ANGLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2927, 20 April 1910, Page 64

ANGLING.

By Jock Scott.

To be t perfect fisherman you requir-e more excellencies than are usually to be found in such • small space as is allotted to u man's carcase.— Farkbr Gilmoub. Readers are invited to contribute items of local fishing mews for insertion in this column. For buertion in the ensuing issue they should reach Dosedin by Monday night's mail.

RANK NOTES. The Ashburton and Rangitata.—While sshing at the mouth of the Rangitata at the end of last week Mr J. H. Stephens, of Ashburton, landed 16 trout. The largest weighed 151 b, and the others averaged lib to 71b. The fish were not in ;ood condition. Mr Stephens during the past season has taken 170 fish "rom the Rangitata. A Noted Angler.—Colonel Grove, C. 8., of London, has returned from a fishing expedition through the Dominion, and is staying at the Grand Hotel till Wednesday, when he leaves by the Navua en route for Canada. The colonel speaks in high praise of the Taupo fishing grounds, and thinks that the fishing grounds generally- here are unequalled. Although the salmon fishing in Canada affords the best of fishing, flies were not nearly so plentiful as at Taupo, where he has spent most of his time while in the Dominion. — Auckland Star:

A Timely Reward. —It is well-known that the killing of trout and other 'fish by discharges of dynamite is only too common, and some very bad cases have occurred recently, but it is difficult to obtain legal proof. Perhaps when it is realised that a person may secure a £lO note by supplying information the dynamitard may hesitate about pursuing his nefarious practices. The Otago Acclimatisation Society is offering a reward of £lO to anyone giving information that will' lead to the conviction of any person or persons taking or destroying trout ir the rivers in the Otago district by the use of dynamite or other explosives. The Humane Fisherman.—There was at least one very admirable angler at an anglers' social one evening, and he was heartily cheered when he said: "I fish humanely, and I try to do my best to let the fish go, and my hardest to give them fair play. There is not a kinder fisherman on" the river than myself!" A Popular Angler.—About 25 of Mr C. E. Hassell's friends, anglers and others, met in the Grosvenor Hotel, on a recent evening, and gave him a very hearty sendoff, before he leaves Timaru to take up a sheep farm further south. Several spoke of Mr Hassell's genial good nature, his prowess as a fisherman, and ied off by the chairman, Mr J. S. Turnbull, wished their departing friend good luck and every prosperity in the future. His health was enthusiastically toasted, and during an interval those present asked him to accept a fine English saddle as a token of their general and genuine esteem. A number of speakers besides telling humorous stories of fishing generally, referred to the work being done by the Acclimatisation Socity, and to Mr Hassell's valuable services as a hard-working member of that body. Mi* Hassell's reply was expressed in feeling terms, in grateful appreciation of the kind present and kind words. —Exchange. South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society.—At a special meeting of this society field recently it was reported that ther-p had been a falling off in the number of fishing licenses issued this year, the loss of revenue on this head being £lB 17s 6d. Mr Allen said there would be a bigger falling off next year. The licenses issued this year were as follows: —Men's 394,' halfyearly 84, ladies' 27, boys' 137, tourists, 2. The total revenue from licenses was £491 12s 6d. The President said that fishermen in the Fairlie district told him that there would be a big falling off in the number of licenses issued there next year unless a ranger were put on to stop the poaching. South Canterbury Annual Statement.— The secretary of the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society reports that licenses have been issued during the season as follows:—Men's, 394; half-yearly, 84; ladies', 27; boys', 137; tourists', 2. The total receipts from licenses had amounted to £491 12s 6d, or £lB 17s 6d less than in the previous year. There was at present a credit balance of £314 3s Id.

