cannot  be  credited  with 
the  piety  of  Walton,  there  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  very 
many,  as  Pope  writes,  "  look  through  Nature  up  to  Nature's 
God."  The  old  lines  which  date  back  as  far  as  1706,  are 
in  the  main  still  true  : — 

"  Angling  tends  our  bodies  to  exercise, 
And  also  souls  to  make  holy  and  wise, 
By  heavenly  thoughts  and  meditation — 
This  is  the  angler's  recreation." 

And  many  of  those  who  seek  recreation  with  their  angle 
amid  the  works  of  nature,  realise  the  words  and  thoughts 
of  old  John  Dennys,  where  he  says  : — 

"  All  these  and  many  more  of  his  creation, 
That  made  the  heavens,  the  angler  oft  doth  see, 
And  takes  therein  no  little  delectation 
To  think  how  strange  and  wonderfull  they  bee, 
Framing  thereof  an  inward  contemplation 
To  set  his  thoughts  from  other  fancies  free  ; 
And  while  he  looks  on  these  with  joyful  eye, 
His  mind  is  wrapt  above  the  starry  skie." 


64o      LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Thus  there  is  a  certain  tendency  for  the  angler  to  become 
a  poet,  or  at  least  to  become  imbued  with  poetic  feelings 
springing  from  an  elevated  source. 

The  early  English  poets  can  hardly  be  expected  to  con- 
tribute much  to  the  literature  of  the  angle ;  but  here  is 
a  little  bit  from  Chaucer's  Complaynte  of  Mars  and  Venus 

(1475)  :— 

"  Hit  semeth  he  hath  to  lovers  enemyti, 
And  lyke  a  fissher,  as  men  al  may  se, 
Bateth  hys  angle-hoke  with  summe  pleasaunce 
Til  mony  a  fissch  ys  wode  so  that  he  be 
Sesed  therwith  ;  and  then  at  erst  hath  he 
Al  his  desire,  and  therwith  al  myschaunce, 
And  thogh  the  lyne  breke  he  hath  penaunce ; 
For  with  the  hoke  he  wounded  is  so  sore, 
That  he  his  wages  hathe  for  evermore." 

And  one  from  John  Gower  (1483)  : — 

"  And  as  the  fisher  on  his  bait 
Sleeth,  when  he  first  seeth  the  fishes  taste, 
So  when  he  seeth  time  ate  last, 
That  he  may  worche  an  other  wo, 
Shall  no  man  tornen  him  ther  fro, 
That  hate  will  his  felonie 
Fulfill  and  feigne  compaignie." 

Nor  must  we  expect  much  piscatory  poetry  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  Spenser  can  hardly  be  claimed  by  the 
angling  fraternity  as  one  of  their  songsters,  though  the 
contemplation  of  the  multitudes  of  the  various  inhabitants 
of  the  waters  made  him  exclaim — 

"  Oh  what  an  endlesse  work  has  he  in  hand 
Who'd  count  the  sea's  abundant  progeny, 
Whose  fruitful  seed  far  passeth  that  on  land, 
And  also  theirs  that  roame  in  th'  azure  sky, — 
So  fertile  be  the  floods  in  generation, 
So  vast  their  numbers,  and  so  numberless  their  nation." 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  641 

He  sings,  too,  of  "the  Medwaies  silver  streams,"  in  which 
the  nymphs  were  wont — 

"  With  hook  or  net,  barefooted  wantonly 
The  pleasant  dainty  fish  to  entangle  or  deceive." 

But  Francis  Quarles  may  fairly  be  claimed  by  anglers 
as  a  poet-angler,  as  he  not  only  caught  but  sang  of 

"  The  broad-side  bream, 
The  wary  trout,  that  thrives  against  the  stream  j " 

and  of 

"  The  well-grown  carp,  full  laden  with  her  spawn." 

He  lived  on  well  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and,  judging 
from  the  style,  there  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  Walton 
wrote  the  "Address  to  the  Reader"  of  his  Shepherd's 
Eclogues,  which  were  printed  in  1646  by  John  and  Richard 
Marriott,  the  latter  of  whom  was  Walton's  publisher  and 
intimate  friend. 

Just  before  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  find  the 
following  in  Sabie's  Fisherman's  Tale  (1595).  After  describ- 
ing the  delight  of  a  spring  morning,  the  poet  continues  : — 

"  I  shakt  off  sleepe,  and  tooke  in  hand  a  reede, 
A  reede  whereto  was  bounde  a  slender  line, 
And  crooked  hooke,  wherewyth,  for  my  disport, 
Walking  along  the  bankes  of  silver  lakes, 
Oftimes  I  vsed,  with  false  deceiuing  baytes, 
To  pluck  bright-scaled  fish  from  christall  waves. 
Forthwith  I  bended  steps  vnto  the  streames, 
And  pleasant  meares,  not  far  from  mine  abode, 
Needless  it  were  here  to  rehearse  what  joyes 
Each  thing  brought  then  vnto  my  dolefull  minde. 
The  little  menowes  leapt  aboue  the  waues 
And  sportive  fish  like  wanton  lambes  did  play." 

Old  Michael  Drayton,  whom  Charles   Lamb  eulogises 
as  the  panegyrist  of  his  native  land,  is  in  full  song  at  the 
VOL.  III.— u.  2  T 


642     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  his  Polyolbion  having 
been  published  in  1613.  Hymning  many  rivers,  "our 
flood's  Queen,  Thames,"  "the  stately  Severn,"  and  "the 
crystal  Trent/'  he  naturally  sings  of  their  inhabitants, 
mention  being  made  of  them  in  the  6th,  2  5th,  and  26th 
"  Songs  "  of  the  Polyolbion,  and  other  of  his  compositions. 
In  one  he  introduces  a  woodman,  a  shepherd,  and  a  fisher- 
man, each  extolling  the  merits  of  his  vocation ;  and  it  is 
just  possible  that  Walton  got  from  this  his  idea  of  "  inter- 
locutors." Anyhow,  he  was  on  intimate  terms  with  Walton, 
who  speaks  of  him  as  "  Michael  Drayton,  my  honest  old 
friend,"  just  before  quoting  from  the  Polyolbion  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  salmon  leaping,  which  runs  thus  : — 

"  And  when  the  Salmon  seeks  a  fresher  stream  to  find 
(Which  hither  from  the  sea  conies,  yearly,  by  his  kind), 
As  he  towards  season  grows  ;  and  stems  the  wat'ry  tract 
Where  Tivy,  falling  down,  makes  an  high  cataract, 
Forc'd  by  the  rising  rocks  that  there  her  course  oppose, 
As  tho'  within  her  bounds  they  meant  her  to  inclose ; 
Here,  when  the  labouring  fish  does  at  the  foot  arrive, 
And  finds  that  by  his  strength  he  does  but  vainly  strive, 
His  tail  takes  in  his  mouth,  and,  bending  like  a  bow 
That's  to  full  compass  drawn,  aloft  himself  doth  throw, 
Then  springing  at  his  height,  as  doth  a  little  wand 
That  bended  end  to  end,  and  started  from  man's  hand, 
Far  off  itself  doth  cast ;  so  does  the  Salmon  vault : 
And  if,  at  first,  he  fail,  his  second  summersault 
He  instantly  essays,  and,  from  his  nimble  ring 
Still  yerking,  never  leaves  until  himself  he  fling 
Above  the  opposing  stream." 

We  hope  we  shall  not  be  considered  guilty  of  heresy 
when  we  venture  to  suggest  that  these  lines  seem  to  lag 
somewhat,  wanting  in  a  kind  of  "  quickness  "  which  would 
be  suitable  to  the  subject.  His  enumeration  of  the  various 
fish  which  inhabit  the  Trent,  second  only  as  it  is  to  the 
Thames  for  its  prolificness  in  variety  of  species,  is  always 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  643 

worth  quoting ;  and  it  is  strange  that  several  authors  on 
angling  make  the  mistake  of  associating  the  passage  with 
the  Severn.  It  occurs  in  the  26th  song ;  and  the  river 
goddess  or  rather  the  river  personified,  thus  sings  her  own 
praises  with  a  good  deal  of  haughtiness,  beginning  with  the 
fanciful  idea  that  her  name  is  the  French  trente: — 

"  What  should  I  care  at  all,  from  what  my  name  I  take, 
That  Thirty  doth  import,  that  thirty  rivers  make 
My  greatness  what  it  is,  or  thirty  abbeys  great, 
That  on  my  fruitful  banks,  times  formerly  did  seat : 
Or  thirty  kinds  of  fish,  that  in  my  streams  do  live, 

To  me  this  name  of  Trent  did  from  that  number  give.* 
****** 

After  comparing  herself  with  the  Thames  and  Severn 
from  a  geographical  point  of  view,  the  self-complacent 
lady  goes  on  to  say — 

"  Their  banks  are  barren  sands,  if  but  compar'd  with  mine 
Through  my  perspicuous  breast,  the  pearly  pebbles  shine ; 
I  throw  my  crystal  arms  along  the  flow'ry  valleys 
Which  lying  sleek,  and  smooth,  as  any  garden-alleys, 
Do  give  me  leave  to  play,  whilst  they  do  court  my  stream, 
And  crown  my  winding  banks  with  many  an  anadem  : 
My  silver-scaled  skuls  about  my  streams  do  sweep, 
Now  in  the  shallow  fords,  now  in  the  falling  deep  : 
So  that  of  every  kind,  the  new-spawn1  d  numerous  fry 
Seem  in  me  as  the  sands  that  on  my  shore  do  lie. 
The  Barbell,  than  which  fish,  a  braver  doth  not  swim, 
Nor  greater  for  the  ford  within  my  spacious  brim, 
Nor  (newly  taken)  more  the  curious  taste  doth  please ; 
The  Greling,  whose  great  spawn  is  big  as  any  pease  ; 
The  Pearch  with  pricking  fins,  against  the  Pike  prepar'd, 
As  nature  had  thereon  bestow'd  this  stronger  guard, 
His  daintiness  to  keep  (each  curious  palate's  proof), 
From  his  vile  ravenous  foe  :  next  him  I  name  the  Ruffe^ 
His  very  near  ally,  and  both  for  scale  and  fin, 
In  taste,  and  for  his  bait  (indeed)  his  next  of  kin ; 
The  pretty  slender  Dare,  of  many  call'd  the  Dace, 
Within  my  liquid  glass,  when  Phcebus  looks  his  face, 

2    T  2 


644      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Oft  swiftly  as  he  swims,  his  silver  belly  shows, 

But  with  such  nimble  sleight,  that  ere  ye  can  disclose 

His  shape,  out  of  your  sight  like  lightning  he  is  shot. 

The  Trout  by  Nature  mark'd  with  many  a  crimson  spot, 

As  though  she  curious  were  in  him  above  the  rest, 

And  of  fresh-water  fish  did  note  him  for  the  best ; 

The  Roche,  whose  common  kind  to  every  flood  doth  fall ; 

The  Chub  (whose  neater  name),  which  some  a  Chevin  call, 

Food  to  the  tyrant  Pike  (most  being  in  his  power), 

Who  for  their  numerous  store  he  most  doth  them  devour  ; 

The  lusty  Salmon  then,  from  Neptune's  wat'ry  realm, 

When  as  his  season  serves,  stemming  my  tideful  stream, 

Then  being  in  his  kind,  in  me  his  pleasure  takes, 

(For  whom  the  fisher  then  all  other  game  forsakes) 

Which  bending  of  himself  to  th'  fashion  of  a  ring, 

Above  the  forced  wears,  himself  doth  nimbly  fling, 

And  often  when  the  net  hath  dragg'd  him  safe  to  land, 

Is  seen  by  natural  force  to  'scape  his  murderer's  hand  ; 

Whose  grain  doth  rise  in  flakes,  with  fatness  interlarded, 

Of  many  a  liquorish  lip,  that  highly  is  regarded. 

And  Humber,  to  whose  waste  I  pay  my  wat'ry  store, 

Me  of  her  Sturgeons  sends,  that  I  thereby  the  more 

Should  have  my  beauties  grac'd,  with  something  from  him  sent : 

Not  Ancum's  silvered  Eel  exceedeth  that  of  Trent; 

Though  the  sweet-smelling  Smelt  be  more  in  Thames  than  me, 

The  Lamprey,  and  his  less,  in  Severne  general  be  ; 

The  Flounder  smooth  and  flat,  in  other  rivers  caught, 

Perhaps  in  greater  store,  yet  better  are  not  thought : 

The  dainty  Gudgeon,  Loche,  the  Minnow,  and  the  Bleake, 

Since  they  but  little  are,  I  little  need  to  speak 

Of  them,  nor  doth  it  fit  me  much  of  those  to  reck, 

Which  everywhere  are  found  in  every  little  beck  ; 

Nor  of  the  Crayfish  here,  which  creeps  amongst  my  stones, 

From  all  the  rest  alone,  whose  spell  is  all  his  bones  : 

For  Carpe,  the  Tench,  and  Breame,  my  other  store  among, 

To  lakes  and  standing  pools,  that  chiefly  do  belong, 

Here  scouring  in  my  fords,  feed  in  my  waters  clear 

Are  muddy  fishing  ponds  to  that  which  they  are  here.*' 

In  reference  to  this  passage,  it  may  be  noted  that,  owing 
to  certain   reasons,  Trent  salmon   gradually   became  very 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  645 

scarce  some  years  ago ;  but  they  have  shown  in  greater 
numbers  during  the  last  two  or  three  seasons ;  and  it  is 
evident  that  under  proper  treatment  the  Trent  might  be 
made  a  good  salmon  river.  Crayfish  are  to  be  found  in 
some  of  its  tributaries,  or  were  so  some  thirty  years  ago. 
The  "  less "  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  lamprey 
means  the  lamperne. 

Milton  can  hardly  be  called  a  piscatorial  poet,  though  he 
sings  of  the  evolutions  of  the  myriads  of  "the  voiceless 
daughters  of  the  unpolluted  sea  "  (^Eschylus),  which — 

"  Part  single  or  with  mate 

Graze  the  seaweed,  their  pasture,  and  through  groves 
Of  coral  stray  ;  or  sporting  with  quick  glance, 
Show  to  the  sun  their  wav'd  coats  dropp'd  with  gold  ; 
Or  from  their  pearly  shells  come  forth  to  seek 
Moist  nutriment ;  or  under  rocks  their  food 
In  jointed  armour  watch." 

But,  oh,  the  fall  from  Milton  to  William  Browne  !  and 
yet  the  author  of  Britannia's  Pastorals,  published  1613,  may 
claim  some  attention  from  angling  readers,  who,  however, 
will  hardly  think  that  a  pike  in  the  following  passage  is  a 
good  selection  as  a  worm-taking  fish,  or  the  suggestion  that 
the  line  should  be  handled  a  proper  one — 

"  Now  as  an  Angler,  melancholy  standing, 
Upon  a  greene  bancke  yeelding  roome  for  landing, 
A  wrigling  yealow  worme  thrust  on  his  hooke 
Now  in  the  midst  he  throwes,  then  in  a  nooke  ; 
Here  puls  his  line,  there  throwes  it  in  againe, 
Mendeth  his  Corke  and  Baite,  but  all  in  vaine, 
He  long  stands  viewing  of  the  curled  stream  j 
At  last  a  hungry  Pike,  or  well-growne  Breamet 
Snatch  at  the  worme,  and  hasting  fast  away, 
He,  knowing  it  a  Fish  of  stubborne  sway, 
Puls  up  his  rod,  but  soft  ;  (as  having  skill)  ; 
Wherewith  the  hooke  fast  holds  the  Fishe's  gill — 


646      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Then  all  his  line  he  freely  yeeldeth  him, 
Whilst  furiously  all  up  and  downe  doth  swimme 
Th'  insnared  Fish,  here  on  the  toppe  doth  scud, 
There  underneath  the  banckes,  then  in  the  mud ; 
And  with  his  franticke  fits  so  scares  the  shole, 
That  each  one  takes  his  hyde  or  starting  hole ; 
By  this  the  Pike  cleane  wearied,  underneath 
A  Willow  lyes,  and  pants  (if  Fishes  breath), 
Wherewith  the  Angler  gently  puls  him  to  him ; 
And  least  his  hast  might  happen  to  undoe  him 
Layes  downe  his  rod,  then  takes  his  line  in  hand, 
And  by  degrees  getting  the  Fish  to  land, 
Walks  to  another  Poole,  at  length  is  winner 
Of  such  a  dish  as  serves  him  for  his  dinner." 

We  have  already  anticipated  the  Secrets  of  Angling,  by 
J.  D.,  in  Chapter  III.,  for  the  reason  there  given ;  and  we  will 
now  pass  on  to  Phineas  Fletcher — a  by  no  means  poetical 
name — who  published  his  Sicelides,  a  piscatory,  in  1631, 
and  the  Purple  Island,  "  together  with  Piscatorie  Eclogs," 
in  1633.  He  is  mentioned  as  "an  excellent  divine  and  an 
excellent  angler,"  by  Walton,  who  also  calls  his  Eclogues 
"  excellent "  ;  and  Quarles  speaks  of  him  as  "  the  Spenser 
of  this  age." 

H.  Vaughan,  "the  Silurist,"  also,  in  1640,  sings  the 
happiness  of  the  contented  angler  : — 

"  On  shady  banks  sometimes  he  lyes, 
Sometimes  the  open  current  tyes, 
Where  with  his  line  and  feathered  flye 
He  sports  and  takes  the  scaly  fry." 

He  also  wrote  some  charming  Latin  verses  on  a  salmon 
which  he  caught  himself,  and  sent  to  his  friend  Dr. 
Powell. 

The  song  written  by  Dr.  Donne  in  1635,  and  quoted  by 
Walton,  is  worth  reproducing  : — 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  647 

"  Come  live  with  me,  and  be  my  love, 
And  we  will  some  new  pleasures  prove, 
Of  golden  sands  and  crystal  brooks, 
With  silken  lines,  and  silver  hooks. 

"  There  will  the  river  whisp'ring  run, 
Warm'd  by  the  eyes  more  than  the  sun  ; 
And  there  the  enamel'd  fish  will  stay 
Begging  themselves  they  may  betray. 

"When  thou  wilt  swim  in  that  live  bath, 
Each  fish,  which  every  channel  hath, 
Most  amorously  to  thee  will  swim, 
Gladder  to  catch  thee,  than  thou  him. 

"If  thou  to  be  so  seen,  beest  loath 
By  sun  or  moon,  thou  dark'nest  both  ; 
And  if  mine  eyes  have  leave  to  see, 
I  need  not  their  light,  having  thee. 

"  Let  others  freeze  with  angling  reeds, 
And  cut  their  legs  with  shells  and  weeds, 
Or  treacherously  poor  fish  beset 
With  strangling  snares  or  windowy  net ; 

"  Let  coarse  bold  hands,  from  slimy  nest, 
The  bedded  fish  in  banks  outwrest ; 
Let  curious  traitors  sleave  silk  flies, 
To  'witch  poor  wand'ring  fishes'  eyes. 

"  For  thee,  thou  need'st  no  such  deceit, 
For  thou  thyself  art  thine  own  bait : 
That  fish  that  is  not  catcht  thereby, 
Is  wiser  far,  alas,  than  I." 

This  is  quoted  by  Walton  in  the  "  Fourth  Day,"  and  it 
is  in  imitation  of  that  sung  by  the  milkmaid  in  the  "  Third 
Day,"  which  is  attributed  to  the  sweet-singing  Christopher 
Marlowe. 

And  now  we  must  refer  to  Izaak  Walton  himself  as  a 
poet  in  verse,  though  the  Complete  A  ngler  itself  is  sufficient 
to  testify  to  him  as  one  in  prose,  for,  as  Coleridge  said,  the 


648        LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

true  antithesis  of  poetry  is  not  prose,  but  science.  This  is 
"  The  Angler's  Wish,"  which  first  appeared  in  the  third 
edition,  and  was,  as  he  (Piscator}  says,  of  his  own  "com- 
posure,'1 : — 

*  I  in  these  flowery  meads  would  be  : 

These  crystal  streams  should  solace  me  ; 

To  whose  harmonious  bubbling  noise 

I  with  my  angle  would  rejoice  : 

Lit  here,  and  see  the  turtle-dove 

Court  his  chaste  mate  to  acts  of  love : 

"  Or,  on  that  bank,  feel  the  west  wind 
Breathe  health  and  plenty  :  please  my  mind, 
To  see  sweet  dewdrops  kiss  these  flowers, 
And  then  washed  off  by  April  showers  : 
Here,  hear  my  Kenna  sing  a  song  ; 
There,  see  a  blackbird  feed  her  young, 
Or  a  leverock  build  her  nest : 
Here,  give  my  weary  spirits  rest, 
And  raise  my  low-pitch'd  thoughts  above 
Earth,  and  what  poor  mortals  love  : 

Thus  free  from  lawsuits  and  the  noise 

Of  princes'  courts,  I  would  rejoice  : 

"  Or,  with  my  Bryan,  and  a  book, 
Loiter  long  days  near  Shawford-brook  J 
There  sit  by  him,  and  eat  my  meat, 
There  see  the  sun  both  rise  and  set : 
There  bid  good  morning  to  next  day  ; 
There  meditate  my  time  away, 
And  angle  on  ;  and  beg  to  have 
A  quiet  passage  to  a  welcome  grave." 

