Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—PLATO—BYRON—ARISTOTLE 107When expressing astonishment at the variety and extent ofwrites about fishes and other animals. The 1 curiosity of thequestioner was natural. It is, however, probable that Aristotle,from living for several years close to the sea and from hisintercourse with fishermen, had amassed a big fund of informationabout fishes and other aquatic animals.Salviani be excepted, that of any writer before Risso and Cuvier.However true may be the criticism of Dr. Giinther thatAristotle's " ideas of specific distinction were as vague as thoseof the fishermen whose nomenclature he adopted," the factcannot be gainsaid that Aristotle was; and remains, a verygreat Naturalist as well as a very great Biologist.To him 2 by right belongs the distinction, which (exceptincidentally in Mr. Lones' work 3) I have so far failed to findByron closes his note with " But Anglers ! No Angler can be a good man."Walton received many a shrewd blow, especially from his contemporaryRichard Franck, whose Northern Memories, with its appreciation of the Fly andits depreciation of Izaak's ground-bait, found less favour than the CompleatAngler. His worsting of Walton at Stafford runs, " he stop'd his argumentand leaves Gesner to defend it : so huff'd a way." Again, " he stuffs hisbook with morals from Dubravius—not giving us one precedent of his ownexperiments, except otherwise when he prefers the trencher to the trolingrod! There are drones that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees that bring themhoney."^ Deipn., VIII. 47. Rabelais would seemingly make Aristotle his ownProteus, for Pantagruel (IV. 31) discovers him with his lantern at the bottomof the sea spying about, examining, and writing. This lantern has long beencoupled with that of the Sea-urchin, but as a few pages later on we find ourselvesin the Pays des Lanternois, it is probably a reference to a philosopher'slamp, like that of Diogenes.* The Natural History (of which the text I use is Bekker's) is practicallythe only work by Aristotle discussed here. For me, being no " Clerk "although " of Oxenford," it is not, asAristotle's knowledge, one of the characters of Athenaeus asksfrom what Proteus or Nereus he could have found out all heHis knowledge of the Mediterranean fishes not only exceededthat of any ancient writer, but also, if Belon, Rondolet, and" For him was lever have, at his beddes heed.Twenty bokes, clad in black or reed.Of Aristotle and his philosophye.Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye."' Aristotle's Researches in Natural Science, by Thomas E. Lones (1912),from whose book I borrow and to whose kind advice I owe much. At lastwe have a really admirable translation of Hist. Anim., which is by Prof. D'ArcyThompson, Oxford, 1910. The notes are those of an expert zoologist, thoroughlyfamiliar with classical hterature.