Canterbury Acclimatisation Society.—The annual report and balance sheet of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society show that there has been a profit of £49 13s 9d on the year's working. The revenue from fishing licenses was £875 17s, a decrease of £27 15s 6d The number of trout reared this year is the same as last year, amounting to three-quarters of a million. No better re-

suits can be reported from the continued stocking of the rivers with rainbow trout. Very few have been caught anywhere in tho district. It is to be regretted that neither the land-locked .salmon nor the Mackinan trout bred in the gardens last year, but it is confidently expected that they will do so this season. The breeding stock in the ponds has been considerably reduced, owing to the society now being able to secure any quantity of ova from the Selwyn River, and the determination to reduce expenditure by breeding fewer rainbow. Eighty-nine thousand yearlings were distributed during the year. All stock fish ai'e now two years old. Bishops a.nd Salmon. —The pretty story told in the Field of February 12 of th« Bishop of London and his half-dozen salmon before lunch deserves another passing comment before it is relegated' to the list of ships that pass in the night (says " S," in the Field). Truly a man who can achieve that piece of enviable fortune deserves to be an archbishop. It is, if one reflects, only in the order of things that this incident should occur, for the first bishop of them all gave to Izaak Walton a sweet motto for his immortal classic in the memorable exclamation. " I go a-fiehing," not omitting the sportsmanlike rejoinder, "We also go with thee." Nearer our own times there was that good bishop of a northern see who, when worried by someone about some duty, which had been neglected, faithfully promised to do it, but added that it could not be until the mayfly season . was over. This right xeverened gentleman used to go down to the Test, in those palmy days of mayfly carnival, of dwelling in tents, and of the use of the blow line, described over a hundred years ago by Colonel Hawker as "The cockneylike amusement of bobbing with a live niayfly." The keenest angler I ever met in Norway was Bishop Wilberforce of Newcastle, and he was a very successful angler, tenacious of his rights, eager to kill his fish, and a downright hard worker when the rod was in his hand. His month in Norway, he used to say, was the one period of the year in which he allowed himself the solace of a short pipe, and out on the beat rarely was he seen without the well-coloured briar firmly fixed in the left corner of the characteristically Wilberforce mouth. A deceased Bishop of Bedford was another enthusiastic Norwegian salmon angler, and there are other angler bishops. Archbishop Magee loved an occasional service of trout-fishing of the leisurely wet-fly order, and held orthodox opinions upon the soundness of March brown, blue upright, and coch-y-bondhu. With such examples and precedents, small wonder if so many clergymen are brethren of the angle, and. there are few of the established trout streams of the kingdom where the keepers have not one or two parsons, past or present, to hold up as paragons to. all-comers. Returning for a moment to the Bishop of London's adventure, it was represented in one newspaper that his lordship boasted that he would catch six salmon before luncheon. This is how history is falsified', for what he did say was neither brag nor even proohecy; the true reading, according to the trustworthy reports of the speech, makes it clear that the cheery exclamation was in the nature of what is called a pious hope, sentiment, or toast, as who should say, "Here's for six salmon before lunch."

Old Angling Writers.—A rather interesting article on this subject, which is unfortunately too lengthy to reproduce in its entirety, appears in a recent number of the English Field. It deals SDecially with a work entitled "Ancient Angling Authors," by Dr W. J. Fu.rrell, and says his survey is of English writers only, and he covers the ground from the "Treatyse on Fysshynge," 1496, to Thomas Best, who ran through many editions at the end of the eighteenth century. In his preface, however, he gives a brief account of some classical writers, such as Oppian and Aelian (the first writer to mention fly-fishing), by way of showing how the literary treatment of the craft of taking fish developed. Here he says that the "Treatyse" may fairly be claimed to be the first "practical" work of the kind in any language. There is, however, a,t least a doubt in favour of the little nameless Flemish work published in Antwerp about 1492. It is not, of course, so much of a book as the "Treatyse," but it can probably claim nriority. The matter was discussed in the Field of May 14, 1904, by Mr J. E. Hartingr. and a reproduction of one of the quaint Flemish woodcuts was given. Coming to his subject proper Dr Turrell begins with the earliest Englis!: description of fishing, to which Professor Skeat firso drew attention, the passage in Aelfric's "Colloquy," a" manual compiled for students in the tenth century. It is written in Latin and Anglo-Saxon. Next comes Piers of Fulhawi early in the fifteenth century. It is noteworthy that there is nothing to call for attention between the two, but it is not surprising; there is quite as remarkable a dearth of fishing literature on the Continent between the days of Ausonius and the fifteenth cenI tury, but there is no reason to suppose that fishing had stopped because little oar no written record has survived. It seems not improbable that Varro, Columella, and their likes, sufficed in' the middle ages for practical hints on fish-farming, which would be- the chief preoccupation of men so far as they were concerned with the subject at all. Fish-catching was, no doubt, - a matter of tradition, methods being handed down from father to son. Dr Turrell mentions the well-known "Dialcgus Creaturarum,'' 1480, of which an English translation repeated about 40 years later, which shows that the Middle Ages were not without fishing ideas, for there is to be found the device of marking fish so that they may be recognised at a second capture. It takes, indeed, the form of a parable, but it is suggestive. From the "Treatyse of Fysshynge," 1496, with which English angling literature really begins, Dr Turrell gives liberal quotations. He discusses the problem of its authorship, and shows that the claims made for Dame Juliana Eeirners are improbable. The case against her is, indeed, almost unanswerable, but "partly perhaps from sentiment, and partly for convenience," he allows her the courtesy title of authoress in commenting on the book. The next book to be discussed at any length is Leonard Masoall's "Booke of Fishing," 1590, and the next is Taverner's "Certaine Experiments Concerning Fish and Fruite," 1600. This very rare book can be but little known, and Dr Turrell's analysis of its contents is therefore extremely ''nterestimg. It shows Taverner to be worthy of much more attention than he has hitherto received, since he was a man of keen observation;