In  the  "  Fourth  Day  "  Piscator  sings  another  song,  which 

begins — 

"  O  the  gallant  fisher's  life ! 
This  the  best  of  any,"  &c. 

This  was  chiefly  written  by  J.  Chalkhill,  but  from  what 
Piscator  says  after  singing  it,  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
forgotten  part  of  it,  and  was  forced  to  "  patch  it  up  "  of  his 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  649 

"  own  invention,"  it  is  evident  that  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  words  is  Walton's.  They  bear  additional  testimony  to 
his  poetical  talents. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  quote  two  or  three 
stanzas  of  the  "Angler's  Song"  (by  some  anonymous 
author),  which  occurs  in  the  "  Third  Day  "  : — 

"  As  inward  love  breeds  outward  talk ; 
The  hound  some  praise,  and  some  the  hawk, 
Some,  better  pleas'd  with  private  sport, 
Use  tennis  ;  some  a  mistress  court : 

But  these  delights  I  neither  wish 

Nor  envy,  while  I  freely  fish. 

"  Who  hunts  doth  oft  in  danger  ride  ; 
Who  hawks  lures  oft  both  far  and  wide ; 
Who  uses  games  shall  often  prove 
A  loser  ;  but  who  falls  in  love 

Is  fetter'd  in  fond  Cupid's  snare : 

My  angle  breeds  me  no  such  care. 

"  Of  recreation  there  is  none 
So  free  as  fishing  is  alone 
All  other  pastimes  do  no  less 
Than  mind  and  body  both  possess  : 

My  hand  alone  my  work  can  do, 

So  I  can  fish  and  study  too. 

"  I  care  not,  I,  to  fish  in  seas — 
Fresh  rivers  best  my  mind  do  please, 
Whose  sweet  calm  course  I  contemplate, 
And  seek  in  life  to  imitate  ; 

In  civil  bounds  I  fain  would  keep, 

And  for  my  past  offences  weep. 

"  But  yet,  though  while  I  fish,  I  fast, 
I  make  good  fortune  my  repast ; 
And  thereunto  my  friend  invite, 
In  whom  I  more  than  that  delight : 
Who  is  more  welcome  to  my  dish 
Than  to  my  angle  was  my  fish." 


650        LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

The  "  Angler's  Song,"  beginning  with  the  words  "  Man's 
life  is  but  vain,"  &c.,  which  occurs  in  the  "Fourth  Day," 
appears  in  the  first  edition  of  The  Complete  Angler.  The 
music,  with  old-fashioned  diamond-headed  notes,  is  curiously 
printed,  that  for  two  voices  being  on  one  page  (216)  in  the 
ordinary  way,  but  that  for  the  other  voice,  on  the  next  page 
(217),  is  printed  upside  down,  so  that  the  singers  standing 
opposite  to  one  another,  and  holding  the  book,  would  each 
have  his  own  music  properly  presented  to  him. 

Cotton,  Walton's  friend  and  literary  coadjutor,  also 
wooed  the  muses,  though  perhaps  not  with  great  success. 
In  his  Retirement — "  Stanzes  Irreguliers  to  Mr.  Izaak 
Walton  " — he  shows  poetic  feeling,  but  some  disregard  of 
rhythm.  His  favourite  river,  the  Dove,  and  his  desire  to  dwell 
for  ever  quietly,  is  his  theme.  He  exclaims  in  Dovedale  : — 

"  Good  God  !  how  sweet  are  all  things  here ! 
How  beautiful  the  fields  appear  ! 
How  cleanly  do  we  feed  and  lie  ! 
Lord  !  what  good  hours  do  we  keep  ! 

How  quietly  we  sleep  ! 
What  peace  !  what  unanimity  ! 
How  innocent  from  the  lewd  fashion 
Is  all  our  business,  all  our  recreation ! 

*  *  *  » 

u  Oh  my  beloved  nymph  ;  fair  Dove  ; 
Princess  of  rivers,  how  I  love 
Upon  thy  flowery  banks  to  lie  ; 
And  view  thy  silver  stream, 
When  gilded  by  a  summer's  beam, 
And  in  it  all  thy  wanton  fry 

Playing  at  liberty 
And,  with  my  angle,  upon  them 

The  all  of  treachery 
I  ever  learnt,  industriously  to  try. 

Most    Midland    people  (as   the   writer  observed  when 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  651 

recently  paying  a  piscatorial  visit  to  Shardlow,  on'  the 
Trent)  pronounce  the  o  in  Dove  like  the  o  in  "rove,"  but 
here  Cotton  makes  "Dove"  rhyme  with  "love,"  as  ordi- 
narily sounded. 

Another    of  Cotton's    angling    pieces   begins   with   the 
stanza — 

"  Away  to  the  brook, 

All  your  tackle  outlook  ; 
Here's  a  day  that  is  worth  a  year's  wishing. 

See  that  all  things  be  right, 

For  'tis  a  very  spight 
To  want  tools  when  a  man  goes  a-fishing." 

And  further  on  we  are  hurried — 

"  Away,  then  away, 

We  lose  sport  by  delay  ; 
But  first  leave  our  sorrows  behind  us ; 

If  misfortune  do  come, 

We  are  all  gone  from  home, 
And  a-fishing  she  never  can  find  us." 

Sir  Henry  Wotton,  Provost  of  Eton  College,  another 
intimate  friend  of  Walton,  and  an  ardent  angler,  discoursed 
well  both  in  prose  and  poetry  of  his  favourite  pastime. 
Walton  quoted  him  in  the  "  First  Day  "  and  elsewhere. 
Here  are  two  pretty  stanzas  : — 

"  This  day  dame  Nature  seem'd  in  love  ; 
The  lusty  sap  began  to  move  ; 
Fresh  juice  did  stir  th'  embracing  vines  ; 
And  birds  had  drawn  their  valentines. 

u  The  jealous  trout,  that  low  did  lie, 
Rose  at  a  well-dissembled  fly  ; 
There  stood  my  Friend,  with  patient  skill, 
Attending  of  his  trembling  quill." 

The  "  Friend  "  was  probably  Walton. 

Though  hardly  to  be  called  poetry,  the  following  lines  of 


652        LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

"Napour  Notpole,"  written  in  old  Barker's  Delights,  are 
very  truthful  up  to  the  present  hour : — 

"  Cards,  dice,  and  tables  pick  thy  purse, 
Drinking  and  drabbing  being  a  curse  ; 
Hawking  and  hunting  spend  thy  chink, 
Bowling  and  shooting  end  in  dnnk. 
The  fighting-cock  and  the  horse-race 
Will  sink  a  good  estate  a-pace  ; 
Angling  doth  bodyes  exercise, 
And  maketh  soules  holy  and  wise 
By  blessed  thoughts  and  meditation. 
This,  this  the  angler's  recreation  ; 
Health,  profit,  pleasure,  mix't  together, 
All  sports  to  this  not  worth  a  feather." 

Waller,  whose  poem  "  On  a  Girdle  "  will  live  as  long  as 
the  English  language,  has  among  his  Meditations  one  "  On 
Fish,"  and  as  he  has  several  allusions  to  angling  in  his 
writings,  he  may  be  claimed  for  our  purpose.  We  find 
there  were  lady-anglers  in  his  day,  as  he  sings  of  the  Court 
beauties  of  Charles  II.'s  reign  who  angled; — perhaps  in 
more  ways  than  one — in  St.  James's  Park  : — 

"  Beneath,  a  shole  of  silver  fishes  glides, 
And  plays  about  the  gilded  barges  sides ; 
The  ladies  angling  in  the  chrystal  lake 
Feast  on  the  waters  with  the  prey  they  take  ; 
At  once  victorious,  with  their  lines  and  eyes,- 
They  make  the  fishes  and  the  men  their  prize." 

Apropos  of  lady-anglers,  who  now  number  in  their 
increasing  ranks  the  Marchioness  of  Lome  (Princess 
Louise),  and  have  been  doirfg  wondrous  execution  among 
the  salmon  northwards  this  autumn,  the  following  jeu 
d  esprit  by  Mr.  W.  G.  Clarke,  late  public  orator  at  Cam- 
bridge may  be  quoted  here.  The  Field  having  announced 
that  the  beautiful  Miss  had  caught  a  salmon  of 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  653 

seventeen  pounds  weight,  Mr.  Clarke  put  these  words  into 
the  dying  fish's  mouth  : — 

"  Not  artificial  flies  my  fancy  took, 
Nature's  own  magic  lured  me  to  your  hook ; 
Play  me  no  more — no  thought  to  'scape  have  I—- 
But land  me,  land  me,  at  your  feet  to  die." 

Sir  Harris  Nicolas,  in  his  first  edition  of  The  Complete 
Angler  (1836),  mentions  a  poem  of  Waller's  "On  a  Lady 
fishing  with  an  Angle,"  commencing — 

"  See  where  the  fair  Clorinda  sits." 

The  MS.,  he  says,  was  in  the  library  of  the  Royal  Society, 
but  he  was  unable  to  obtain  a  sight  of  it.  The  writer  of 
these  notes  regrets  that  he  is  unable  to  say  whether  such  a 
MS.  really  exists. 

Is  Bunyan,  who  wrote  in  the  latter  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  among  the  piscatory  poets  ?  At  all  events, 
in  his  Apology  for  his  Book  he  bids  us  observe  the  angler — 

"  You  see  the  ways  the  Fisherman  doth  take 
To  catch  the  fish :  what  engines  doth  he  make ! 
Behold  !  how  he  engageth  all  his  wits  : 
Also  his  snares,  lines,  angles,  hooks  and  nets ; 
Yet  fish  there  be,  that  neither  hook  nor  line, 
Nor  snare,  nor  net,  nor  engine  can  make  thine ; 
They  must  be  grop'd  for,  and  be  tickled  too 
Or  they  will  not  be  catch'd,  whate'er  you  do." 

The  Innocent  Epicure,  already  alluded  to  in  connection 
with  the  authors  of  the  Universal  Angler  (5th  edition  of 
Complete  A  ngler\  was  an  anonymous  poem  on  "  The  Art  of 
Angling,"  published  in  1697.  "Antithetical  periods  and 
smooth  classicisms  "  are  its  features.  Thus  Esox  lucius  is 
introduced — 


654        LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

"  Go  on,  my  Muse,  next  let  thy  numbers  speak 
That  mighty  Nimrod  of  the  streams,  the  Pike," 

and  so  forth. 

Altogether;  the  piscatory  poets  of  the  seventeenth  century 
do  not  present  a  very  strong  list,  though  J.  D.  is  a  literary 
host  in  himself.  The  dramatists  of  the  period  do  not  come 
to  our  aid  to  any  great  degree,  though  passages  from 
"  rare "  Ben  Jonson,  Dekkar,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
Massinger,  and  others,  as  bearing  on  or  illustrative  of  the 
"  ars  piscatoria,"  might  be  quoted.  Shakespeare,  however, 
has  been  claimed  as  a  poet  of  the  angler,  and  as  an  angler 
too.  A  large  number  of  passages  may  be  adduced  from 
his  plays  to  illustrate  him  in  the  first-named  character,  and 
these  have  been  collected  very  recently  in  a  charming  little 
book  by  the  Rev.  H.  N.  Ellacombe,  M.A.,  entitled  Shake- 
speare as  an  A  ngler  (Elliot  Stock,  Paternoster  Row) ;  and 
the  author  has  done  his  best  to  show  that  he  was  also  a 
follower  of  the  gentle  craft,  arguing  this  from  his  use  of 
many  technical  angling  terms,  correct  ichthyological  de- 
scriptions of  fish,  use  of  fishing  proverbs,  and  his  loving 
descriptions  of  brooks  and  running  streams  and  river 
scenery.  The  little  book  will  repay  perusal  at  the  hands 
both  of  the  lovers  of  Shakespeare  and  the  lovers  of  the 
angle,  but  the  general  impression  will  probably  be  that 
the  author  somewhat  labours  in  his  self-imposed  task,  and 
is  open  to  the  charge  of  proving  too  much. 

It  is  a  modern  fashion  to  prove  that  Shakespeare  was 
a  master  and  follower  of  almost  every  conceivable  art, 
science,  and  pastime.  Thus  one  author  has  elaborated  the 
poet  "  as  a  divine,"  another  "  as  a  physician,"  a  third  "  as 
a  lawyer,"  and  so  on,  as  a  soldier,  sailor,  &c.,  ad  infinitum  ; 
and  Mr.  Ellacombe  has  also  worked  him  out  "as  a 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  655 

gardener."  But  though  Dr.  Johnson  rightly  said :  "  He 
that  will  understand  Shakespeare  must  not  be  content  to 
study  him  in  the  closet ;  he  must  look  for  his  meaning 
among  the  sports  of  the  field ;"  and,  it  might  be  added, 
in  the  history  and  practice  of  all  the  subjects  to  which  he 
alludes ;  still,  we  must  not  conclude  that  the  poet  neces- 
sarily followed  personally  this  or  that  particular  vocation, 
of  the  details  of  which  he  shows  much  intimate  knowledge. 
The  truth  is,  that  Shakespeare  was  a  man  of  wondrous 
and  most  comprehensive  information  on  a  multitude  of 
subjects,  however  he  may  have  acquired  it,  and  was  able 
to  use  the  correct  technical  terms  connected  with  any 
matter  he  handled.  But  to  argue  from  such  use,  or  from 
that  of  proverbial  and  common-parlance  expressions  of  his 
day,  that  he  was  personally  associated  with  any  particular 
matter  to  which  they  refer,  strikes  one  as  unreasonable  as 
to  infer  that  a  person  must  be  given  to  horse-racing  because 
he  uses  phrases  and  expressions  which  the  turf  has  caused 
to  become  incorporated,  as  it  were,  with  the  English 
language.  Shakespeare  is  traditionally  associated  with 
something  more  than  a  love  of  poaching,  which  seems  still 
an  instinct  in  the  nature  of  even  civilised  man ;  but  it 
would  be  manifestly  unfair  to  say  that  he  was  given  to 
"  foxing  "  trout,  because  he  makes  one  of  his  characters  in 
Twelfth  Night  say — 

"  Lie  thou  there  ;  for  here  comes  the  trout, 
That  must  be  caught  with  tickling." 

Very  probably,  indeed,  Shakespeare,  both  in  his  early  and 
latter  years,  fished  in  the  Stratford  Avon  and  elsewhere, 
but  that  his  writings  show  him  to  have  been  an  angler 
must  be  looked  upon  rather  as  a  "  pious  opinion "  rather 
than  as  necessary  to  be  held  as  an  article  of  faith. 


656     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

But  this  is  somewhat  of  a  digression ;  and  we  must  get 
on  to  the  eighteenth  century,  which,  though  it  has  been 
called  a  "  leaden  "  period  as  regards  literature  generally,  is 
prolific  of  piscatory  poets  of  no  mean  attainments.  Among 
these  Pope  may  be  first  mentioned,  as  he  was  busy  versi- 
ficating  at  the  beginning  of  it.  His  name  rightly  finds  a 
place  in  the  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  and  he  is  likely  long 
to  remain  dear  to  a  large  body  of  anglers  because  he  so 
sweetly  sings  their  favourite  river,  "  Old  Father  Thames " 
and  "The  Fisher's  Punt."  The  following  passage  from 
Windsor  Forest  (1713)  is  known  to  all  disciples  of  Izaak 
Walton— 

"  In  genial  spring,  beneath  the  quivering  shade, 
Where  cooling  vapours  breathe  along  the  mead, 
The  patient  fisher  takes  his  silent  stand, 
Intent,  his  angle  trembling  in  his  hand  : 
With  looks  unmov'd,  he  hopes  the  scaly  breed, 
And  eyes  the  dancing  cork,  and  bending  reed. 
Our  plenteous  streams  a  various  race  supply — 
The  bright-ey'd  perch,  with  fins  of  Tyrian  dye  ; 
The  silver  eel,  in  shining  volumes  roll'd  ; 
The  yellow  carp,  in  scales  bedropp'd  with  gold  ; 
Swift  trouts,  diversified  with  crimson  stains  ; 
And  pikes,  the  tyrants  of  the  wat'ry  plains. 

But  Gay  is  specially  the  angler-poet  of  this  period,  and 
perhaps  it  may  be  said  the  angler's  poet  of  all  periods. 
The  stock-in-trade  quotations,  the  well-known  passages  in 
his  writings  descriptive  of  angling,  never  seem  to  tire.  We 
learn  from  himself  the  kind  of  fishing  he  best  liked — 

"  I  never  wander  where  the  bord'ring  reeds 
O'erlook  the  muddy  stream,  whose  tangling  weeds 
Perplex  the  fisher ;  I  nor  chuse  to  bear 
The  thievish  nightly  net,  nor  barbed  spear  ; 
Nor  drain  I  ponds  the  golden  carp  to  take, 
Nor  trowle  for  pikes,  dispeoplers  of  the  lake. 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  657 

Around  the  steel  no  tortur'd  worm  shall  twine, 
No  blood  of  living  insect  stain  my  line. 
Let  me,  less  cruel,  cast  the  feather'd  hook, 
With  pliant  rod  athwart  the  pebbled  brook, 
Silent  along  the  mazy  margin  stray, 
And  with  the  fur-wrought  fly  delude  the  prey." 

The  above  lines  are  from  his  Rural  Sports,  inscribed  to 
Pope  (1720)  ;  and  further  on,  in  the  same  poem  he  describes 
the  fly-fisher,  who  ties  his  own  flies  on  at  the  stream-side — 

"  Mark  well  the  various  seasons  of  the  year, 
How  the  succeeding  insect  race  appear. 
In  their  revolving  moon  one  colour  reigns, 
Which  in  the  next  the  fickle  trout  disdains. 
Oft  have  I  seen  a  skilful  angler  try 
The  various  colours  of  the  treach'rous  fly  ; 
When  he  with  fruitless  pain  hath  skimm'd  the  brook, 
And  the  coy  fish  rejects  the  skipping  hook, 
He  shakes  the  boughs  that  on  the  margin  grow, 
Which  o'er  the  stream  a  waving  forest  throw  ; 
When,  if  an  insect  fall  (his  certain  guide), 
He  gently  takes  him  from  the  whirling  tide  ; 
Examines  well  his  form  with  curious  eyes, 
His  gaudy  vest,  his  wings,  his  horns,  and  size  ; 
Then  round  his  hook  the  chosen  fur  he  winds, 
And  on  the  back  a  speckled  feather  binds  ; 
So  just  the  colours  shine  through  every  part, 
That  Nature  seems  to  live  again  in  Art." 

And  the  poet  is  evidently  one  of  the  "  up-stream " 
fishing  advocates,  for  he  goes  on — 

"  Far  up  the  stream  the  twisted  hair  he  throws, 
Which  down  the  murmuring  current  gently  flows  • 
When  if  or  chance  or  hunger's  powerful  sway 
Directs  the  roving  trout  this  fatal  way, 
He  greedily  sucks  in  the  twining  bait, 
And  tugs  and  nibbles  the  fallacious  meat,** 
VOL.  III. — H.  2   U 


658      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Not  every  poet  would  essay  to  describe  the  practical 
work  of  fly-tying,  but  Gay  does — 

"  You  now  a  more  delusive  art  must  try, 
And  tempt  their  hunger  with  the  curious  fly. 

To  frame  the  little  animal  provide 
All  the  gay  hues  that  wait  on  female  pride  : 
Let  Nature  guide  thee  ;  sometimes  golden  wire 
The  shining  bellies  of  the  fly  require  ; 
The  peacock's  plumes  thy  tackle  must  not  fail, 
Nor  the  dear  purchase  of  the  sable's  tail. 
Each  gaudy  bird  some  slender  tribute  brings, 
And  lends  the  growing  insect  proper  wings  : 
Silks  of  all  colours  must  their  aid  impart, 
And  ev'ry  fur  promote  the  fisher's  art. 
So  the  gay  lady,  with  expensive  care, 
Borrows  the  pride  of  land,  of  sea,  and  air  ; 
Furs,  pearls,  and  plumes,  the  glittering  thing  displays, 
Dazzles  our  eyes,  and  easy  hearts  betrays." 

