Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

CHINA, CRETE, GREECE—HORSE-HAIR LINE 7with the years—not less than two million according to somegeologists ^—which have elapsed since Man first came on thescene ?Second, all the above nations possessed an advancedcivihsation. Neither civiUsation nor fishing is a JoveUkecreation, springing into existence armed cap-d-pie. Both, likeour friend Topsy, "growed," and both demanded long periodsfor growth and development from their primitive origin.In fishing these were retarded by the innate conservatismof the followers of the cult. The psychology of the faithful isan odd blend of dogged, perhaps unconscious, adherence tothe olden ways and of an almost Athenian curiosity about" any new thing," which as often as not sees itself discardedin favour of the ancient devices.Even in this year of our Lord a cousin of mine, who Ulysseshkemany rivers has known, much tackle tested, habitually(influenced no doubt by the recipe for the line given by Plutarchand passed on by Dame Juliana Berners) inserts between hisline and his gut some eighteen inches of horse hair ! Buteven in him the law of development works, for he does notPharisaically adhere to the strict letter of the text, andinsist that the hair comes only from the tail of a stalHon orgelding !2Then, again, not less than two thousand odd years wereneeded for the Rod and the Line of iEHan's Macedonian anglerto take unto themselves a cubit or so more of length than theirEgyptian predecessors. ^ The latter may, however, have beenrendered shorter than actually used from the regard paid toartistic convention by the craftsman of Beni-Hasan.But the connection of the Une to the rod furnishes the mostarresting instance of conservatism or slow development.* Cf. Dr. J. T. Jehu's Lectures before the Royal Society, 1919. It is noteworthythat whatever be the geological date of Man, the oldest true fish, aswe understand the term, seems the Shark family, which, although extremelyarchaic, has but little altered. Next in seniority comes probably the Ceradotusif now " merely a living fossil " and found only in Queensland, its form,hardly modified, corresponds with remains found all over the world as earlyas from the Trias.2 The urination of a mare was thought to weaken her hairs. Plutarch,De Sol., 24.* Cf. however, postea, 315.