and was a pioneer in a good many points of fishery knowledge. One of the most interesting passages quoted is on the method in which water flies hatch out: "I have seene a young fiie swimm© in the water too and fro, and in the end come too the upper crust of the water and assay to fiie up; howbeit not being perfitly r:<pe or fledge hath twice or thrice fallen down© againe into the water; howbeit in the ©hid receiving perfection by the heate of the sunne, and the pleasant fat water, hath in the! end© within some halfe boure after taken her flight and flied quite awaie into the' ayre. And of such young flies before they are able to flie awaie do fish feede exceedingly." And it is only in the last few decades that we thought the study of nymphs and their ways had begun! Another matter in which Taverner was far ahead of his time was the study of eels. He has no respect for. the old absurd ideas as to the breeding of eels, but states boldly and truly-that "eels come from the brackish and sea water," and he describes a run of elveo-s in the Severn. Dr Turrell is to be congratulated on rescuing an honourable name from oblivion. Denny's "Secrets of Angling," 1613, of course receives detailed treatment, and is quoted at considerable length. Touching on the curious verses about "gum of life" which appear at the end of the book. Dr Tuirrell points out that Sir John Hawkins's attribution of them to R. Roe, who is mentioned by Walton, is incorrect because the initials at the end of the first edition aire "B. R." Hawkins confesses that he had' "nevie-r been able to get a sight of" the "Secrets of Angling." Still he had something to go upon; in the 1652 edition the ' initials are "R. R." and not "B. R." Gervase Markham, with his many books is dealt with at some length, and Dr Turrell has some interesting things to say about "The Young Sportsman's Instructor," which has usually been attributed to him. This tiny little book has been supposed to belong to the seventeenth centurv. probably on account of "Bibliotheca Pisoatoria" mentioning an edition dated 1652. Dr Turrell says that he has been unable to find any other evid'fince of such an sdition having existed. The matter has been discussed in the Field (April 2 and 9. 1904), and it seems hiffhly improbable that there ever was a 1652 edition. Internal evidence from the undated and probab'v first edition (in which "srjortman" stands for "sportsman" on the title-nage) all ipoints to the book belonging to the early eighteenth century. That Markham's initials should have been put on its title-page is. as Dr Turrell says. not surprising. Markham's was no doubt fitill a name to conjure witli even in about 1710. Dr Turrell comments on the fact that the reprint of the angling portion in Pea.rson's Angler's Garland for 1871 is incomplete. Perhaps this may be explained by a fragment of the book, which lies before us as we write, and which onlv contains 4+ of the originaJ 140 pages, ending at the octant where the reprint ends. It seems likely that this fragment was the original copy which Pearson used. It is tempting to wander on end on when dealing with a book like this, but space forbids. Walton. Cotton, Venables, Franek, Ohetham, and the rest of the well-known authors are all dealt with and with the end of the eighteenth century the narrative clows. Dr Turrell has done 'the work he set himself—the tracing out of angling developments as shown in hooks—extremely well. He has not been afraid to quote, end he has quoted with judgment. He has not perhaps given himself so much scope .*■■' readers would gladly have allowed him, and his comments bear more on practical things than on literary values, but there is no gainsaying the fact that his little book is very excellent and to be welcomed cordially. .