And  this  is  how  you  must  work  your  fly — 

"  Let  not  thy  wary  step  advance  too  near, 
While  all  thy  hope  hangs  on  a  single  hair ; 
The  new-formed  insect  on  the  water  moves, 
The  speckled  trout  the  curious  snare  approves. 
Upon  the  curling  surface  let  it  glide, 
With  nat'ral  motion  from  thy  hand  supplied, 
Against  the  stream  now  let  it  gently  play, 
Now  in  the  rapid  eddy  roll  away  : 
The  scaly  shoals  float  by,  and,  seized  with  fear, 
Behold  their  fellows  tost  in  thinner  air  ; 
But  soon  they  leap,  and  catch  the  swimming  bait, 
Plunge  on  the  hook,  and  share  an  equal  fate." 

But,  though  by  choice  a  fly-fisher,  Gay  did  not  disdain  to 
use  the  worm,  or  to  point  out  the  proper  kind  of  one  for  a 
trout,  and  how  to  "  scour  "  it — 

"  You  must  not  every  worm  promiscuous  use  ; 
Judgment  will  tell  thee  proper  bait  to  choose ; 
The  worm  that  draws  a  long  immod'rate  size " 
The  trout  abhors,  and  the  rank  morsel  flies  ; 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  659 

And  if  too  small,  the  naked  fraud's  in  sight, 
And  fear  forbids,  while  hunger  does  invite. 
Those  baits  will  best  reward  the  fisher's  pains 
Whose  polish'd  tails  a  shining  yellow  stains  : 
Cleanse  them  from  filth,  to  give  a  tempting  gloss, 
Cherish  the  sullied  reptile  race  with  moss  ; 
Amid  the  verdant  bed  they  twine,  they  toil, 
And  from  their  bodies  wipe  their  native  soil.1' 
» 

Our  last  extract  must  be  the  description  of  the  angler's 
tussle  with  a  big  salmon — 

"  If  an  enormous  salmon  chance  to  spy 
The  wanton  errors  of  the  floating  fly, 
He  lifts  his  silver  gills  above  the  flood 
And  greedily  sucks  in  th'  unfaithful  food, 
Then  downright  plunges  with  the  fraudful  prey, 
And  bears  with  joy  the  little  spoil  away  : 
Soon  in  smart  pain  he  feels  the  dire  mistake, 
Lashes  the  wave,  and  beats  the  foamy  lake. 
With  sudden  rage  he  now  aloft  appears, 
And  in  his  eye  convulsive  anguish  bears  : 
And  now  again,  impatient  of  the  wound, 
He  rolls  and  wreaths  his  shining  body  round, 
Then  headlong  shoots  beneath  the  dashing  tide  ; 
The  trembling  fins  the  boiling  wave  divide. 
Now  hope  exalts  the  fisher's  beating  heart, 
Now  he  turns  pale,  and  fears  his  dubious  art ; 
He  views  the  tumbling  fish  with  longing  eyes, 
While  the  line  stretches  with  th'  unwieldy  prize  ; 
Each  motion  humours  with  his  steady  hands, 
And  one  slight  hair  the  mighty  bulk  commands  ; 
Till  tired  at  last,  despoil'd  of  all  his  strength, 
The  game  athwart  the  stream  unfolds  his  length. 
He  nfcw,  with  pleasure,  views  the  gasping  prize 
Gnash  his  sharp  teeth,  and  roll  his  blood-shot  eyes  ; 
Then  draws  him  to  the  shore,  with  artful  care, 
And  lifts  his  nostrils  in  the  sick'ning  air  : 
Upon  the  burthen'd  stream  he  floating  lies, 
Stretches  his  quivering  fins,  and  gasping  dies." 

2  U  2 


66o     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Gay  was  a  North  Devon  man,  and  doubtless  worked  its 
many  trout  and  salmon  waters. 

Thomson,  who  also  lived  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  hardly  less  a  poet  of  the  angle 
than  Gay,  and  his  experience  as  a  fly-fisher,  at  least  in  his 
early  years,  was  gained  north  of  the  Tweed.  A  feature  in 
his  Seasons  (1728)  are  his  descriptions  of  fishing.  Thus  in 
"  Spring  "  we  have  the  invitation  to  angle — 

"  Now  when  the  first  foul  torrent  of  the  brooks, 
Swelled  with  the  vernal  rains,  is  ebb'd  away  ; 
And,  whitening,  down  their  mossy-tinctur'd  stream 
Descends  the  billowy  foam — now  is  the  time, 
While  yet  the  dark-brown  water  aids  the  guile 
To  tempt  the  trout.     The  well  dissembled  fly  ; 
The  rod,  fine  tapering,  with  elastic  spring. 
Snatch'd  from  the  hoary  stud  the  floating  line, 
And  all  thy  slender  wat'ry  stores  prepare." 

He  shrinks,  however,  from  the  worm  more  than  Gay 
does — 

"  But  let  not  on  thy  hook  the  tortur'd  worm 
Convulsive  twist  in  agonising  folds, 
Which,  by  rapacious  hunger,  swallow'd  deep, 
Gives,  as  you  tear  it,  from  the  bleeding  breast 
Of  the  weak,  helpless,  uncomplaining  wretch, 
Harsh  pain  and  horror  to  the  tender  hand  ! " 

This  is  where  and  how  the  poet  would  have  you  throw 
mr  flv — 


your  fly 


'  Just  in  the  dubious  point,  where  with  the  pool 
Is  mix'd  the  trembling  stream,  or  where  it  boils 
Around  the  stone,  or  from  the  hollow'd  bank 
Reverted  plays  in  undulating  flow — 
There  throw,  nice  judging,  the  delusive  fly  ; 
And,  as  you  lead  it  round  in  artful  curve, 
With  eye  attentive  mark  the  springing  game, 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  661 

Straight  as  above  the  surface  of  the  flood 
They  wanton  rise,  or,  urged  by  hunger,  leap 
Then  fix,  with  gentle  twitch,  the  barbed  hook  ; 
Some  lightly  tossing  to  the  grassy  bank, 
And  to  the  shelving  shore  slow  dragging  some, 
With  various  hand  proportion'd  to  their  force." 

And  now  let  us  compare  his  description  of  the  death  of 
a  big  trout,  "  the  monarch  of  the  brook,"  with  the  death  of 
the  salmon  in  the  passage  from  Gay  just  above.  After 
recommending  that  little  fish,  if  caught,  should  be  replaced 
in  their  native  element,  he  proceeds  : — 

"  But  should  you  lure 

From  his  dark  haunt,  beneath  the  tangled  roots 
Of  pendant  trees,  the  monarch  of  the  brook, 
Behoves  you  then  to  ply  your  finest  art. 
Long  time  he,  following  cautious,  scans  the  fly, 
And  oft  attempts  to  seize  it ;  but  as  oft 
The  dimpled  water  speaks  his  jealous  fear. 
At  last,  while  haply  o'er  the  shaded  sun 
Passes  a  cloud,  he  desperate  takes  the  death 
With  sullen  plunge  :  at  once  he  darts  along, 
Deep  struck,  and  runs  out  all  the  lengthen'd  line, 
Then  seeks  the  farthest  ooze,  the  sheltering  weed, 
The  cavern'd  bank,  his  old  secure  abode, 
And  flies  aloft,  and  flounces  round  the  pool, 
Indignant  of  the  guile.     With  yielding  hand, 
That  feels  him  still,  yet  to  his  furious  course 
Gives  way,  you,  now  retiring,  following  now, 
Across  the  stream,  exhaust  his  idle  rage, 
Till,  floating  broad  upon  his  breathless  side 
And  to  his  fate  abandoned,  to  the  shore 
You  gaily  drag  your  unresisting  prize." 

Both  passages  may  be  compared  with  a  similar  one  from 
Oppian,  describing  the  death  of  a  large  anthia,  in  Chapter  I. 

But  we  must  go  back  a  little  chronologically,  and  mention 
Whitney's  Genteel  Recreation  (i/oo),  the  rhymes  of  which 


662     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

have  been  tersely  and  painfully  described  as  being  "  in  the 
Bombastes  Furioso  style,  and  sufficiently  ridiculous  to  be 
somewhat  amusing."  Moses  Browne  (another  unpoetical 
name)  published  his  Piscatory  Eclogues  in  1729.  He  is  not 
to  be  confounded  with  the  William  Browne  of  the  last 
century,  whose  productions  Blakey  in  his  Angling  Litera- 
ture confounds  with  those  of  Sannazarius,  a  translation  of 
whose  Piscatory  Eclogues  appeared  in  1726.  Browne's 
Eclogues  are  nine  in  number,  and  the  author  seems  to  have 
made  Virgil  and  Theocritus  his  models  for  composition. 
They  are  very  fair  reading,  especially  when  we  remember 
that  the  author  produced  them  in  his  twenty-third  year. 
The  following  lines  will  give  an  idea  of  his  style  : — 

"  When  artful  flies  the  angler  would  prepare, 
The  tack  of  all  deserves  his  utmost  skill ; 
Nor  verse  nor  prose  can  ever  teach  him  well 
What  masters  only  know,  and  practice  tell ; 
Yet  thus  at  large  I  venture  to  support, 
Nature  best  follow'd  best  secures  the  sport. 
Of  flies — the  kinds,  their  seasons,  and  their  breed, 
Their  shapes,  their  hues,  with  nice  observance  heed  ; 
Which  most  the  trout  admires  and  where  obtain'd, 
Experience  best  will  teach  you,  or  some  friend  ; 
For  several  kinds  must  every  month  supply, 
So  great's  his  passion  for  variety  ; 
Nay,  if  new  species  on  the  stream  you  find, 
Try — you'll  acknowledge  fortune  amply  kind." 

In  1733,  Simon  Ford,  D.D.,  wrote  a  neat  Latin  poem 
Piscatio,  which  he  inscribed  to  Archbishop  Sheldon,  the 
founder  of  the  "Theatre"  at  Oxford,  and  a  friend  of 
Walton's,  who  mentions  him  in  the  "  Fourth  Day"  as  having 
"  skill  above  others  "  in  taking  barbel.  The  Piscatio  has 
been  translated  and  adapted  several  times.  Williamson, 
mentioned  in  Chapter  V.,  was  a  bit  of  a  poet,  and  some  of 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  663 

the  "versification"  of  the  principal  subjects  of  each  of  the 
chapters  in  his  British  A  ngler  runs  off  pretty  well.  This  is 
how  he  versifies  on  silk  and  hair  lines  : — 

"  Choose  well  your  Hair,  and  know  the  vig'rous  Horse, 
Not  only  reigns  in  Beauty,  but  in  Force  ; 
Reject  the  Hair  of  Beasts,  e'en  newly  dead, 
Where  all  the  springs  of  Nature  are  decay'd. 
Be  sure  for  single  Links  the  fairest  chuse — 
Such  single  Hairs  will  best  supply  your  Use  ; 
And  of  the  rest  your  sev'ral  Lines  prepare, 
In  all  still  less'ning  ev'ry  Link  of  Hair. 
If  for  the  Fly,  be  long  and  slight  your  Line, 
The  Fish  is  quick,  and  hates  what  is  not  fine  ; 
If  for  the  Deep,  to  stronger  we  advise, 
Tho'  still  the  Finest  takes  the  Finest  prize. 
Before  you  twist  your  upper  Links  take  care 
Wisely  to  match  in  Length  and  Strength  your  hair  ; 
Hair  best  with  Hair,  and  Silk  with  Silk  agrees, 
But  mix'd  have  great  Inconveniences." 

In  1774  an  M.D.,  John  Armstrong,  in  his  Art  of  Pre- 
serving Health,  like  Kirke  White,  hymns  the  Trent,  and 
the  "Healthiness  of  Angling":— 

"  But  if  the  breathless  chase  o'er  hill  and  dale 
Exceed  your  strength,  a  sport  of  less  fatigue, 
Not  less  delightful,  the  prolific  stream 
Affords.     The  crystal  rivulet,  that  o'er 
A  stony  channel  rolls  its  rapid  maze, 
Swarms  with  the  silver  fry  ;  such  through  the  bounds 
Of  pastoral  Stafford  runs  the  brawling  Trent ; 
Such  Eden,  sprung  from  Cumbrian  mountains  ;  such 
The  Esk,  o'erhung  with  woods  ;  and  such  the  stream 
On  whose  Arcadian  banks  I  first  drew  air — 
Liddel,  till  now,  except  in  Doric  lays 
Tuned  to  her  murmurs  by  her  love-sick  swains, 
Unknown  in  song,  though  not  a  purer  stream 
Through  meads  more  flowery,  or  more  romantic  groves, 
Rolls  towards  the  Western  main.     Hail,  sacred  flood  ! 
May  still  thy  hospitable  swains  be  blessed 
In  rural  innocence,  thy  mountains  still 


664     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Teem  with  the  fleecy  race,  thy  tuneful  woods 

For  ever  flourish,  and  thy  vales  look  gay 

With  painted  meadows  and  the  golden  grain  ; 

Oft  with  thy  blooming  sons,  when  life  was  new, 

Sportive  and  petulant,  and  charmed  with  toys, 

In  thy  transparent  eddies  have  I  laved  ; 

Oft  traced  with  patient  steps  thy  fairy  banks, 

With  the  well-imitated  fly  to  hook 

The  eager  trout,  and  with  the  slender  line 

And  yielding  rod  solicit  to  the  shore 

The  struggling  panting  prey,  while  vernal  clouds 

And  tepid  gales  obscured  the  ruffled  pool, 

And  from  the  deeps  called  forth  the  wanton  swarms, 

Formed  on  the  Samian  school,  or  those  of  Ind. 

There  are  who  think  these  pastimes  scarce  humane  ; 

Yet  in  my  mind  (and  not  relentless  I) 

His  life  is  pure  that  wears  no  fouler  stains." 

Here  we  have  the  question  of  the  "  cruelty  of  fishing " 
raised,  in  reference  to  which  it  has  been  said  that  the  chief 
pain  which  captured  fish  feel  is  that  arising  from  the 
thought  of  the  terrible  lies  which  anglers  will  tell  of  their 
weights. 

Following  the  example  of  clergymen  of  the  Establish- 
ment, Dr.  Thomas  Scott,  a  dissenting  minister  of  Ipswich, 
comes  before  us  in  1775  as  an  angling  author  with  bis 
Anglers  —  "eight  dialogues  in  verse"  —  very  tolerable 
reading.  A  feature  of  angling  literature  is  the  large 
number  of  clergymen  who  have  entered  the  lists  both  with 
prose  and  verse  productions.  As  "fishers  of  men"  it 
might  be  expected  that  they  would  occasionally  handle 
the  angling  pen,  and  the  rod  too.  To  their  ranks  belong 
some  of  the  best  fishermen  of  past  and  present  times. 
The  fox-hunting  parson  is  almost  an  extinct  being,  though 
a  few  of  the  persuasion  still  linger  m  the  far  west,  and 
lament  their  famous  leader,  the  late  Jack  Russell ;  and  the 
shooting  parson  is  now  under  suspicion  ;  but  a  "  little  quiet 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  665 

angling  "  is  freely  accorded  on  all  sides  to  "  the  cloth."  A 
very  interesting  book  entitled  The  Amusements  of  Clergy- 
men, was  written  in  1797,  under  the  pseudonym  of  the 
"Rev.  Josiah  Framptom,"  by  the  Rev.  William  Gilpin, 
Prebendary  of  Salisbury,  and  author  of  Forest  Scenery, 
which  was  reprinted  a  few  years  ago  by  Messrs.  Sampson 
Low,  Marston,  &  Co. 

From  The  Avon,  a  poem  ascribed  to  the  Rev.  J.  Huckell, 
in  1789,  we  may  take  the  following  pretty  lines  as  a 
specimen  of  his  work  : — 

"  See  where  serenely  gay  the  Nymph  invites 
To  more  secure,  tho'  less  sublime  delights. 
The  studious  angler  see,  with  pleasing  care, 
The  flowing  line  and  quiv'ring  rod  prepare. 
Delightful  task  !     When  all  the  woodlands  sing 
The  roseate  beauties  of  inspiring  spring. 
Often  may  patience,  wisdom's  meek-eyed  friend 
To  ev'ry  fam'd  recess  his  steps  attend  ; 
And  then,  propitious  to  the  vot'ry's  skill, 
Flow  soft,  ye  waters,  and,  ye  winds,  be  still ! " 

Though  it  does  not  come  within  the  category  of  English 
poetry,  we  will  conclude  our  notice  of  the  period  through 
which  we  have  been  glancing  with  a  few  lines  of  transla- 
tion from  a  poem  of  Delille,  a  charming  French  writer,  at 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century : — 

"  Beneath  yon  willow  pale,  whose  foliage  dank 
Gives  added  freshness  to  the  river's  bank, 
The  fisher  stands,  and  marks  upon  the  tide 
The  trembling  line  along  the  current  glide  ;— 
With  mute  attention,  and  with  secret  joy, 
He  views  the  bending  rod  and  sinking  buoy. 
Which  watery  guest  has  braved  the  sudden  fate 
Fixed  to  the  barb  that  lurks  beneath  the  bait  ? 
The  springing  trout,  or  carp  bedecked  with  gold  ; 
Or  does  the  perch  his  purpled  fins  unfold  ? 
Or  silver  eel  that  winds  through  many  a  maze, 
Or  pike  voracious  on  his  kind  that  preys  ? " 


666     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Somerville,  who  sounded  his  horn  in  The  Chace  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  has  somewhat 
irreverently  been  called  "  the  poet  of  the  pigskin,"  has  not 
forgotten  angling  among  his  Field  Sports ;  and  Clifford,  in 
his  Angler,  "a  didactic  poem,"  in  1804,  has  immortalised 
himself  by  putting  on  record  his  want  of  appreciation  of 
J.  D.'s  Secrets.  In  1809  appeared  the  Rev.  J.  Buncombe's 
translation  in  verse  of  the  xv.  Book  of  Vaniere's  P radium 
Rusticum  (1/30),  this  book  treating  of  fish.  Daniel 
transferred  it  into  his  Rural  Sports  without  any  acknow- 
ledgment. In  1819,  one  Thomas  Pike  (rightly  so  called 
"the  appropriator ")  Lathy  distinguished  himself  by 
publishing  The  Angler y  the  great  bulk  of  which  was 
a  mere  transcription  of  Doctor  Scott's  book  just  men- 
tioned, with  "heads"  and  "tails"  prefixed  and  suffixed 
to  the  different  cantos.  He  palmed  the  book  off  on  a 
confiding  bookseller,  who  suffered  in  consequence.  In 
the  same  year  an  officer  of  the  Royal  Navy,  T.  W. 
Charleton,  left  salt  water  for  fresh,  and  produced  a  by  no 
means  unreadable  poem,  entitled  The  Art  of  Fishing, 
something  in  the  style  of  John  Dennys,  but  not  nearly  so 
good  a  production.  In  the  collected  poems  of  Professor 
Wilson  (Christopher  North),  1825,  so  many  of  which  are 
devoted  more  or  less  to  angling,  we  find  The  Angler's  Tent, 
first  published  in  1812,  a  quotation  from  which  will  serve  to 
show  the  author's  style  and  spirit : — 

"  Yes  !  dear  to  us  that  solitary  trade, 
'Mid  vernal  peace  in  peacefulness  pursued 
Through  rocky  glen,  wild  moor,  and  hanging  wood, 
White-flowering  meadow,  and  romantic  glade  ! 
The  sweetest  visions  of  our  boyish  years 
Come  to  our  spirits  with  a  murmuring  tone 
Of  running  waters  ;  and  one  stream  appears, 
Remember'd  all— tree,  willow,  bank,  and  stone ; 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  667 

How  glad  were  we,  when,  after  sunny  showers, 
Its  voice  came  to  us  issuing  from  the  school ! 
How  fled  the  vacant,  solitary  hours, 
By  dancing  rivulet,  or  silent  pool ! 
And  still  our  souls  retain  in  manhood's  prime 
The  love  of  joys  our  childish  years  that  blest ; 
So  now  encircled  by  these  hills  sublime, 
We  Anglers,  wandering  with  a  tranquil  breast, 
Build  in  this  happy  vale  a  fairy  bower  of  rest ! 
Within  that  bower  are  strewn,  in  careless  guise, 
Idle  one  day,  the  angler's  simple  gear  ; 
Lines  that,  as  fine  as  floating  gossamer, 
Dropt  softly  on  the  stream  the  silken  flies  ; 
The  limber  rod  that  shook  its  trembling  length, 
Almost  as  airy  as  the  line  it  threw, 
Yet  often  bending  in  an  arch  of  strength 
When  the  tired  salmon  rose  at  last  to  view, 
Now  lightly  leans  across  the  rushy  bed, 
On  which  at  night  we  dream  of  sports  by  day ; 
And,  empty  now,  beside  it  close  is  laid 
The  goodly  pannier  framed  of  osiers  gray  ; 
And  maple  bowl  in  which  we're  wont  to  bring 
The  limpid  water  from  the  morning  wave, 
Or  from  some  mossy  and  sequester'd  spring 
To  which  dark  rocks  a  grateful  coolness  gave, 
Such  as  might  Hermit  use  in  solitary  cave  ! 
And  ne'er  did  Hermit,  with  a  purer  breast, 
Amid  the  depths  of  sylvan  silence  pray, 
Than  prayed  we  friends  on  that  mild  quiet  day, 
By  God  and  man  beloved,  the  day  of  rest ! " 

Thomas  Tod  Stoddart,  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter, 
was  almost  as  good  a  poet  as  he  was  an  angler;  and 
Professor  Wilson,  whom  we  have  just  quoted,  considered 
his  Songs  and  Poems,  published  in  1839,  "among  the  best 
ever  written."  Here  is  one  of  them  : — 

"  Where  torrents  foam 

While  others  roam 
Among  the  yielding  heather ; 

Some  river  meek 

We'll  forth  and  seek, 
And  lay  our  lines  together. 


