Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

4 INTRODUCTIONit is but seemly, it is certainly of interest, to essay the tracingof its pedigree, and the Unking of the generations of its far-flunglineage.What were, and whence came its first forbears, and of whatmanner and of what matter were the original parents of itsdevices are questions which should appeal to the large majorityof its followers. The sansculottes, however stalwart, who doesnot in his heart of hearts rejoice in owning, or claiming, somegenealogical garments, wherein to hide his nakedness, is rareand abnormal.The pedigree is like and unlike its celebrated Urquhartbrother. Like in the gaps in generations, which in his endeavourdirectly to deduce his family from Adam even SirThomas's ingenuity failed to bridge, despite the prolongationwhen necessary of the hves of his ancestors to ten timesthe allotted span. UnHke in antiquity, since it stretchesfar,very far beyond " Deucahon's Floud " and Adam's Paradise.AngUng, despite wide ramifications, has perhaps stampedits stock more vividly and has bred truer to original type thanits elder brother Hunting. The variance of a repeating riflefrom what some hold to be their common first sire, a sharpenedpole, is larger and more marked than that of our most up-todateRod.The riddle, as in other cases of disputed succession, ofidentifying the first real head of the family or the earUestbegetter of the race is rendered more complex by wide geographicaldispersion.It is possibly insoluble.Nevertheless to this labour of love I now address myself.The question of priority of the implement used for catchingfish has been often moot, sometimes acute, for, in Walton'swords, " former times have had their Disquisitions aboutit."How did the earhest fisherman secure his prey ? Was itby means of the Spear, under which term I include harpoonsand barbed fishing spears of any kind, the Net, or the Line ?None of these has lacked its champions, of whom the Linehas attracted the fewest, the Spear the most.