Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

BY DICTIONARIES, AND JUDGES 47laid in a private river two fishing lines ; one end of the linesattached to two pieces of wood driven into the ground madefast the lines, the other end held hooks baited with worms,and a stone to keep the Hnes under water. " The lines wereleft by the men, who subsequently were found taking two fishoff the hooks, and resetting the hnes, of which the keepersdeprived them. The charge (under s. 24 of the Larceny Actof 1 861) ran of unlawfully, etc., taking fish otherwise than byanghng. The Justices of Bangor refused to commit, on theground that they were anghng, and thus under the Act wereprotected from damages or penalty for such angling."On appeal both sides cited Izaak Walton and other authors ;both quoted the N.E.D.—the appellant its definition of'Anghng,' i.e. fishing with a rod, and the respondent that of'Angle ' (vb.), i.e. to fish with hook and bait.The three Judges, judge-like, disagreed in their reasonsbut agreed in allowing the appeal, and disagreeing in theirconceptions of anghng agreed in abstaining from any definition." In the kingdom of the bhnd, the one-eyed is king." Mr.Justice Philhmore was the least non-positive. He evencommitted himself to the following : "He did not think thata rod must necessarily be part of an angler's outfit, but only ahook and fine. He thought the human element must be present,and that it was not sufficient when the tackle was set once andfor all, and then left."It is obvious from the above that, while the dictionaries arebut blind guides, the Law (if on this occasion not exactly " ahass ") fails to elucidate what exactly constitutes Anghng.Dr. Henry van Dyke, the author of Little Rivers and otherfascinating books connected with fishing, suggests to me" Anghng, the art of fishing by hand with a hook and fine,with or without a rod."I much prefer this to that of N.E.D.,because of its greater accuracy and of its inclusion of thatreally skilful method, hand-hning. But for general convenienceI adopt as the definition of Angling " The action, or art, offishingwith a Rod."My Fishing from the Earliest Times treats of the OldStone Men, Egyptians, Assyrians, Chinese, Jews, Greeks, and