668     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIl  ER  FISHING. 

"  Some  sylvan  stream, 

Where  shade  and  gleam 
Are  blended  with  each  other, 

Below  whose  bank 

The  lilies  rank 
All  humbler  flowers  ensmother. 

"  Where  cushats  coo 

And  ringdoves  woo 
The  shining  channel  over, 

From  leafy  larch 

Or  birchen  arch — 
Their  unmolested  cover. 

"  There  daily  met, 

No  dark  regret 
Shall  cloud  our  noon  of  pleasure ; 

Well  carry  rule 

O'er  stream  and  pool, 
And  none  to  claim  a  measure. 

"  With  tackless  care 

On  chosen  hair, 
March  fly  and  minnow  tender, 

We  shall  invite 

The  scaly  wight 
To  eye  them  and  surrender. 

"  And  when  out-worn 

We'll  seek  some  thorn 
With  shadow  old  and  ample — 

The  natural  ground, 

Moss  laid  around, 
An  angler's  resting  temple  ! " 

In  Remarks  on  Shooting,  in  Verse,  by  W.  Watt,  in  1839, 
we  have  a  poem  of  some  length  on  "Trolling."  He  seems 
to  be  one  of  that  class  of  writers  who  have  an  idea  that 
anything  which  rhymes  is  poetry ;  and  though  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  tackle  and  the  way  of  using  it  in  this  branch 
of  angling  is  correct  enough,  the  poem  is  hardly  worth 
reading.  The  author  writes  very  prosaic  poetry  ;  but  must 
be  credited  with  originality  of  design  in  producing  the 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  559 

"  Game  Laws  Versified,"  in  forty-eight  sections.  Pulman's 
Book  of  the  Axe  (1841),  and  various  poems  on  angling 
subsequently  published,  only  claim  passing  mention. 

The  Newcastle  Fishers'  Garlands  are  a  series  of  songs  or 
poems  chiefly  in  praise  of  the  Coquet,  and  emanated  from 
the  Waltonian  Club,  established  in  Newcastle-on-Tyne  in 
the  year  1821-22.  The  custom  seems  to  have  been  to 
publish  a  Garland  annually,  the  first  of  which  appeared 
in  1821  in  form  of  a  single-sheet  broadside.  It  com- 
mences— 

"  Auld  nature  now  revived  seems," 

and  was  the  joint  production  of  Robert  Roxby  and  Thomas 
Doubleday,  who  were  also  the  authors  of  most  of  the 
single  Garlands  to  the  year  1832,  when  the  series 
terminated.  They  were  published  in  a  collected  form  in 
the  year  1836,  with  Boaz's  Angler's  Progress,  a  childish 
poem  written  in  1789,  prefixed  to  them  as  the  Garland 
for  1820.  In  1742  an  attempt  was  made  to  revive  the 
series,  but  it  failed  after  two  or  three  years.  However,  in 
the  year  just  named,  the  original  publishers  of  the  Gar- 
lands brought  out  A  Collection  of  Right  Merrie  Garlands 
for  North- Country  Anglers,  adding  to  the  original  a  mis- 
cellaneous collection  of  songs,  Doubleday  again  being  a 
contributor.  The  best  of  the  Roxby  and  Doubleday 
Garlands  were  republished  in  the  Coquetdale  Fishing 
Songs  in  1852;  and  in  -1864  Mr.  Joseph  Crawhall  again 
reproduced  the  Collection  of  Right  Merrie  Garlands,  &c.y 
with  songs  and  poems  added  mainly  by  himself  and 
Doubleday,  T.  Westwood  being  also  a  contributor,  and 
styled  them  by  the  old  title  of  the  Newcastle  Fishers* 
Garlands,  assigning  one,  and  sometimes  two,  to  each  year 
to  1864  inclusive.  Thus  we  have  what  the  Devonshire  folk 
would  call  "  a  mixed  medley  ;"  and  the  compositions,  it 


67o     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

must  be  confessed,  are  of  very  unequal  merit,  though  many 
of  them  strike  sympathetic  chords.  They  are  about  fifty 
in  number,  and  here  is  one  of  Doubleday's,  entitled  "  The 
Fisher's  Call"  (1828),  taken  almost  at  haphazard: — 

"  The  thorn  is  in  the  bud, 

The  palm  is  in  the  bloom, 
The  primrose,  in  the  shade, 

Unfolds  her  dewy  bosom  ; 
Sweet  Cogue fs  purling  clear, 

And  summer  music  making ; 
The  trout  has  left  his  lair, 

Then  waken,  fishers,  waken  ! 

"  The  lavrock's  in  the  sky, 

And  on  the  heath  the  plover, 
The  bee  upon  the  thyme, 

The  swallow  skimming  over  ; 
The  farmer  walks  the  field, 

The  seed  he's  casting  steady, 
The  breeze  is  blowing  west, 

Be  ready,  fishers,  ready  ! 

"  The  violet's  in  her  prime, 

And  April  is  the  weather ; 
The  partridge  on  the  wing, 

The  muircock  in  the  heather  j 
The  sun's  upon  the  pool 

His  morning  radiance  wasting, 
It's  glittering  like  the  gold, 

Oh,  hasten,  fishers,  hasten  ! 

"  The  Felton  lads  are  up, 

They're  looking  to  their  tackle; 
The  sawmon's  in  the  stream, 

And  killing  is  the  hackle. 
If  there's  a  feat  to  do, 

Tis  Weldon  boys  should  do  it ; 
Then  up  and  rig  your  gads, 

And  to  it,  fishers,  to  it !" 

Here  is   another,   by  W.  A.   Chatto,   which   originally 
appeared    in    his    book   on   Fly-Fishing  in  Northumber- 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  671 

land,  6r.,  in  1834,  under  the  title  of  "The  Angler's  Invita- 


"  The  wild  bull  his  covert  in  Chillingham  wood 

Has  left,  and  now  browses  the  daisy-strew'd  plain  ; 
The  May-fly  and  swallow  are  skimming  the  flood, 

And  sweet  in  the  hedge  blooms  the  hawthorn  again  ; 
The  young  lambs  are  skipping  on  Cheviot's  broad  mountain, 

The  heather  springs  green  upon  Whitsun-bank  side  ; 
The  streams  are  as  clear  as  the  lime-stone  rock  fountain, 

And  sweet  is  the  palm-blossom's  scent  where  they  glide. 

"  Oh,  leave  for  awhile  the  dull  smoke  of  the  city  ; 

Sons  of  gain,  quit  your  desks,  and  your  ledgers  lay  by, 
Seek  health  in  the  fields  while  each  bird  sings  its  ditty, 

And  breathe  the  pure  air  underneath  the  broad  sky  ; 
Sons  of  pleasure,  come  view  the  sweet  primroses  springing, 

Leave  the  scene  where  the  light  figurant^  whirls  round  ; 
Come,  list  to  the  lark  in  the  blue  ether  singing, 

Come,  see  how  the  deer  in  the  green  forest  bound. 

The  glad  trout  is  roaming  in  every  clear  stream, 

And  the  grilse  and  the  salmon  now  drink  the  May  flood  ; 
Then,  anglers,  be  up  with  the  sun's  early  beam, 

Let  your  flies  be  in  trim  and  your  tackle  be  good  ; 
In  Till  there's  good  store  of  fat  trouts  to  be  won, — 

Let  your  skill  load  your  creels  as  you  wander  along, — 
And  at  night,  as  you  tell  of  the  feats  you  have  done, 

Cheer  your  talk  with  a  cup  of  good  wine  and  a  song." 

While  among  the  angling  poets  of  the  north,  who  seem 
to  have  been  among  the  most  enthusiastic  of  their  tribe, 
we  may  here  mention,  though  a  little  out  of  chronological 
order,  the  Chaplets  from  Coquet-side,  by  Joseph  Crawhall, 
published  in  1873.  The  following  quaintly  dainty  little 
bit  would  almost  make  worm-fishing  allowable  in  the 
crystal  streams  flowing  from  Parnassus  itself :  — 

"  The  flee's  been  sung  in  mony  a  strain, 
The  mennum  owre  an'  owre  again 


672      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Has  been  the  poet's  theme  : 
Gentles,  and  pastes,  and  viler  roe 
Hae  had  their  praises  sung  enow 

In  drumlie  verse  and  stream, 
But  let  us  sing  the  worm  in  June, 

Auld  Coquet  crystal  clear  ; 
All  leafy  Nature's  now  in  tune, 
Now  doth  true  skill  appear. 
Sae  moyley  an'  coyly 

Steal  on  the  gleg-e'ed  trout ; 
He  sees  ye,  an'  flees  ye — 
Gif  no — yell  pick  him  out. 

"  Just  as  the  early,  tuneful  lark, 
Dame  Nature's  vocal  chapel-clerk, 

Carols  his  hymn  of  praise, 
Just  as  the  dews  frae  flowers  distil, 
And  air  recovers  frae  nights  chill, 

Thro'  Phcebus'  slantin'  rays  ; 
Wi'  weel-graithed  gear  up  stream  then  hie, 

Unerring  cast  the  lure ; 
The  barely  covered  spankers  lie 
Unwatchfully  secure. 
Then  lungin'  and  plungin' 
You  feel  the  finny  prize, 
Now  gantin'  an'  pantin' 
Stretched  on  his  side  he  dies. 

"  Straight  as  a  sapling  fir  your  wand, 
Mid-teens  o'  feet,  and  light  to  hand, 

With  hook  of  ample  size, 
Inserted  just  below  the  head 
Of  worm,  well  scoured  and  purplish  red, 

Like  arrow  sourceward  flies, 
Swift  with  the  current  see  it  wear, 

Then  trembling,  mid-stream  stay, 
That  instant  strike— my  life,  he's  there, 
At  leisure  creelward  play. 

Then  stay  there  an'  play  there, 

Enjoy  thy  latest  cast, 
For  the  worm  aye,  in  turn  aye, 
Will  conquer  a'  at  last." 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  673 

Blakey  published  his  Angler's  Song  Book  m  1855,  con- 
taining nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  songs  and  poems  of 
various  degrees  of  merit,  and  some  of  no  merit  at  all, 
ranging  from  John  Dennys  down  to  Wordsworth.  The 
collection,  as  a  whole,  is  not  one  of  which  anglers  can  feel 
very  proud. 

The  Songs  of  the  Edinburgh  Club  (1851),  a  new  and 
enlarged  edition  of  which  was  published  in  1 879,  is  the  last 
collection  we  shall  mention.  This  club  was  founded  in 
1847,  and  the  volume  was  "privately  printed  for  members," 
whose  angling  headquarters  is  "  The  Nest,"  on  a  famous 
stretch  of  the  Tweed  rented  by  the  club.  Our  quotations 
from  angling  poets  have  already  extended  to  so  great  a 
length  that  we  must  forbear  to  quote  but  a  few  lines  from 
this  elegant  volume,  which  is  full  of  suggestiveness  of  love 
of  nature,  love  of  angling,  and  love  of  the  brotherhood  of 
anglers,  while  at  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  prized  for  the 
faultless  typography  and  exquisite  engravings.  This  is  the 
concluding  "  L'Envoi" — 

"  Tis  time  to  part ;  the  fleeting  hours 
Too  soon  have  sped  their  course  along  ; 
Yet  surely  we  have  tipped  their  wings 
With  golden  mirth  and  silv'ry  song. 
Old  Time,  upon  his  labouring  course, 
Might  pause  to  gaze  on  scenes  so  bright 
And  hours  like  these.     But,  no,  he's  past, 
And  we  must  part — Good  night !     Good  night ! 

"  We'll  meet  again  ;  you  know  the  spot, 
Where  rolls  the  river  broad  and  fair, 
Where  peeps  the  modest  violet, 
And  hawthorn  blossoms  scent  the  air. 
Again  with  song  and  mirth  we'll  crown 
Our  long,  long  days  of  calm  delight. 
But  now,  alas  !  'tis  time  to  part, 
To  each  and  all — Good  night !     Good  night !  9 
VOL.   III.— H.  2   X 


674     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

The  Honble.  and  Rev.  Robert  Liddell  is  another  clergy- 
man among  the  poets  of  the  Angle.  He  published  the 
first  canto  of  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Angler,  as  a  "tribute 
to  the  Tweed  at  Melrose,"  at  the  end  of  the  season  of  1867. 
The  third  canto  appeared  in  1 874 ;  but  they  were  all 
printed  "  for  private  circulation  only."  They  afford  a  rich 
poetical  treat  to  any  angler  who  is  fortunate  enough  to  get 
hold  of  a  copy. 

Numerous  angling  songs  and  poems  by  different  modern 
writers  have  appeared  during  the  last  few  years  in  the 
pages  of  magazines  and  newspapers  more  or  less  devoted 
to  national  pastimes,  both  here  and  in  America.  Many  of 
them  are  of  great  beauty,  and  will  perhaps  appear  in  some 
more  permanent  form.  We  must  restrain  our  desire  to 
quote  them,  contenting  ourselves  with  the  following  lines 
on  a  humble  brook,  by  Carl  Waring,  published  in  the  Ameri- 
can Forest  and  Stream : — 

"  You  see  it  first  near  the  dusty  road, 
Where  the  farmer  stops  with  his  heavy  load 

At  the  foot  of  a  weary  hill  ; 
There  the  mossy  trough  it  overflows, 
Then  away  with  a  leap  and  a  laugh  it  goes 

At  its  own  sweet  wandering  will. 

"  It  flows  through  an  orchard  gnarl'd  and  old, 
Where  in  the  spring  the  dainty  buds  unfold 

Their  petals  pink  and  white ; 
The  apple  blossoms  so  sweet  and  pure, 
The  streamlet's  smiles  and  songs  allure, 

To  float  off  on  the  ripples  bright. 

M  It  winds  through  the  meadow  scarcely  seen, 
For  o'er  it  the  flowers  and  grasses  lean 

To  salute  its  smiling  face  ; 
And  thus,  half  hidden,  it  ripples  along, 
The  whole  way  singing  its  summer  song, 

Making  glad  each  arid  place. 


ENGLISH  POETS  ON  FISHING.  675 

**  Just  there,  where  the  water  dark  and  cool 
Lingers  a  moment  in  yonder  pool, 

The  dainty  trout  are  at  play  ; 
And  now  and  then  one  leaps  in  sight, 
With  sides  aglow  in  the  golden  light 
Of  the  long  sweet  summer  day. 

u  Oh,  back  to  their  shelves  those  books  consign, 
And  look  to  your  rod  and  reel  and  line, 

Make  fast  the  feather'd  hook  ! 
Then  away  from  the  town,  with  its  hum  of  life, 
Where  the  air  with  worry  and  work  is  rife, 
To  the  charms  of  the  meadow  brook  ! " 

As  regards  the  poetical  literature  of  angling  which  we 
have  reviewed,  it  would  be  mere  affectation  to  say  that  we 
should  be  satisfied  with  it  as  a  whole.  It  is  true  that  there 
is  considerable  interest  in  it  from  a  bibliographical  point  of 
view,  and  that  the  contributions  of  several  writers  are  good 
examples  of  true  poetic  feeling  and  diction  ;  but  at  the 
same  time  there  is  a  plethora  of  what  is  mere  doggerel, 
stiltedness,  and  affectation.  Anglers  themselves,  however, 
who  form  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  community,  may 
be  congratulated  on  the  high  testimony  the  poets  have 
borne  to  their  favourite  recreation ;  and  it  is  not  likely  that 
a  vates  sacer  will  ever  be  wanting  to  their  ranks.  As  time 
passes  on,  and  prose  works  on  angling  multiply,  in  like 
manner  we  may  expect  the  stream  of  poetic  literature  to 
flow  on,  as  the  contemplative  man's  recreation  is  in  its 
surroundings  and  associations  conducive  to  the  develop- 
ment of  poetic  temperament  and  feeling. 

In  this  and  the  two  previous  chapters  the  majority  of — 
and,  indeed,  almost  all — the  authors  mentioned  were  them- 
selves anglers,  as  might  naturally  be  expected.  By  way 
of  a  note,  we  may  here  give  the  names  of  a  few  more  or 
less  eminent  literary  men  who,  though  not  authors  on 
angling,  have  pursued  the  gentle  craft.  For  instance, 

2X2 


676     LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Dryden,  Bacon,  George  Herbert,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Pepys, 
Dean  Swift,  Hollingshed,  Sheridan,  Sir  Aubrey  Carlisle, 
Archdeacon  Paley,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Hogg  the  Ettrick 
Shepherd,  and  the  first  Lord  Lytton,  who  in  more  than 
one  passage  in  his  "Eugene  Aram"  pictures  fly-fishing. 
Among  more  modern  literati  is  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  ; 
and  many  others  who  handle  the  "  bending  reed  "  as  well 
as  the  pen  most  masterfully. 

We  will  conclude  this  chapter  with  the  soft  cadence  of 
the  final  stanza  of  J.  D.,  the  "  Laureate  of  the  Angling 
Craft":— 

"  And  now  we  are  ariued  at  the  last, 
In  wished  harbour  where  we  mean  to  rest ; 
And  make  an  end  of  this  our  journey  past. 
Here  in  the  quiet  roade  I  think  it  best 
We  strike  our  sails  and  stedfast  Anchor  cast, 
For  now  the  Sunne  low  setteth  in  the  West.* 


(    677    ) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  PERIODICAL  LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING 
— NEWSPAPERS— REVIEWS — MAGAZINES  —  BOOKS  ON 
SEA  FISHING,  ICHTHYOLOGY,  AND  PISCICULTURE — 
THE  LITERARY  "  OUTCOME  "  OF  THE  FISHERIES 
EXHIBITION. 

PERHAPS  the  subject  taken  in  hand  in  this  little  volume 
might  have  been  considered  fairly  concluded  in  the  last 
chapter,  as  the  survey  in  the  preceding  papers  has  covered, 
though  necessarily  in  a  circumscribed  and  imperfect 
manner,  the  whole  field  of  Fishing  Literature  from  the 
earliest  times  to  the  present.  Still  it  may  not  be  out  of 
place  to  add  a  few  words  in  reference  to  the  current 
literature  of  fishing  ;  and  a  list  of  some  of  the  chief  works 
which  deal  with  subjects  more  or  less  allied  to  that 
immediately  in  hand. 

A  weekly  newspaper,  specially  devoted  to  Fish  and 
Fishing  is  The  Fishing  Gazette,  most  ably  edited  by 
Mr.  R.  B.  Marston,  who  is  well  known  as  a  learned  and 
skilful  angler,  and  for  the  interest  he  takes  in  pisciculture, 
especially  in  reference  to  "coarse"  fish.  The  Angler's 
Journal  is  another,  edited  by  Captain  Alfred,  of  Moorgate 
Street.  The  Field  has,  from  its  first  starting,  devoted 
much  space  to  angling,  of  which  department  Mr.  Francis 
Francis  has  been  editor  for  many  years.  A  large  portion 
of  his  Angling,  and  kindred  works,  has  first  appeared  in 
its  pages.  Land  and  Water,  to  which  the  late  Mr.  Frank 


678     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

Buckland  was  a  voluminous  contributor,  follows  in  the 
same  line;  and  Mr.  Henry  Ffennell  is  now  its  angling 
editor.  It  has  recently  appeared  in  a  new  and  im- 
proved form,  which  has  been  much  appreciated.  Ashore 
or  Afloat,  a  recently  launched  weekly,  and  admirably  done, 
makes  fish  and  fishing  a  special  feature.  The  success 
in  this  department  has  been  secured  by  the  appointment 
of  Mr.  J.  T.  Carrington,  the  naturalist  of  the  Aquarium, 
as  the  editor  of  "  Sea  Fishing,"  and  Mr.  J.  P.  Wheeldon  of 
"  Freshwater  Fishing."  The  Fish  Trades  Gazette,  a  new 
weekly  journal,  rather  inclined  to  take  a  one-sided  view 
of  the  fish  trade,  always  contains  a  good  supply  of  in- 
teresting matter  in  connection  with  sea  fishing.  Of  a  very 
similar  character  is  the  American  paper  called  the  Sea 
World  and  Packer's  Journal,  published  at  Baltimore.  The 
American  Angler  (New  York)  is  a  Transatlantic  paper  of 
interest  to  anglers.  But  the  best  of  the  class  is  Forest 
and  Stream  (New  York),  of  which  Messrs.  Sampson  Low, 
Marston,&  Co.  are  the  representatives  in  London.  The 
Field  is  another  excellent  American  paper  of  the  same 
type.  It  is  published  at  Chicago.  Among  journals  here 
which  deal  with  miscellaneous  sports  and  pastimes, 
and  .include  articles  on  angling,  may  be  mentioned  the 
Sporting  Life,  the  Sportsman,  Bell's  Life,  and  the 
Sporting  and  Dramatic  News,  and  the  Irish  Sport. 
Other  weekly  papers,  such  as  the  Graphic,  constantly 
have  articles  on  angling  in  their  pages.  Indeed  such 
is  the  popularity  of  angling  at  the  present  time,  that 
even  the  London  daily  papers  frequently  publish  articles 
on  the  subject.  Among  provincial  newspapers  the  Norwich 
Argus,  a  high-class  Conservative  journal,  is  conspicuous  for 
the  space  it  gives  to  contributions  on  sea  and  river  fishing. 
It  is  from  the  office  of  this  paper  that  an  admirable  little 


MA  GAZINES— GUIDE-BOOKS.  679 

Guide  to  the  Broads  and  Rivers  of  Norfolk  is  issued  ;  and 
also  the  annual  East  Anglian  Handbook,  in  which  articles 
on  fish  and  fishing  have  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
found  a  place.  A  selection  of  these,  bound  in  one  volume, 
was  exhibited  by  Mr.  P.  Soman,  the  proprietor  of  the 
Argus,  at  the  Fisheries  Exhibition. 

The  "Magazines"  of  the  period  by  no  means  neglect 
angling.  Blackwood  did  no  little  to  establish  its  reputation 
years  ago  by  its  angling  articles  from  the  pens  of  Professor 
Wilson,  and  other  eminent  literary  anglers.  Fraser,  also, 
has  long  made  angling  articles  a  feature  in  its  pages  ;  and 
even  the  more  sober  "  Quarterlies  "  minister  to  the  prevail- 
ing taste.  The  "  Monthlies  "  of  many  kinds  also  follow  suit, 
such  as  the  Corn/till,  Temple  Bar,  &c. ;  while  the  evergreen 
Baily,  and  the  promising  young  Squire  (the  latter  under 
the  able  conductorship  of  Mr.  Morgan  Evans),  minister 
regularly  and  pleasantly  to  piscatorial  wants.  The  Sporting 
Mirror  angles  for  readers.  Scribner's  Monthly,  now  The 
Century  (New  York),  sends-  us  an  abundant  supply  of 
admirable  angling  articles  from  the  other  side  of  the 
"  herring-pond."  • 

What  may  be  termed  "  Guide-Books  "  have  their  place, 
though  a  humble -one,  in  angling  literature;  and  very  useful 
publications  they  are.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned 
the  A  nglers  Diary,  issued  annually  from  the  Field  Office, 
which  gives  in  alphabetical  order  a  list  of  all  the  fishing 
waters  in  the  United  Kingdom,  with  nearest  railway 
stations,  and  a  variety  of  information  in  reference  to  "  close  " 
seasons,  licences,  &c.  Mr.  Greville  Fennell's  The  Rail  and 
the  Rod  has  already  been  mentioned  in  Chapter  VI.,  as  has 
also  Mr.  Wheeldon's  Angling  Resorts  near  London.  Both 
books  contain  most  useful  "  guidal "  information,  as  well  as 
being  worthy  of  being  ranked  as  books  on  angling  from  a 


680     LITERA  TURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

literary  point  of  view.  The  same  remark  applies  to  Mr. 
Little's  Angler's  Complete  Guide  and  Companion.  For 
Scotch  anglers,  or  others  going  north,  Mr.  Watson  Lyall's 
Sportsman's  and  Tourist's  Guide,  which  is  published 
monthly  during  the  spring  and  summer,  is  a  valuable 
reference  book,  and  contains  much  useful  information  as 
to  letting  price  of  Scotch  fishings,  &c.  Of  a  somewhat 
similar  character,  but  in  "book"  form,  is  The  Highland 
Sportsman,  published  annually  by  Mr.  Hall  at  43,  Old 
Bond  Street.  All  who  wish  to  acquaint  themselves  with 
Scotland  in  its  sporting  aspect  should  have  this  volume. 
Just  before  going  to  press  with  these  notes,  another  Scotch 
sporting  guide  has  been  announced  as  shortly  to  appear, 
under  the  title  of  Ross's  Sportsman  s  Friend  (68,  West 
Regent  Street,  Glasgow). 

Angling  Societies  are  also  contributing  to  angling  litera- 
ture by  the  publication  in  volumes  of  the  Papers  read  at 
their  meetings.  The  two  series  of  Anglers11  Evenings 
(Heywood  and  Son,  Manchester),  being  Papers  read  before 
the  Manchester  Angling  Association,  are  admirable  ex- 
amples of  such  publications.  Very  recently  that  young  but 
flourishing  angling  association,  "  The  Gresham,"  has  issued 
a  pleasant  little  volume  containing  some  of  the  Papers  read 
at  its  meetings. 

Our  colonies  and  the  United  States  are  fast  forming  a 
piscatory  literature  of  their  own.  In  the  latter  the  pastime 
of  fishing  is  becoming  more  and  more  popular  every 
year.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned  the  American 
Anglers  Guide,  the  first  edition  of  which  was  published  at 
New  York  in  1845,  and  the  last  in  1876.  It  covers  all 
kinds  of  fishing  in  the  United  States,  and  contains  much 
that  may  be  read  with  profit  by  anglers  here.  Bethune's 
valuable  edition  of  the  Complete  Angler  has  been  referred 


BOOKS  ON  SEA-FISHING.  68 1 

to  in  Chapter  IV.  Other  American  angling  books  are 
Henshall's  Black  Bass  Fishing ;  Hallock's  Fishing  Tourist, 
and  his  A  merican  Sportsman 's  Gazetteer ;  and  Frank 
Forester's  Fishing  with  Hook  and  Line.  The  last  files  of 
papers  from  America  announce  the  appearance  of  Fish: 
their  Habits  and  Haunts,  and  the  Methods  of  Catching 
them,  by  the  late  Lorenzo  Pronty. 

For  the  purpose  of  reference,  a  list  of  some  chief  works 
on  SEA-FISHING,  ICHTHYOLOGY,  and  PISCICULTURE  are 
here  added. 

Under  those  on  SEA-FlSHlNG  to  be  specially  men- 
tioned is  Mr.  E.  W.  H.  Holdsworth's  Deep-sea  Fishing 
and  Fishing  Boats  (Stanford,  1874),  from  which  may  be 
fully  learned  all  that  an  ordinary  reader  would  wish  to 
know  about  the  fishing  industry  round^our  coasts.  Ber- 
tram's Harvest  of  the  Sea  (Murray,  1865),  The  Great 
Fisheries  of  the  World  described  (Nelson,  1878),  Caux's  The 
Herring  and  the  Herring  Fishery  (Hamilton,  Adams,  and 
Co.,  1881),  and  The  Fisheries  of  the  World,  now  in  course 
of  publication  by  Messrs.  Cassell  and  Co. — are  all  full  of 
information  on  the  subject.  A  little  pamphlet,  entitled 
Sea  Fisheries ;  or,  Christmas  among  the  Fishermen  of  tJie 
North  Sea,  which  has  been  on  sale  at  the  Fisheries 
Exhibition,  may  be  read  with  interest.  Many  books 
deal  mainly  with  sea  fishing  as  a  "  sport " — for  instance 
(without  giving  them  in  chronological  order),  Wil- 
cock's  Sea  Fisherman  (Longman  and  Co.),  L.  Young's 
Sea  Fishing  as  a  Sport  (1872),  "  Wildfowler's "  Shoot- 
ing and  Fishing  Trips  (Longman  &  Co.),  Lord's  Sea  Fish, 
and  how  to  catch  them  (Bradbury  and  Evans,  1862), 
Brookes's  Art  of  Angling,  Rock  and  Sea  Fishing,  dating 
as  far  back  as  1740.  There  is  valuable  information,  also 
of  a  general  kind,  in  Hearder's  Degeneration  of  our  Sea 


682      LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

FisJieries  (Plymouth,  1870),  and  in  the  little  Trade  Cata- 
logues of  Hearder  and  Son,  and  of  C.  &  R.  Brooks,  both 
tackle  makers  at  Plymouth,  who  exhibited  and  won  dis- 
tinction at  the  Fisheries  Exhibition.  But  as  valuable  a 
volume  as  any  connected  with  our  sea  fisheries  is  the 
Selection  of  Prize  Essays  recently  published  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Edinburgh  Fisheries  Exhibition  of  last  year. 
Almost  every  subject  connected  with  the  fishing  industry 
is  therein  most  fully  treated  on.  The  volume  is  entitled 
Essays  on  Fish  and  Fisheries,  and  is  published  by  Black- 
wood  and  Sons,  Edinburgh. 

Mr.  Andrew  Young's  Natural  History  and  Habits  of 
the  Salmon  (Longman  and  Co.,  1874),  The  Autobiography 
of  Salmo  Salar,  Esq.,  already  mentioned  in  Chapter  VI., 
and  Mr.  Archibald  Young's  Salmon  Fisheries  (attached  to 
Mr.  Holdsworth's  book  on  sea  fishing),  are  among  the  works 
to  be  referred  to  in  connection  with  the  fish  that  hovers 
between  salt  and  fresh  water,  and  has  both  a  sporting 
and  commercial  importance.  Mr.  T.  Brady's  Reports,  and 
other  publications  in  reference  to  Irish  fisheries,  are  also 
very  valuable.  Olsen's  pictorial  Atlas  of  the  North  Sea,  &c. 
(O.  T.  Olsen,  Grimsby),  should  be  possessed  by  all  who 
wish  to  study  our  sea  fisheries.  The  last  work  we  will 
mention  is  The  British  Fisheries  Directory,  recently  pub- 
lished by  Sampson  Low,  Marston,  and  Co.  It  may  truly 
be  called  a  child  of  the  Fisheries  Exhibition,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  it  will  be  established  as  an  annual.  Of  its 
usefulness  to  both  amateur  and  professional  fishermen  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  as  it  is  a  book  of  statistics  and  general 
information  in  connection  with  every  department  of  the 
fishing  industry  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  idea  was  an 
excellent  one,  and  it  has  been  excellently  carried  out.  For 
a  variety  of  other  works,  bearing  more  or  less  directly  on 


ICHTHYOLOGY.  683 

sea  fishing,  reference  may  be  made  to  that  portion  of  the 
Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  devoted  to  "  Fisheries  "  publications. 

Legal  works  of  value  connected  with  our  fisheries  which 
will  be  found  most  useful  are  Oke's  Handbook  of  Game 
and  Fishery  Laws  (Butterworth's,  1878),  edited  by  J.  W. 
W.  Bund ;  Mr.  Bund's  own  book  on  The  Law  relating  to 
the  Salmon  Fisheries^  &c.;  Mr.  Baker's  Laws  relating  to 
Salmon  Fisheries,  &c.  (though  the  last  edition  was  in 
1868),  and  Mr.  Archibald  Young's  books  above-mentioned. 
For  an  exhaustive  list  of  Acts  of  Parliament  relating  to 
our  fisheries,  from  the  time  of  Edward  I.  (1270),  down  to 
the  present,  and  Parliamentary  Papers,  reference  can  be 
made  to  the  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria,  in  which  the  enumera- 
tion of  both  together  fill  up  no  less  than  fifty  pages. 

The  mention  of  works  on  ICHTHYOLOGY  at  once  sug- 
gests the  names  of  the  great  French  naturalists  Buffon  and 
Cuvier.  The  Animal  Kingdom  of  the  latter,  and  Natural 
History  of  the  former,  must  ever  remain  standard  works , 
of  their  kind,  notwithstanding  fresh  discoveries  in  zoology. 
Among  our  own  country  the  name  of  Yarrell  stands  out 
conspicuously,  his  History  of  British  Fishes  being  a  master 
work  (Van  Voorst),  and  his  Growth  of  the  Salmon  in  Fresh 
Water  another.  Mr.  Van  Voorst  also  publishes  a  most 
interesting  book,  though  not  in  the  class  we  are  now 
mentioning,  entitled  Heraldry  of  Fish,  by  Thomas  Moule. 
Couch's  History  of  the  Fishes  of  the  British  Isles  (Bell  & 
Co.)  is  too  well  known  to  need  more  than  mention  here. 
His  Treatise  on  the  Pilchard  is  also  well  worth  study,  both 
as  a  work  on  ichthyology  and  as  bearing  on  the  pilchard 
fisheries  of  Cornwall.  Another  standard  work  is  the 
Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Fishes,  by  Dr.  C.  L.  B.  Gianther, 
of  the  British  Museum  (A.  &  C.  Black,  Edinburgh,  1880). 
British  Fresh-Water  Fishes,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Houghton, 


684     LITERATURE  QF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

is  published  by  W.  Mackenzie  &  Co.,  of  Ludgate  Hill, 
E.G.,  and  Edinburgh  and  Dublin  (1880),  and  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  imagine  a  work  of  the  kind  more  splendidly  illus- 
trated, while  the  letterpress  is  all  that  can  be  desired. 
The  two  grand  volumes  make  a  magnificent  specimen  of 
a  livre  de  luxe.  The  chapters  on  the  "  Salmonidae "  are 
of  special  interest  and  beauty.  The  Fishes  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  "  including  their  economic  uses  and 
various  modes  of  capture,  &c.,"  is  another  of  the  great 
books  of  the  age  and  "  for  all  time/'  Dr.  Francis  Day, 
its  author,  is  also  well  known  for  his  work  on  the  Fishes 
of  India,  and  other  productions.  He  has  won  the  highest 
distinctions  in  connection  with  the  Indian  Section  at  the 
Fisheries  Exhibition,  and  other  honours.  Cassell's  Natural 
History,  a  grand  work,  which  has  long  been  in  course  of 
publication,  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Duncan,  is  another 
most  valuable  book  of  reference.  Among  less  pretentious 
volumes  may  be  mentioned  F.  Buckland's  History  of  British 
Fishes,  &c.  (S.P.C.K.),  and  his  Logbook  of  a  Fisherman  and 
Zoologist ;  Wood's  Natural  History ;  Fishes,  in  Jardine's 
"  Naturalist's  Library "  ;  Brown's  Natural  History  of  the 
Salmon  (1862) ;  YenntlVs  Angler-Naturalist ;  The  Autobio- 
graphy of  Salmo  Salar,  Esq.,  already  referred  to  ;  Badham's 
Prose  Halieutics ;  the  various  works  by  H.  P.  Gosse  ; 
Rennie's  Alphabet  of  Scientific  Angling,  though  published 
as  long  ago  as  1836,  and  consequently  somewhat  anti- 
quated in  its  curious  ichthyological  gossip  ;  and  Reports 
on  the  Natural  History  of  Sahnonoids  (Blackwood,  1867). 
The  various  writings  of  Professors  Darwin,  'tyndall,  Owen, 
and  Huxley,  contain  a  variety  of  ichthyological  informa- 
tion, and  the  monograph  on  the  Crayfish,  by  the  last 
named,  is  a  veritable  marvel  of  exhaustive  treatment.  The 
last  work  we  shall  mention  here,  but  by  no  means  "  the 


PISCICULTURE.  685 

least "  in  the  library  of  ichthyology,  is  Scribner  &  Sons' 
(New  York)  Game  Fishes  of  the  United  States^  containing 
a  series  of  most  magnificent  paintings  of  fishes  and  scenery, 
with  the  text  by  Professor  Browne  Goode,  of  the  United 
States  Museum.  This  is  another  of  the  livres  de  luxe,  but 
unfortunately  beyond  the  means  of  slender  purses.  A 
large  number  of  the  books  on  angling  already  referred  to 
in  Chapters  IV.,  V.,  and  VI.,  contain  ichthyological  matter 
of  more  or  less  interest. 

Works  on  PISCICULTURE  are  numerous,  and  many  date 
back  to  the  Middle  Ages,  and  even  "  classic  "  times.  Some 
have  already  been  referred  to  in  connection  with  what  we 
have  called  the  "  composite "  books  on  angling ;  and  to 
them  may  be  added  the  Treatises  of  Boccius,  published  by 
Van  Voorst  in  1841  and  1848  ;  and  several  other  transla- 
tions of  foreign  authors.  Our  own  older  writers  dilated  a 
good  deal  on  fish-ponds,  a  subject  to  which  before  long 
greater  attention  will  probably  be  given  in  this  country. 
Roger  North  published  his  Discourse  on  Fish  and  Fish-ponds 
in  1713,  and  it  may  still  be  studied  with  profit,  a  remark  which 
applies  to  W.  Marshall's  work  on  Management  of  Landed 
Estates  (Longman  &  Co.,  1806),  in  which  the  Qth  section 
treats  on  "  Improvement  of  Waters."  Other  comparatively 
old  works,  such  as  Lebault's  Maison  Rttstique  (mentioned 
by  I.  Walton  in  "Fifth  Day"),  translated  into  English 
in  1600;  Ellis's  Modern  Husbandman  (1750);  Mordant's 
Complete  Steward  (1761),  in  dictionary  form ;  Mortimer's 
Whole  Art  of  Husbandry  (1707) ;  Jacob's  Country  Gentle- 
man's Vade-mecum  (1717);  and  Kale's  Complete  Body  of 
Husbandry  (1758),  all  contain  "  Fish-pondian  "  information, 
a  great  deal  of  which  is  applicable  to  "  fish-farming  "  at  the 
present  time.  Among  works  on  angling,  several  contain 
piscicultural  disquisitions,  and  especially  Bowlker's  Art  of 
Angling,  referred  to  in  Chapter  V.  Among  more  recent 


686     LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

works  which  may  be  consulted  are  F.  Buckland's  Fish  and 
Fish  Hatching  (Tinsley   Brothers,   1863)  ;    Capel's    Trout 
Culture  (Hardwicke  &  Bogue,  1877) ;  Sir  Samuel  Wilson's 
Trout   at   the   Antipodes    (Stanford,    1879);    Ashworth's 
remarks  on  the  artificial  propagation  of  salmon  at  Stor- 
montfield  (1875),  and  Report  of  a  Committee  on  the  experi- 
ments there  (1875),  and  Brown's  Natural  History  of  the 
Salmon,  also  in  connection  with  the  same   establishment 
(Murray,  Glasgow,  1862) ;  Francis  Francis's  Fish  Culture 
(Routledge,  1865),  and  his  Practical  Management  of  Fish- 
eries  (Field  office,   1883) ;  Hoare's   Treatise  on  Fish-ponds 
(Wyman  and  Sons,  1870);  and  Humphrey's  River  Gardens 
(Sampson   Low   &    Co.,    1857).      The   United   States    of 
America,  have  been   prolific   in   piscicultural   publications. 
Seth   Green    published   his    Trout   Culture  in    1870,   and 
L.    Stone   his   Domesticated   Trout  in    1873  —  a   valuable 
work  ;    and   Norris   his   American  Fish   Culture  in    1868 
(Sampson    Low   &    Co.).      The    Reports    of   the    United 
States  Commission  of  Fish  and  Fisheries  date  from  1871, 
and  are  all  most  instructive  ;  as  are  The  Transactions  of 
the  American  Fish    Cultural  Association   (established   in 
1871),  to  which  Professor  G.  Brown  Goode  is  a  prominent 
contributor ;    and   from    Canada  we   had    last    year    the 
interesting  and  valuable   Report  of  S.    Wilmot,    Esq.,   on 
Fish  Breeding  Operations,    &c.,   in   the    Dominion.      The 
annual   Fisheries   Statements  published  by  the   Canadian 
Government  are  well  got  up  and  worth  consulting. 

Our  concluding  note  will  be  in  reference  to  the  published 
literary  products  of  the   Fisheries    Exhibition  itself.      Of 
these   the  HANDBOOKS  are   naturally  the  chief;  and  for 
convenience  of  reference  we  give  the  Series  entire : — 
The  Fishery  Laws.    By  Frederick  Pollock,  Barrister-at-Law,  M.A. 

(Oxon.),  Hon.  LL.D.  Edin.  ;    Corpus  Christi  Professor  of 

Jurisprudence  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 


HANDBOOKS  AND  CONFERENCE  PAPERS.         687 

Zoology  and  Food  Fishes.  By  George  B.  Howes,  Demonstrator 
of  Biology,  Normal  School  of  Science,  and  Royal  School  of 
Mines,  South  Kensington. 

British  Marine  and  Freshwater  Fishes.  (Illustrated.)  By  W. 
Saville  Kent,  F.L.S.,  F.Z.S.,  Author  of  Official  Guide-books 
to  the  Brighton,  Manchester,  and  Westminster  Aquaria. 

Apparatus  for  Fishing.  By  E.  W.  H.  Holdsworth,  F.L.S.,  F.Z.S., 
Special  Commissioner  for  Juries,  International  Fisheries 
Exhibition ;  Author  of  "  Deep  Sea  Fisheries  and  Fishing 
Boats,"  "  British  Industries— Sea  Fisheries,"  &c. 

The  British  Fish  Trade.  By  His  Excellency  Spencer  Walpole, 
Lieut. -Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Man. 

The  Unappreciated  Fisher  Folk.  By  James  G.  Bertram,  Author 
of  "  The  Harvest  of  the  Sea." 

The  Salmon  Fisheries.  (Illustrated.)  By  C.  E.  Fryer,  Assistant 
Inspector  of  Salmon  Fisheries,  Home  Office. 

Sea  Monsters  Unmasked.     (Illustrated.)     By  Henry  Lee,  F.L.S. 

The  Angling  Clubs  and  Preservation  Societies  of  London  and  the 
Provinces.  By  J.  P.  Wheeldon,  late  Angling  Editor  of 
"  Bell's  Life." 

Indian  Fish  and  Fishing.  (Illustrated.)  By  Francis  Day,  F.L.S., 
Commissioner  for  India  to  International  Fisheries  Exhi- 
bition. 

A  Popular  History  of  Fisheries  and  Fishermen  of  all  Countries, 
from  the  Earliest  Times.  By  W.  M.  Adams,  B.A.,  formerly 
Fellow  of  New  College,  Oxford. 

Fish  Culture.  (Illustrated.)  By  Francis  Day,  F.L.S.,  Commis- 
sioner for  India  to  International  Fisheries  Exhibition. 

Fish  as  Diet.     By  W.  Stephen  Mitchell,  M.A.  (Cantab.) 

Angling  in  Great  Britain.     By  William  Senior  (*'  Red  Spinner  "). 

Edible  Crustacea.  By  W.  Saville  Kent,  F.L.S.,  F.Z.S.,  Author  of 
Official  Guide-books  to  the  Brighton,  Manchester,  and  West- 
minster Aquaria. 

The  Literature  of  Sea  and  River  Fishing.  By  J  ohn  J.  Manley,  M.A. 
(Oxon.),  Author  of  "  Notes  on  Fish  and  Fishing,"  &c.,  &c. 

Sea  Fables  Disclosed.     By  Henry  Lee,  F.L.S. 

Fishes  of  Fancy :  their  place  in  Fable,  Fairy  Tale,  Myth,  and 
Poetry.  By  Phil  Robinson. 


688       LITERATURE  OF  SEA  AND  RIVER  FISHING. 
Practical  Lessons  in  the  Gentle  Craft.     By  J.  P.  Wheeldon. 

The  series  of  PAPERS  read  at  the  CONFERENCES  are  as 
follows : — 

Inaugural  Meeting:    Address.      By    Professor    Huxley,   P.R.S. 

H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales  (President  of  the  Commission) 

in  the  Chair. 
Notes  on  the  Sea  Fisheries  and  Fishing  Population  of  the   United 

Kingdom.     By  H.R.H.  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  K.G. 
The  Fishery  Industries  of  the  United  States.     By  Professor  Brown 

Goode,  M.A. 

Oyster  Culture  and  Oyster  Fisheries  in  the  Netherlands.     By  Pro- 
fessor Hubrecht 
Principles  of  Fishery  Legislation.      By   Right   Hon.    G.    Shaw- 

Lefevre,  M.P. 
On   the  Culture  of  Salmonida  and  the  Acclimatisation  of  Fish. 

By  Sir  James  Ramsay  Gibson  Maitland,  Bart. 
Fish  Diseases.     By  Professor  Huxley,  P.R.S. 
The  Economic  Condition  of  Fishermen.     By  Professor  Leone  Levi. 
The  Fisheries  of  Canada.     By  L.  Z.  Joncas. 
Preservation  of  Fish  Life  in  Rivers  by  the  Exclusion  of  Town 

Sewage.     By  the  Hon.  W.  F.  B.  Massey-Mainwaring. 
Molluscs •,  Mussels,    Whelks ',   &£.,   used  for  Food  or  Bait.      By 

Charles  Harding. 

Coarse  Fish  Culture.     By  R.  B.  Marston. 
On  the  Food  of  Fishes.     By  Dr.  F.  Day. 
The  Herring  Fisheries  of  Scotland.     By  R.  W.  Duff,  M.P. 
Line  Fishing.     By  C.  M.  Mundahl. 
Fish  Transport  and  Fish  Markets.     By  His  Excellency  Spencer 

Walpole. 
Forest  Protection  and  Tree  Culture  on   Water  Frontages.     By  D. 

Howitz,  Esq. 

Seal  Fisheries.     By  Captain  Temple. 
Fish  as  Food.     By  Sir  Henry  Thompson. 
Storm  Warnings.     By  R.  H.  Scott 


CONFERENCE  PAPERS.  689 

On  the  Destruction  of  Fish  and  other  Aquatic  Animals  by  Internal 

Parasites.     By  Professor  Cobbold,  F.R.S.,  F.L.S. 
Scientific  Results  of  the  Exhibition.     By  Professor  E.  Ray  Lap 

kester. 

A  National  Fishery  Society  for  Great  Britain.     By  C.  E.  Fryer. 
Crustaceans.     By  T.  Cornish. 

Salmon  and  Salmon  Fisheries.     By  David  Milne  Home,  F.R.S.E. 
Pilchard  and  Mackerel  Fisheries.     By  T.  Cornish. 
Artificial  Culture  of  Lobsters.     By  W.  Saville  Kent. 
The  Basis  for  Legislation  on  Fishery  Questions.     By  Lieut-Col. 

F.  G.  Soil 

Trawling.     By  Alfred  Ansell. 
On  Facilities  for  the  Improved  Capture  and  Economic  Transmission 

of  Sea  Fisheries •,  and  how  these  Matters  affect  Irish  Fisheries. 

By  R.  F.  Walsh,  of  Kinsale. 
The  Fisheries  of  Ireland.     By  J.  C.  Bloomfield. 
The  Fisheries  of  Other  Countries.     By  Commissioners  for  Sweden, 

Norway,  Spain,  &c.,  who  took  part  in  the  Conference. 
The  Pollution  of  Rivers.     By  Mr.  V.  B.  Barrington  Kennett,  M.A. 
The  Fisheries  of  Japan.     By  Narinori  Okoshi. 
The  West  African  Fisheries,  with  particular  reference  to  the  Gold 

Coast  Colony.     By  Captain  Moloney,  C.M.G. 
Fish  Preservation  and  Refrigeration.     By  Mr.  J.  K.  Kilbourn. 
Practical  Fishermen's  Congress    (presided   over  by  Mr.    Edward 

Birkbeck,  M.P.),  containing:  (a)  Destruction  of  Immature 

Fish.      (b)  Harbour  Accommodation,     (c)  Better  Means  for 

Prevention  of  Loss  of  Life  at  Sea.     (d)  Railway  Rates. 
The  Fisheries  of  Newfoundland.     By  Sir  Ambrose  Shea,  K. C.M.G. 

The  above  Handbooks  and  Papers  treat  of  almost  every 
subject  which  can  be  included  under  the  title  of  "Fish  and 
Fishing "  ;  and  cover  much  of  the  ground  occupied  in 
many  of  the  books  passed  in  review  in  the  foregoing  pages. 
In  addition  to  them  there  will  be  published  the  Reports 
of  the  Jurors ;  and  a  selection  of  the  Prize  Essays  and 
others,  on  a  variety  of  piscatory  subjects. 

VOL.   III. — H.  2  Y 


690    LITERATURE  OF  SEA   AND  RIVER  FISHING. 

The  Catalogue,  the  fourth  edition  of  which  occupies  close 
on  five  hundred  closely-printed  pages,  and  produced  under 
the  editorship  of  Mr.  A.  J.  R.  Trendell,  the  Literary 
Superintendent  and  Commissioner  for  Conferences,  may 
in  a  certain  sense  be  considered  as  a  valuable  contribution 
to  the  literature  of  Sea  and  River  Fishing,  and  almost  a 
"  Bibliotheca  Piscatoria  "  in  itself. 

The  "  Handbooks  "  and  "  Papers  "  will  be  sent  to  every 
library  in  the  world  ;  and,  owing  to  their  large  general 
circulation,  they  are  likely  to  stimulate  still  further  interest 
in  both  sea  and  river  fishing  and  their  surroundings.  If 
only  for  this  literary  "  outcome,"  the  great  International 
Fisheries  Exhibition  will  not  have  been  held  in  vain. 


INDEX. 


ABERGAVENNY  Fishing  Association,  143 

Acorn  barnacles,  308 

Acton  Piscatorial  Society,  176 

Adonis-fish,  13 

African  fish  folk-lore,  36,  62,  80 

Agassiz,  Professor,  on  the  Enaliosaurian  hypothesis,  436 

,,  ,,  ,,       manatidae,  229 

Aire  Fishing  Club,  143 

"  Alecton,"  ship,  gigantic  calamary  caught  by  crew  of,  364 
Alliance  Angling  Society,  177 
Amboyna,  fabled  monsters  at  island  of,  203-205 
Amiability  of  fabulous  fishes,  23,  55,  64 
Ammonites,  283 
Angel-fish,  29 
Anglers'  Benevolent  Association,  the,  167 

„        royal,  7 
Angling  clubs,  objects  of,  165 

,,       societies,  list  of,  126 
Antiquity  of  fish  myths,  49,  58 
Apah,  sacred,  34 
Arabian  Nights,  fish  in,  60,  64 

Arabic  Legends,  8,  10,  35,  58,  62.     Legends  of  Koran,  33,  40,  41,  52 
Arctic  folk-lore,  &c.,  32 
Argonauta  argo.     See  Paper  Nautilus. 
Ark.     See  Flood. 
Art,  fish  in,  47 

Artificial  mermaids,  Japanese,  215-217 
Aryan  folk-lore,  &c.,  49,  55,  58,  60 
Ashtoreth,  195 

Asterites,  adularia,  astrobolos,  and  other  fish-gems,  52 
Astrology,  fish  in,  51 
Astronomy,  22,  42,  48,  51 
Atergatis,  194,  195 
Australian  folk-lore,  &c.,  36,  80 

2    Y   2 


69Z 

AUTHORS  ON  FISH  AND  FISHING  : 

JElian  quoted,  199-202,  232,  244,  247,  249 

^sop,  557 

Agassiz,  Prof.  229,  436 

Albertus  Magnus,  297 

Albrecht  Herport,  202 

Aldrovandus,  239,  300,  573 

Alfred  (Captain),  631 

Ambrose,  St.,  559 

Andrews,  Lawrens,  29 

Anthony,  St.  (of  Padua),  559-5°2 

Apollodorus,  237 

Aristotle,  244,  255,  265,  270 

Arrian,  555 

Athenaeus,  543 

Bacon,  Roger,  297 

Badham,  Dr.,  542,  628 

Bainbridge,  618 

Barker,  Thomas,  588  , 

Barlow,  607 

Bartholinus,  326 

Bellovacensis,  Vincentius,  290 

Beloe,  578 

Belon,  297 

Berners,  Dame  Juliana,  539,  565-567,  57O,  57* 

Berosus  of  Babylon,  187 

Beserius,  209 

Best,  615 

Biblical  notices  of  fishing,  544 

Blacker,  624 

Blakey,  627,  673 

Blind  Harry,  564 

Blome,  6 10 

Boaz,  H.,  532,  669 

Boethius,  Hector,  289 

Bowlker,  R.  and  €.,614 

Brooks,  Richard,  M.D.,  614 

Brown,  Dr.  R.,  260 

Burmeister,  257 

Burton,  569 

Bussseus,  209,  212 

Byron  (quoted),  266,  600 

Caius,  Joannes,  315 

Carroll,  619 

Cassianus  Bassus,  558 

Cats  (of  Amsterdam),  573 

Charleton,  T.  W.,  666 

Chatto,  W.  A.,  670 

Chetham,  608,  621,  622 


INDEX.  693 


AUTHORS — continued. 
Chitty,  Edward,  624 
Clarke,  W.  G.,  553 
Clifford,  666 
Ccecius  (of  Argos),  558 
Colquhoun,  J.,  623 
Columella,  558 
Cotton,  606 
Cox,  Nicholas,  607 
Crawhall,  Joseph,  669,  671 
Cutliffe,  H.  C.,  632 
Damianus,  Petrus,  287 
Daniels,  618 
Davies,  G.  C.,  632 
Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  619 
De  Blainville,  270 
De  Fournival,  Richard,  563 
Deinbolt,  P.  W.,  399 
Delille,  565 

De  Montfort  Denys,  355 
Demostratus,  201 
Dennys,  John,  577 
Dibden,  Dr.,  537 
Diodorus  Siculus,  196 
Doubleday,  Thomas,  569 
Du  Bartas,  573 

Dubravius,  Bishop  of  Olmutz,  572 
Du  Carge,  573 
Dumeril,  270 
Duvernoy,  271 
Egede,  Hans,  390 
Ellacombe  (Rev.),  H.  N.,  654 
Fennell,  Greville,  632 
Fitzgibbon,  Edward,  627 
Fletcher,  Phineas,  646 
Ford  (Dr.  Simon)  quoted,  662 
Foster,  David,  634 
Francis,  Francis,  631 
Francis,  H.  R.,  641 
Franck,  Richard,  599,  610 
Frus,  Rev.  — ,  329 
Gardiner,  S.,  D.D.,  537,  574 
Gerarde,  John,  298-302 
Gervasius  of  Tilbury,  289 
Gesner,  572 
Gilbert,  W.,  608 
Gilpen  (Rev.),  William,  665 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,  286 


694  INDEX. 

AUTHORS— continued. 
Gosse,  P.  W.,  224 
Gray,  Dr.  J.  E.,  229,  348,  436 
Gryndall,  William,  574 
Gualtieri,  267 
Hall,  Captain,  261 
Hamilton,  Dr.  R.,  217,  219 
Hawker,  Rev.  R.  S.,  222 
Henderson,  William,  624,  634 
Heresbach,  572,  611 
Herodotus,  196 
Hill,  Dr.  J.,  315 
Hofland,  I.  C.,  623 
Holmes,  Dr.  O.  W.,  284 
Homer,  quoted,  247,  544 
Hone,  575 
Hood,  Tom,  221 
Huckell  (Rev.),  J.,  665 
Hudson,  Henry,  212 
Hunt,  Robert,  F.R.S.,  222 
Irving,  Washington,  619 
Isidore  of  Seville,  559 
Jacob,  613 
Jesse,  620 
Jonas  Ramus,  208 
Keene,  J.  H.,  634 
Kingsley  (Canon),  Charles,  650 
Knox,  Robert,  M.D.,  628 
Lambert,  Osmund,  541,  556,  557 
Lathy,  T.  P.,  666 
Leonidas  of  Tarentum,  558 
Leyden,  John,  215 
Liddell  (Hon.  and  Rev.),  R.,  574 
Linnaeus,  267,  327 
Little,  G.,  635 
Livy,  378 
Lucian,  195 
Lncretius,  197 
Mackintosh,  618 
Maier,  Count,  306 
Markham,  Gervase,  538,  585 
Martial  quoted,  547 
Martin,  J.  W.,  535 
Medwin,  Captain,  621 
Megasthenes,  199,  201 
Midaros,  Bishop  of,  316 
Montgomery,  266 
Moray,  Sir  R.,    304,  308,  314 


INDEX.  695 


AUTHORS — contimted. 

M tiller,  Professor  Max,  314,  315 

Munster  Sebastian,  291 

Murie,  Dr.,  229 

Mutianus,  270 

Newland  (Rev.),  Henry,  627 

Newman,  E.,  434 

Nobbes,  R.,  609 

Numeneus  of  Heraclea,  558 

Odoard  Dapper,  210 

Olafsen,  210 

Olaus  Magnus,  251,  572 

Olaus  Wormius,  297 

Ongaro,  572 

Oppian  quoted,  243,  246,  265,  267,  S49~555 

Ovid  quoted,  546 

Owen,  Professor,  229,  279,  280,  408 

Palladius,  558 

Pancrates  the  Arcadian,  558 

Paullinus,  325 

Penn,  Richard,  620 

Pennell,  H.  Cholmondeley,  631 

Pepys,  613 

Phillips  (Rev.),  Jerome,  576 

Piers  of  Fulham,  563 

Pliny,  200,  244,^270,  355,  378,  546 

Plutarch,  547 

Pollux,  Julius,  555 

Pontoppidan,  210,  325 

Poseidonius  of  Corinth,  558 

Pulman,  669 

Ramus,  Jonas,  291,  306 

Rawlinson,  Dr.,  575  • 

Ronalds,  Alfred,  622 

Rondeletius,  573 

Rooper,  G.,  532 

Roxby,  Robert,  669 

Ruiz,  Juan,  562 

Rumphius,  280 

Salter,  Robert,  618 

Salter,  Thomas  J.,  618 

Salviani,  572 

Sannazarius,  572 

Sars,  257 

Saunders,  613 

Scaliger,  Julius  Csesar,  293 

Schott,  Caspar,  302 

Scoresby,  Captain,  227,  260 


696  INDEX. 

AUTHORS— continued. 

Scott  (Dr.  Thomas),  664 

Scrope,  627 

Senior,  W.,  632 

Shirley,  T.,  560,  615 

Sibbald,  Sir  R.,  289 

Smith,  John,  610 

Stewart,  W.  C.,  628 

Stoddart,  Thomas  T.,  622,  657 

Taverner,  574 

Taylor,  618 

Tennent,  Sir  J.  Emerson,  202 

Theakston,  M.,  635 

Theocritus  quoted,  545 

Thormodus  Torfceus,  208 

Upsala,  Archbishop  of.     See  Olaus  Magnus. 

Valentyn,  204-206 

Varro,  558 

Velain,  Charles,  373 

Venables,  Col.  R.,  605 

Villifranci,  572 

Virgil  quoted,  646 

Walton  (Izaak),  592,  636,  640 

Waring,  Carl,  674 

Watt,  W.,  668 

Webster,  284 

West  wood,  602 

Wheeldon,  J.  P.,  633 

Whitbourne,  206 

Whitney,  66 1 

Williamson,  614 

Wilson,  Dr.  Andrew,  433 

Wilson,  James,  623 

Wilson  (Professor)  John,  624,  666 

Woodward,  Dr.  H.,  289 

Worship,  Dr.  W.,  676 

Wright,  W.,  631 

Younger,  John,  624 
Avon,  River,  145 

BADGES  (fish),  in  heraldry,  chap,  vi.,  Fishes  of  Fancy  ;  of  fishing  franchise,  33, 

46,  47,  67-70 

Balani.     See  Acorn  barnacles. 
Baloena  mysticetus  (Greenland  whale),  260 
Banks's,  Mr.,  specimens  in  the  Hunterian  Museum,  362 
Barbel,  66,  67,  69,  74 
BARBEL  FISHING  : 

Difference  between  Thames  and  Trent  fishing,  454 


INDEX.  697 

BARBEL  FISHING — continued. 

Selection  of  swims,  456 

Biting  and  baiting,  457 

Dodges  in  barbelling,  458 

Baiting  the  swim,  459 

Various  methods  of  fishing,  460 

Rods,  461 

Winches,  462 

Lines  and  casting,  463 

Dressing,  464,  465 

Colour  of  gut  bottoms,  465 

Fitting  up  leger  tackle,  465 

Hooks,  466 

Barnacle  geese,  286-311 
Barneta  (barnacle  goose),  289 
Bartlett,  Mr.,  on  whales  spouting,  261,  262 
Beale,  Mr.,  „  „         254 

Bell,  Mr.  „  „         256,  259 

Beluga,  254,  258 
Bennett,  on  whales  spouting,  257 

,,         obtains  a  pearly  nautilus,  280 
Bible,  fishes  of  the,  5,  6,  32  (note). 
Bing,  Mr.,  sketch  of  sea  monster  seen  by  Egede,  392 
Birds,  once  fish,  12,  91  ;  the  great  bird  kruth,  54 ;  and  garucla,  24 
Birdsgrove  Fly-fishing  Club,  Mayfield,  Ashbourne,  144 
Bonito,  47 

Boston  Angling  Association,  145 
Bradford -on- Avon  Fishing  Association,  145 
Bran,  brant,  or  brent  goose,  315 
"  Brazilian,"  ship,  sea  serpent  seen  from,  418 

,,  ,,      ,,         ,,      found  to  be  seaweed,  418 

Bream,  20,  66 
BREAM  FISHING  : 

Description,  512 

Localities  where  found,  513 

Thames  fishing,  513 

Tight  corking  and  hooks,  515 

Ground  baiting,  516 

Legering  and  baits,  517 

Cooking  bream,  518 

Bristol  Golden  Carp  Angling  Association,  146 
British  folk-lore  (modern),  83-92 
Buckland  Angling  Society,  177 

,,         Frank,  explanation  of  sea  serpent  seen  in  Loch  Houn,  419 

„  ,,  ,,  ,,         ,,         „     from  the  "  Osborne,"  426 

,,  ,,        his  Japanese  mermaid,  216 

Buddhist  legends,  7,  8,  39 
Burbot,  145 


698  INDEX. 

Byelaws  as  to  snatching  and  night -lining,  115,  119 

CALAMARY,  good  for  food,  323,  332,  362 
,,          hooked  tentacles  of,  344 
,,          mode  of  construction,  336,  338,  339 
,,          source  of  locomotion,  336 

spawn,  347 

„          stranded  in  Zeeland,  Jutland,  and  Shetland,  364 
Carlisle  Angling  Association,  147 
Carnaim,  195 

Carp,  9,  13,  15,  20,  57,  67,  122 
CARP  FISHING  : 

Description,  496 

Localities  where  fish  are  found,  497 

Baits,  498 

Potatoe  fishing,  499 

Methods  of  fishing,  500 

"Castilian,"  ship,  sea  monster  seen  from,  419 
Catalina,  gigantic  cuttle  found  at,  372 
CATALOGUES  OF  WORKS  ON  FISHING  : 

Bartlett's  (of  Boston,  U.S.),  534 

Bethune's,  533 

Bosgoed's,  532 

Ellis's  (Sir  Henry),  532 

Engelmann's,  532 

Enslin's,  532 

Goode,  Professor  Brown  (in  preparation),  536 

Kreysig's,  532 

Pickering's,  533 

Rittershusius',  532 

Sale  Catalogues  of  Works  on  Angling,  536 

Schneider's,  532 

Smith's  (J.  Russell),  533 

White's  (of  Crickhowell),  532 

Wilson's,  (J.),  533 
Cephalopoda,  manner  of  feeding,  346 

,,  subdivision  of,  334 

"  Challenger,"  H.M.S.,  dredging  by,  438 
Characters  offish,  9-13  ;  amiable,  22,  23  ;  and  grateful,  53-64 
Charybdis,  247-249 
Chichester  Angling  Society,  147 
Chinese  folk-lore,  &c.,  7,  14 
Christian  emblems,  42 

„      legends.     See  Saints,  Churches. 
Chub,  66 
CHUB  FISHING  : 

Description  and  localities  where  found,  501 

Likely  places,  502 


INDEX.  699 


CHUB  FISHING — continued. 
Rods  and  reels,  503 
Gut  bottoms  and  legering,  504 
Baiting,  505 

Cheese,  paste,  greaves  and  shrimps,  506 
Churches,  privileges  of,  33  ;  badges  of,  73 
Cimedia  chelonia,  £c.,  51 

Cities  of  the  plain  now  lakes,  their  citizens  fishes,  41,  42 
"  City  of  Baltimore,"  ship,  sea  serpent  seen  from,  423 
Clan-animals,  fish  as,  36,  64,  86 
Clergymen,  their  presence  sinister,  87 
Clerkenwell  Piscatorial  Society,  177 
Coats-of-arms  and  crests,  65-79 
Cockle,  75,  89 
Cod,  57,  66,  74 

Colnett,  Captain,  mermaid  incident,  314 
Conchoderma  aurita,  eared  barnacles,  310 
Coney-fish,  67 
Conger,  14,  67,  69 

Cook,  Captain,  large  calamary  found  by,  361 
Coomb's  Cove,  gigantic  cuttle  found  at,  370 
Conula  diadema.     See  Whale  barnacle. 
Costa  Anglers'  Club,  148 

Cowan,  Sir  John,  preservation  of  fish  in  the  Thames  by.  107 
Crab  and  cancer,  10,  36,  50,  53,  66,  71,  74,  75,  90 
Cray-fish,  n,  20,  74,  75,  124 
Cuttle  bone,  335,  354 

,,     use  of  ink-bag  of,  333,  336 
Cuttles,  47,  71,  89 

,,       gigantic,  belief  in,  very  ancient,  355 

,,  ,,        portions  in  European  museums,  367,  374 

,,  ,,        where  found,  361 

DACE,  67 
DACE  FISHING  : 

Description,  and  localities  where  found,  518 

Bottom  fishing  and  baits,  519 

Likely  places,  520 

Fly-fishing  for  dace,  521 

Blow-line  fishing,  522 

Ant  flies,  523 
Dagon,  etymology  of,  191 
"  Daedalus,"  ship,  sea  monster  met  by,  404 
Dart  District  Fishery  Board,  the,  151 
Davidson,  R.,  sea  monster  seen  by,  417 
Decapoda,  334 

Deluge,  legends  concerning  the,  189 
Deluge,  the,  distorted  accounts,  188 


700  INDEX. 

Denison  collection  of  works  on  fishing,  537 

Dens,  Captain  Magnus,  359 

Derwent  Angling  Club,  149 

Derwent  Valley  Angling  Association,  151 

Dignities  of  fishermen,  10,  57  ;  of  fish,  6,  18.     See  Royal. 

Dinotherium,  229 

Divinities,  as  fish  and  fishermen,  6,  15?  19,  22,  31,  44,  50  ;  Vishnu's  avatar,  19, 

21,  38 ;  marine  deities,  19,  32,  62,  84 
Dogfish,  13,  28,  90 

Dolphin,  10,  19,  20,  22,  49,  66,  69,  71,  74,  89 
Dove,  river,  144 

Drowning,  caused  by  octopus,  3  49 
Drum-head  fish,  36 

Drummond,  Lieut.,  memorandum  as  to  sea  monster  seen  from  "  Dsedalus,"  407 
Dugong,  the,  228-234 

EALING  Dean  Convivial  Angling  Society,  174 
East  Anglian  Piscatorial  Society,  153 
Eaton  Fishing  Club,  153 
Ecclesiastical,  fish-badges  of  abbeys,  &c.,  73 
,,  bishop's  fish-crests,  74 

,,  privileges  of  fisheries,  33 

Echineis,  25 
Eden,  river,  147 
Edible  fish  seldom  sacred,  37 ; 
Eels,  15,  20,  36,  37,  45,  56,  57,  67,  80,  90,  91,  124 
Eel-baskets,  68,  74 

Egyptian  fish  legends,  £c.,  12,  14,  22,  36,  37,  44 
Eledone  Moschatus,  332 
"  Epic  Exploit  "  of  fishes,  20 
Esk  Fishing  Association,  154 
European  folk-lore  (British),  59,  83,  92 

»  »      (Continental),  56,  57,  83,  92 

FABLES,  fish  in,  53-55 

,,        generally  foolish,  54 
Fairy-tales,  fishes  of,  20 

„  their  benign  character  in,  55,  57,  60-61 

Fast-days  and  fish  eating,  41,  44 
Favourite  fishes  of  Egypt,  44 

»  »        Syria,  45 

»  »        Greece  and  Rome,  45 

»  »        Britain,  46 

Royalty,  45-47 

Ferry,  Captain  De,  description  of  sea  serpent,  387 
Fetich-fish.     See  Totemism. 
Feudal  rights  in  fish,  33,  46,  67,  66-71 
Finmark,  imaginary  monster  on  coast  of,  326 


INDEX.  701 

Fish,  an  emblem  of  Christianity,  198 
,,      names  of,  suggesting  crests,  66,  67 
,,      days  in  England,  41  ;  Friday  (Venus'  day),  42 
,,      &c.,  of  fancy  (individual).     See  Sea  animals,  Sea  monsters,  &c. 
Fishmongers'  Company,  33 
Fishermen,  their  patron  saints,  &c.,  32,  47,  48 
,,  dignities  of,  10,  57 

,,      i     in  fairy  tale,  57 
,,  superstitions  of,  II 

„  the  earliest,  6,  7 

„  royal,  7 

,,  gods  as  fishes  and.     See  Divinities. 

Flat-fish  in  fable,  55.     See  under  various  species. 
Floating  islands,  329 
Flood,  Biblical,  15,  48,  84 

„       Vedic,  10,  21,  38,  39 
Flounder,  57-67 
Fluke,  6 1 
Flying-fish,  47,  74 
,,      squids,  347 

Folk-lore  (modern),  chap.  vii.  Fishes  of  Fancy  ;  persistence  of  superstition,  79 
,,        churches  avoided,  88 
,,        clergy  of  ill  omen,  87 
,,       feminine  influences  sinister,  87 
„        foreboding  death,  84 
,,       herring  traditions,  86-88 
.,,        medical  superstitions,  90 
,,        mermaids,  &c.,  84 
,,        of  the  origin  of  fishes,  91 

,,        their  shapes,  82,  83.     See  also  under  African,  Arctic,  Aryan,  Aus- 
tralian, British,  Chinese,  European,  Japanese,  Jewish,  Polynesian, 
Red  Indian,  Russian,  Scandinavian,  .Syrian. 
„       religious  superstitions,  87,  88  v 

,,        water-cattle,  86 
Fragrance  of  fishes,  13 
,,  cuttle,  6 1 

„  grayling,  14 

„  whale,  30 

Franchise  of  fishing.     See  Privileges. 
Furuke,  47 

GAIMARD,  Quoy  and,  great  calamary  seen  by,  363 

Garfish,  67 

Gems  obtained  from  fishes,  51 

Glover,  Surgeon  (1676),  report  of  a  mermaid,  207 

Gods  as  fishes  and  fishermen.     See  Divinities. 

Golden  Barbel  Angling  Societies,  176 

Golden  bream,  129 


yo2  INDEX. 

Goldfish,  19,  56 
Goose  barnacles,  286-310 
Gorgonocephalus,  331 
Grange  Angling  Society,  177 

Grassington,  Thresfield,  and  Linton  Angling  Clubs,  154 
Grateful  fish,  53-64 
Grayling,  14,  69-74.  H5»  J53 
Gray,  Dr.  J.  E.,  on  classification  of  manatidse,  229 
size  of  octopus,  348 
undiscovered  aquatic  reptiles,  436 

Great  Grimsby  Angling  Association,  154 

Marlow  Thames  Angling  Association,  120 

Greek  myths,  &c.,  u,  18,  19,  22-25,  27,  45,  50,  52,  70 

Greenland  whale,  259 

Grego  collection  of  works  on  fishing,  451 

"  Gross  weight  "  competitions,  167,  175 

Guardians  of  treasure,  fish  as,  58-60 

Gudgeon,  67 

Guide  books,  592 

Gurnard,  14,  67 

HADDOCK,  10,  32,  67,  83 

Hake,  67 

Halec-sauce,  45 

Halicore,  the,  228 

Halitherium,  229,  231 

Hammersmith  United  Angling  Society,  175 

Harrington,  Captain,  sea  monster  seen  by,  419 

Hatching-boxes  (Lund's),  122 

Henley  and  District  Thames  Angling  Society,  122 

Heracleoticon,  Gesner's,  326 

Heraldy  of  fish,  French  and  German,  72-76 

Herriman,  Captain,  sea  serpent  seen  by,  was  seaweed,  218 

Herring,  20,  42,  55,  67,  69,  75,  86,  87,  90 

pie,  46 

Hope,  Captain,  monster  seen  by,  438 
Houn,  Loch,  sea  serpent  seen  in,  219 
Hydra,  Lernean,  236-246 

ICHTHYOLOGY,  special  list  of  works  on,  683 

Ichthyophagy,  curious,  44-47?  83 

Immature  fish,  destruction  of,  by  steam  launches,  105,  166 

Implements  of  fishing,  their  antiquity,  18  ;  in  heraldry,  68 

India,  sacred  fish  of,  15,  38 

Indian  Ocean,  sea  serpents  abundant  in,  379 

Ink-bag  of  cuttle,  musky  smell  of,  332 

,,  „       use  of,  336 

International  Fisheries  Exhibition,  list  of  publications  in  connection  with,  686 


INDEX.  703 

Introduction  of  sea-fishing  into  Britain,  46 

,,  to  "  Practical  Lessons  in  the  Gentle  Craft,"  364-368 

Ireland,  great  cuttle  found  near  Boffin  Island,  373 
Irish  legends  of  mermaids,  221 

JAPANESE  folk-lore,  &c.,  14,  34,  47 

,,         well  acquainted  with  octopus,  351 
,,         book  on  fishing,  351,  382 
Jewish  traditions,  &c.,  35,  37,  40,  41,  49,  50  (note}. 
,,  ,,          of  leviathan,  8 

,,  ,,          of  Solomon,  5,  10,  52,  59 


KENNET,  river,  124 

Ki  kone,  Japanese  author  of  book  on  fishing,  352 

King  of  fishes,  leviathan,  8  ;  dolphin,  69  ;  herring,  q.v. 

King's  Lynn  Angling  Association,  155 

Kingston,  poaching  at,  III 

Koran.     See  Arabic. 

Kraken,  328 

,,        Pontoppidan's  description  of,  327 

,,        probable  origin  of  story  of,  377 

LAMALINE,  gigantic  cuttle  found  at,  371 

Lamprey,  9,  46,  90 

Lapland,  imaginary  monster  on  coast,  326 

Lea,  river,  102 

Legendary  art,  fish  in,  47 

Lent  and  fish  diet,  a  Pagan  survival,  42 

Lepas  anatifera.     See  Necked  barnacles,  309 

Lepas  aurita,  eared  barnacles,  310 

Lerne,  situation  of,  240 

Leviathan  of  the  Talmud,  8 

"  Lightning,"  H.M.S.,  dredging  by,  438 

Ling,  74 

Liverpool  Angling  Association,  156 

Loach,  67 

Lobster,  10,  75 

,,         and  the  Pretender,  II 

gigantic,  385 

London  angling  clubs,  362 
Love,  the  fish-gods  of,  22,  31,  32,  50  (Venus'  day),  42 

„      in  philtres,  &c.,  51,  52;  fish  friendly  to  lovers,  57,  59.     See  Phallical 
Lower  Monnow  Fishing  Club,  156 

„      Teign  Fishing  Association,  156 
Luce.     See  Pike. 
Luke  Debes  describes  a  mermaid,  211 


704  INDEX. 

MACKEREL,  10,  67 

Maclean,  Mr.,  sea  monster  seen  by,  396 

Macquhoe,  Captain  P.,  404 

Maeotis,  37 

Mahomedan  traditions,  &c.     See  Arabic. 

Maidenhead,  Cookham,  and  Bray  Angling  Society,  116 

Manatee,  the,  228,  230 

Manatidse,  229,  230 

Market  Deep  Angling  Association,  157 

Medieval  superstitions,  &c.,  28,  32 

Medicine,  fish  in,  51,  52,  90 

Medway,  no,  164 

Melville,  Mr.  H.,  on  the  spouting  of  whales,  261 

Mermaids,  185 

Tritons,  73,  93 

,,         and  their  relatives,  £c.,  29,  72,  84 

,,         black,  72 

,,         La  Mellusine,  73 
Middleham  Angling  Association,  158 
Miller's  thumb,  67 
Mollusca,  soft  bodied,  335 
Monk-fish,  28 

Monsters.     See  Sea  monsters. 
Mullet,  9,  15,  67 

Munro,  Mr.,  sees  a  mermaid,  218 
Muraena,  9 
Musculus,  27,  29 

NAUPLIUS,  the,  or  paper  nautilus,  270 
Nautilus,  76 

,,         pompilius,  or  pearly  nautilus,  267 

„         "  sailing  "  of  the,  264-285 
Necked  barnacles,  309 
Necromancy,  fish  in,  51 
Nere  Angling  Club,  158 
Netting,  no,  147,  153 

Newark  and  Muskham  Fishery  Association,  159 
Newbury  and  District  Angling  Association,  123 
Newfoundland,  gigantic  cuttle  found  at,  367 

»  >»  ,,      size,  368 

Newspapers  and  periodicals,  592 
Night-lining,  122,  125 
Nineveh  sculptures,  192 
Noah,  193 

Noah  worshipped  as  a  sea-god,  189 
Northampton,  159 
Norwich  Piscatorial  Society,  159 

OCCULT  influences  offish,  51,  52 


INDEX.  705 

Octopoda,  abundant  in  temperate  zone,  354 
,,         danger  of,  348 
„         habits  of,  339,  342 
Octopus,  the,  47,  237 
Ocythoe,  269 

Odoard  Dapper,  on  the  chimpanzee,  210 
Olafsen,  on  mermaids  in  Iceland,  208 
Olaus  Magnus,  on  the  physeter,  251 

„  ,,         tales  of, 

,,      Wormius,  on  the  goose-tree,  297 
Onychoteuthis,  hooked  tentacles  of,  3/14 
Oracles  from  fish,  32,  51.     See  under  Fairy  tales. 
Orders  of  honour,  shell-fish  in,  75 
Origin  of  sea  fables,  186 

„         world,  the  Creator  a  fish,  4,  18,  24,  81  ;  of  certain  fishes,  91 
"Osborne,"  H.M.S.,  marine  monster  seen  from,  424 
Osiris,  1 88 

Otley  Angling  Club,  160 

Ova,  destruction  of,  by  birds  and  steam  launches,  103 
Owen,  Professor,  229,  279,  280 

„  „          on  the  "  Daedalus  "  incident,  408 

Oxford  Angling  Association,  125 
Oxyrhinchus,  36 
Oyster,  29,  52,  68,  76 

PAN-FISH,  52 

Patron  gods  and  saints,  32,  47,  48 

"  Pauline,"  ship,  sea  serpent  seen  from,  420,  421 

PERCH  FISHING  : 

Derwent  perch,  490 

Description  and  handling,  491 

Localities  where  fish  are  found,  492 

Rods,  winches,  and  hooks,  493 

Baits,  494 

Worm  fishing,  495 
Phagrus,  37 

Phallical  fish,  7,  20,  42,  43 
Philanthropic  fishes,  22,  23,  55,  57,  60,  61 
Phocce,  29 

Phocidoe,  probable  origin  of  mermaid  stories,  225 
Physeter,  the,  251 
Pike,  9,  20,  29,  36,  67,  73,  90 
PIKE  FISHING  : 

Rods,  477 

Lines  and  reels,  478 

Baiting,  spinning  flight,  479 

Likely  places  for  casting,  480 

Live  baiting,  481 
VOL.    III. — H.  2    Z 


706  INDEX. 

PIKE  FISHING — continued. 

Old-fashioned  theories,  482 

General  tackle,  483 

Baiting,  484 

Floats  and  baits,  485 

Snap  tackle,  486 

Paternostering,  487 

Striking,  488,  489 
Pilot-fish,  27 
Pilchard,  69 

Pisces,  "Zodiacal,"  22,  42,  48-51  ;    "Regales,"  45-47 
Piscatorial  franchise,  rights,  &c.     See  Privileges. 

„          Society,  the,  172 
Pisciculture,  special  list  of  works  on,  685 
Plaice,  55 

Pliny's  monster  polypus,  355 
Poaching,  104,  in 
Poisonous  fish  (sacred),  36 

Polynesian  folk-lore,  legends,  &c.,  6,  15,  18,  31,  32,  39,  80,  82 
Pompilus,  27 
Pontoppidan,  Eric,  a  conscientious  investigator,  327 

,,  correctly  identifies  the  kraken  as  a  cephalopod,  332 

,,  on  mermaids,  210,  211,  213 

„  sea  serpent,  386 

Pope  Innocent  III.,  prohibits  the  eating  of  fish  in  Lent,  288 

,,     Pius  II.,  in  search  of  the  goose-tree,  291 
"  Porcupine,"  H.M.S.,  dredging  by,  438 
Porpoise,  20,  46,  89 

Porpoises  swimming  look  like  serpent,  388,  390 
Power,  Madame  J.,  experiments  on  paper  nautilus,  270 
Prawn,  92 

Precious  stones  from  fish,  51,  52 
Preserves,  108 

Primitive  fish-beliefs,  chap,  i.-iii.  Fishes  of  Fancy,  80-83 
Privileges  of  fishery,  royal,  46,  47 

„        „       „       feudal,  46,  47,  67,  70 

„        „       „       ecclesiastical,  33 

,,        ,,       ,,       municipal,  68 
Prophet's-fish,  35 
Pudding,  42 

QUOTATIONS  FROM  THE  POETS  :— 
Armstrong  (John),  663 
Browne  (Moses),  662 
Browne  (William),  645 
Bunyan,  653 
Burns,  537 
Chaucer,  650 


INDEX.  707 

QUOTATIONS  FROM  THE  POETS — continued. 

Cotton,  650 

Dennys  (John),  639 

Donne  (Dr.),  647 

Drayton  (Michael),  641 

Gray,  656 

Gower,  640 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  284 

Milton,  192,  645 

Montgomery,  266 

Pope,  124,  268,  656 

Quarles,  641 

Sabie,  641 

Shakespeare,  655 

Somerville,  666 

Spenser,  640 

Thomson,  660 

Vaughan,  H.,  647 

Waller,  652 

Wotton  (Sir  Henry),  651 
Quoy  and  Gaimard,  great  calamary  seen  by,  364 

RABBI  IZAAK,  of  Corbeil,  prohibits  barnacle-geese  as  food,  288 

Railway  companies 'and  angling  clubs,  167,  169 

Rang,  Captain  S.,  experiments  on  paper  nautilus,  271 

Ray,  55 

Reading  and  District  Angling  Society,  120 

Redditch  Piscatorials,  the,  160 

Red  Indian  folk-lore,  &c.,  18,  31,  36,  55,  72,  80 

Reineke  Fuchs,  fish  version,  21 

Religions,  fish  in,  chap.  iii.  Fishes  of  Fancy 

Remora,  25,  71,  90 

Reticence  in  Holy  Writ  as  to  fish,  5 

Ring-swallowing  myth,  58,  60 

Right  whale,  258,  259 

Roach,  67 

ROACH  FISHING  : 

Rods,  447 

Lines,  hair  v.  gut,  448 

Floats — shotting,  &c.,  449 

Bait  of  various  kinds,  449 

Ground  baiting,  450 

Various  methods  of  fishing,  450-452 

Localities  where  fish  are  found,  452 

Swims  in  summer  and  winter,  452 

Blow-line  fishing  and  daping,  453 

Roman  traditions,  &c.,  7,  9.  n,  I3>  15>  25»  34>  45>  49-51*  7° 
Rough-hound,  28 


7oS  INDEX. 

Royal  fish,  45-47 

„      crests,  71,  72,  74-76 

„      privileges,  46 
Ruffe,  67 
Ruhoo,  38 

Russian  folk-lore,  &c.,  20,  56,  57 
Ryedale  Angling  Club,  161 
Rytina,  the,  228,  230 

SABBATH-OBSERVING  fish,  35 
Sacred  fish,  21,  32,  35-43 

„         „     why  sacred,  37 
"  Sailing  "  of  the  nautilus,  264 
St.  John's  Amateur  Angling  Association,  162 
Saint  Paul,  gigantic  calamary  cast  ashore  at,  373 
SAINTS  : 

Ambrose,  14 
Andrew,  33,  34,  48 
Anthony,  33,  48 
Benedict,  35 
Benignus,  35 
Christopher,  17,  33 
Margaret,  64 
Matthias,  48 
Peter,  33,  48,  56 

Seven  Champions  of  Christendom,  34,  48 
Wilfred,  46 
Xavier,  10,  11 
Zeno,  33,  34,  48 

Sander  Rang,  Captain,  great  cuttle  seen  by,  364 
*  Saturday  Magazine,'  extract  from,  on  Japanese  mermaids,  216 
Salmon,  9,  62,  67,  68,  74,  83,  87,  154 
Scaleless  fish  unwholesome,  therefore  sacred,  37 
Scallop,  67 

Scammon,  Captain,  on  whales  spouting,  261 
Scandinavian  myth  folk-lore,  &c.,  6,  10,  20,  32,  62,  83 
Schliemann,  Dr.,  discoveries  at  Mycenae,  250 
Scylla,  247-249 
SEA-ANIMALS,  &c.  : 
Bat,  bear,  11 
Bishop,  28 
Cat,  ii 

Cattle,  84,  86,  95 
Eagle,  lion,  hedge-hog,  n,  27,  71 
Horse,  19,  72,  84 
Leopard,  n 
Lizard,  49 
Mouse,  scorpion,  snipe,  swallow,  n 


INDEX.  709 

SEA-ANIMALS,  &c.,  continued. 
Parrot,  12 
Unicorn,  griffin,  72 
Urchin,  75,  89 

Sea  bottom,  green  fields,  &c.,  12 
Sea-canaiy,  the  white  whale,  259 
Sea-cow,  or  rytina,  232 

Sea  deities,  19,  22,  31,  32,  62,  84.     See  Divinities. 
}• ,,    fauna,  duplicate  of  terrestrial,  II  ;  for  species,  see  Sea  animals. 
Sea  fishing,  special  list  of  works  on,  68 1 
Seal,  42,  45,  56,  67,  69,  70 

Sea  monsters,  &c.,  II,  12,  19,  27,  28,  30,  49,  71,  72,   75,  84,  89 
Senior,  Major  H.  W.  J.,  sea  serpent  seen  by,  423 
Sepia,  71 

,,      habits  of,  343 

„      intelligent,  337 

,,      microcosmos,  327 

„      mode  of  construction,  336,  337,  340 

„      size,  354 

,,      source  of  locomotion,  337 

„      spawn,  347 

,,      very  timid,  337 
Serpent,  sea,  abundant  in  Indian  Ocean,  379 

,,          ,,     Aristotle  mentions,  378 

,,          ,,     belief  in,  very  ancient,  378 

,,  ,,     description,  380 

;      „          „     ferocious,  379 

,,          ,,     supposed,  described  to  the  Wernerian  Society,  397 

,,          „     supposed  by  some  to  be  Plesiosaurus,  408,  435 

,,          „     seen  by  Egede  probably  a  calamary,  393 

,,          ,,       ,,     at  Gloucester  Harbour,  Massachusetts,  396 

,,          ,,     near  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  397 

,,          ,,       ,,     Christiansand,  398 

,,          ,,     in  Romsdal-fjord,  399 

,,       water,  Livy  mentions,  378 

,,  ,,      Pliny  mentions,  378 

Shakespeare,  on  mermaids,  221 
Shapes  of  fish,  how  acquired,  82,  83 
Shark,  9,  20,  26,  36,  69,  80,  82,  90 
Sheikh,  35 

Shell-fish,  75,  76.     See  under  various  species. 
Shrewsbury  and  Severn  Angling  Society,  161 
Sign-boards,  fish  devices,  &c.,  77,  79 
Silurian,  37 
Skate,  88 
Smelt,  67 

Smith,  Captain,  finds  supposed  serpent  to  be  seaweed,  419 
Snatching,  practice  of,  ill,  115 


7io  INDEX. 

Solander,  Banks  and,  meet  with  a  large  calamary,  361 

Solar  myth,  fish  in,  19 

Sole,  67,  82,  92 

Solomon  and  fish,  5,  10,  52,  59 

Sound,  fish  highly  sensitive  to,  14,  15,  88 

Spalding  Angling  Club,  161 

Sperm  whales,  258 

Spirits  of  the  sea,  32,  84 

Sportsman's  Angling  Club,  174 

"  Spouting  "  of  whales,  250-263! 

Sprat,  67,  74 

Squid,  47,  242 

Star-fish,  75 

Statutes,  curious,  regulating  sale,  &c.,  46 

Stay-ship,  25 

Steam  launches,  destruction  of  ova  by,  103 

Steller,  213,  227,  228 

Stickleback,  84 

Stock-fish,  74 

Stour  Fishing  Association,  162 

Stream  worship,  45,  46 

Sturgeon,  20,  30,  36,  46,  55,  67 

Styan,  Captain  A.,  founding  of  Maidenhead,    Cookham,   and  Bray  Angling 

Association,  117 
Submarine  vegetation,  12 
Suckers  of  octop'oda,  &c.,  339 
Sucking-fish,  25,  71,  90 
Sun-fish,  80 

Superstitions,  modern,  chap.  vii.  Fishes  of  Fancy 
Swainson,  Mr.,  224 
Swallowing  human  beings,  21 

„  jewels,  58-60 

Sword-fish,  49 
Symbolism  of  fish,  37,  42  ;  in  Heraldry,  chap.  vi.  Fishes  of  Fancy,  as  Totems, 

36,  66,  80 
Syrian  myths,  &c.,  18,  22,  44 

TABOOED  fish,  36,  37  ;  because  sacred,  21,  32,  35-43.     See  Toteniism. 

Talisman,  fish  as,  51 

Talmud,  legends  of.     See  Jewish. 

Tench,  67,  90 

TENCH  FISHING  : 

Likely  localities,  430 

Tench  tackle,  and  using  it,  431 

Bait,  432 

Tenures,  by  fish  pies,  46,  68-71.     See  Privileges. 
Thames,  river,  102 

,,         Angling  Preservation  Society,  106,  115,  131 
,,         Conservancy  Board,  no,  118 


INDEX.  7  ji 

Thames  preserves.     See  Preserves. 

Tombs,  fish  emblems  upon,  37,  42 

Totemism,  tribal  badges,  tutelary-fish,  &c.,  36,  66,  80 

Treasure-restoring  fishes,  58-60 

Trent  Fishery  Board  of  Conservators,  163 

Tritons,  &c.     See  Mermaids. 

Trout,  36,  69 

Trout,  breeding  of,  &c.,  116,  119,  121,  123,  124,  145,  150,  155 

TROUT  FISHING  : 

Localities  where  fish  are  found,  466 

Weir  fishing,  467 

Rods,  468 

Traces,  flights,  &c. — colour  of  gut,  469 

Binding  and  joining,  470 

Spinning  leads,  &c.,  471 

Flights,  and  baiting  them,  472 

Artificial  baits,  473 

Casting,  474 

Live  baiting, 475 
True  Waltonians,  the,  173 

Tunbridge  Angling  Club  and  Fish  Preservation  Society,  164 
Tunny,  12 
Turbot,  9,  55,  67 
Turtle  and  tortoise,  10,  18,  23,  24,  49,  51,  54-57 

UNITED  London  Fisheries  Association,  169 
Universal  Angling  Society,  164 
Upper  Exe  Fishing  Association,  162 

VEDIC  legends,  &c.,  6,  10,  18,  20,  21 
Venus,  196,  197 

,,      a  fish.     See  Love. 
Vesica  piscis,  43 
Vishnu,  a  fish,  19,  21,  38 

,,        (Sanskrit  equivalent  for  Noah),  9 
Voices  of  fish,  14,  1 6 
Von  Baer,  on  whales  spouting,  257 

WALKING  fish  and  climbing,  13 

Waltonian  Angling  Society,  174 

Water-horse,  &c.,  84,  86.     See  Sea  animals. 

Watford  Piscators,  164 

Weather  prognostics  from  fish,  10,  89 

Weddell,  Captain,  reports  seeing  a  mermaid,  214 

Weeds  in  river  Costa,  148 

Welland  river,  157 

Westbourne  Park  Piscatorial  Society,  155 

West  London  Angling  Club,  155 

Whale,  13,  14,  20,  27,  29,  42,  46,  56,  72,  80,  81,  89 


7i2  INDEX. 

Whale,  barnacle,  310 

Whales,  "  spouting  "  of,  250 

Wharfe,  river,  154 

Whelk,  75 

White  whale,  the,  254 

Whiting,  67 

Wilder,    H.,     founding    of    Maidenhead,    Cookham,     and    Bray    Angling 

Society,  117 

Windsor  and  Eton  Society,  115 
Witham,  river,  145 
Woman-fish,  or  manatee,  228-230 
Woolwich  Brothers  Angling  Society  and  Woolwich  Piscatorials,  176 

„  „  „  „        See  Trout. 

WORKS  ON  FISHING,  or  in  which  Fishing  is  mentioned  : 

Accomplisht  Ladies'  Delight,  607 

Amusements  of  Clergymen,  665 

An  Angler's  Strange  Experience,  635 

Ancient  and  Modern  Fish  Tattle,  542 

Anecdotes  of  Literature  and  Scarce  Books,  578,  60 1 

Angler  (Clifford's),  666 

Angler  (Lathy 's),  666 

Angler  in  Wales,  621 

Angler  Naturalist,  631 

Anglers  Companion,  622 

Angler's  Complete  Gttide  and  Companion,  635 

Angler's  Delight,  608 

Angler's  Museum,  560 

Angler's  Note  Book,  572 

Angler's  Progress  1789,  533 

Angler's  Progress  (Boaz's),  669 

Angler's  Register,  631 

Angler's  Song  Book,  673 

Angler's  Souvenir,  622 

Angler's  Tent,  667 

Angler's  Vade-mecum,  608 

Angler's  Vade-mecum  (Carroll's),  619 

Anglers,  564 

Anglers'  Evenings,  540,  541 

Anglers'  Guide,  616 

Anglers'  Museum,  615 

Anglers'  Note  Book  and  Naturalists'  Record,  634 

Anglers'  Rambles,  620 

Angling  Idylls,  622 

Angling  in  all  its  Branches,  618 

Angling  Literature  (Blakey's),  541 

Angling  Literature  in  England,  541 

Angling  Resorts  near  London,  633 

Animalia  of  Aristotle,  159 


INDEX.  713 

WORKS  ON  FISHING — continued. 
Ars  Amatoria,  546 
Art  of  Angling,  614 
Art  of  Angling,  624 
Art  of  Angling  (Barker),  588 
Art  of  Angling  Improved  in  all  its  Parts,  614 
Art  of  Angling  in  Scotland,  622 
Art  of  Fishing,  676 

Art  of  Trout  Fishing  in  Rapid  Streams,  632 
Ausonius,  556,  557 

Autobiography  of  the  late  Salmo  Salar,  Esq.,  632 
Barker's  Delights,  652 
Battle  of  Mr.  Carnal  and  Mrs.  Lent,  563 
Bibliomania,  537 

Bibliotheca  Ichthyologia  et  Piscatoria,  532 
Bibliotheca  Piscatoria,  531,  534,  540,  564 
BokeofSt.  Albans,  497,  539,  565-567,  57°,  57i 
Book  of  the  Axe,  669 
Book  of  the  Pike,  632 
Book  of  the  Roach,  632 
Book  of  the  Salmon,  627 
.Z?00£  on  Angling,  631 
Booke  of  Angling  or  Fishing,  537,  574 
.£00£i  of  Fishing  with  Hooke  and  Line,  and  all  other  Instruments  thereunto 

belonging,  573,  6ll 
Briefve  Treatis  of  Fishing,  611 
British  Angler,  614 
British  Anglers'1  Manual,  623 
British  Angling  Flies,  635 
British  Field  Sports,  634 

Certaine  Experiments  concerning  Fish  and  Fruite,  574 
£&<z&  Stream  Studies,  630 
Chapletsfrom  Croquet  Side,  671 
Collection  of  Right  Merrie  Garlands,  669 
Colloquy  of  the  Saxon  ^Elfric,  563 
Complete  Fisherman,  613 
Compleat  Angler  (The),  536,  592 
Complete  Guide  to  Spinning  and  Trolling,  631 
Concise  Treatise  on  the  Art  of  Angling,  615 
Complete  Trailer,  609 
Coquetdale  Fishing  Songs,  669 
Country  Contentments,  &>c.,  585 
Country  Gentleman's  Vade-mecum,  613 
Zteyj  ««</  yV/£A&  of  Salmon-Fishing  in  the  Tweed,  627 
ZV  Animalium  Natura,  547 
Zte  Or  dine  Creaturarum,  559 
De  Piscatione,  Compendium^,  611 

VOL.    III. — H.  3    A 


7H  INDEX. 

WORKS  ON  FISHING — continued. 
De  Re  Rustica,  558 
De  VetulA,  563,  611 
Driffield  Angler,  618 
Enemies  of  Books,  Blade's,  539 
English  Husbandman,  585 

Erne  (The) ;  its  Legends  and  its  Fly -Fishing,  627 
Experienced  Angler,  605 
Field  Sports,  666 

Fish  and  Fishing  in  the  lone  Glens  of  Scotland,  628 
Fisher  (The],  576 
Fisherman's  Magazine,  632 
Fisherman  (The),  576 
Fishermen  Fishers  of  Men,  575 
Fishes  and  Fishing,  631 
Fishing  Gossip,  631 

/7<?a/  Fishing  and  Spinning  in  the  Nottingham  Style,  635 
Flood,  Field  and  Forest,  632 

Fly-fisher  and  his  Library  (Cambridge  Essays),  541 
Fly-fishers  Entomology,  622 
Fly -fisher's  Guide,  618 
Fly-fishing  in  Northumberland,  670 
/frm/  .Stotef  j»  Norway  and  Sweden,  627 
Game  Laws  Versified,  669 
Genteel  Recreation,  66 1 
Gentleman  Angler,  613 
Gentleman's  Recreation  (Cox's),  607 
Gentleman's  Recreation  (Blome's),  610 
Geoponica,  558,  6n 
Georgics  (the),  546 
Giannettasius,  573 
Gleanings,  620 
Goodman's  Recreations,  585 
Halieuticon,  546 
Halieutics,  549-555 
Handbook  of  Angling,  627 
^*«Ki  /fc«/^,  /fo^  ^  jfr^       ^  ^   ^ 

Faulkener,  574 
Hexameron,  559 

Year  Book,  575 
^/"  Theocritus,  545 
Illustrated  Fly-fisher's  Text-book,  624 
Innocent  Epicure,  607 
Jewel  for  Gentrie,  588 
Kentish  Angler,  618 
Kingsley's  Life  and  Letters,  630 
/.ay  of  the  Last  Angler,  674 


INDEX.  715 

WORKS  ON  FISHING— continued. 

Lay  of  the  Lea,  602 

Maxims  and  flints  for  an  Angler,  &*c.,  620 

Modern  Angler  (Alfred's),  631 

Modern  Angler  (Sailer's),  618 

Moor  and  the  Loch,  623 

Mosella,  556,  557 

My  Life  as  an  Angler,  624 

Newcastle  Fishers'1  Garlands,  669 

North  Country  Angler,  615 

Northern  Memoirs,  599,  610 

Onomasticon,  555 

Pefys*  Diary,  613  , 

Pleasures  of  Princes,  585,  611 

Poetic ce,  564 

Practical  Angler,  628 

Practical  Fisherman,  634 

Prose  Halieutics,  624 

Quaint  Treatise  on  Flees  and  the  Art  a'  Artyfichall  Flee  Making,  633 

Rail  and  the  Rod,  632,  679 

Recreations  of  Christopher  North,  624 

Remarks  on  Shooting,  in  Verse,  668 

River  Angling  for  Salmon  and  Trout,  624 

Rod  and  Gun,  623 

Rural  Sports,  618 

Rustic  Occupations,  572 

Salmonia,  619 

Scientific  Angler,  634 

•Saw*/*  of  Angling  (the),  536,  538,  576 

Secrets  of  Angling  (by  C.  B.),  613 

Several  Ways  of  Hunting,  Hawking,  and  Fishing,  &*c.,  607 

Shakespeare  as  an  Angler,  654 

Sketch  Book  of  Geoffrey  Crayon,  Gent.,  619 

Songs  and  Poems  (Stoddart's),  667 

Songs  of  the  Edinburgh  Club,  673 

Spinning  Tackle,  631 

Thames  and  Tweed,  632 

Treaty se  of ' Fysshynge  with  an  Angle,  566,  6ll 

True  Art  of  Angling,  610 

Universal  Angler,  594 

Vayne  conseytes  offolysche  love  undyr  colour  offysching  and  fowlyng,  563 

Waterside  Sketches,  632 

Young  Man's  Companion,  612 

Young  Sportsman's  Delight,  1712,  538,  561 
Wycombe  Trout  and  Preservation  Society,  123 

YEDO,  gigantic  cuttle  exhibited  at,  373 


716  INDEX. 

ZODIACAL  fishes,  48-51 

„  pisces,  22,  42 
Zoolatry,  chaps,  i.  ii.  iii.  Fishes  of  Fancy. 

,,  its  survival,  79 
Zoological  mythology,  antiquity,  of,  chap.  ii.  Fishes  of  Fancy. 


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