ANGLING (A. S. angel, fish-hook, akin to Engl. angle, a corner, bend). The term angling has, by common understanding, become re stricted to the catching of fish as a source of recreation, while the word fishing expresses it as a commercial enterprise. The term "angle" and its cognate words in most languages are limited to the hook; but it is quite clear that in Anglo-Saxon the word includes as well the line and rod: a definition probably suggested by the position a rod and pendent line take when being used for bait fishing, at which time they form a right angle. Shakespeare refers to the angle in the sense of rod, line, and hook in Antony and Cleopatra. and he had good historic basis for selecting angling as a recreation in Egypt, for the mural paintings of the Egyptians make it clear that angling was a favorite pastime of their men of rank. So accurately is the spawn ing of fish described in the Bandahish, a Pahlavi work relating to the creation, as to suggest the existence of angler naturalists among the fol lowers of Zoroaster. Both Greeks and Romans pursued angling for diversion's sake. Many al lusions in classical authors justify the inference that the idea expressed by our word sportsman had defined shape in antiquity. From 'Homer to Oppian there were piscatory poets, who dwelt on the exciting delights of the craft. Oppian's Halicutira, a poem of the second eentury A.D., treats of the natural history of fishes. and of the fishing methods of the ancients. 'nu• perfect angler is herein defined as "a well-nude. active man, patient, vigilant, enterprising, courageous, and full of expedients;" and his outfit is sum med up in a couplet The earliest mention of fly-fishing occurs in the Epigrams of Martial, wherein is sung the rising of the wrasse "decoyed by fraudful flies;" hut .Elian, the author of a zoillog,y. written about 200 A.D., gives a consummate description of this method of taking a certain species of trout as practiced by the Macedonians. From the angling pictures of Ausonius in the fourth century, there is, with the exception of a brief allusion in Piers Fulham, written about the year 1420, a break in the literature relating to this subject, until we reach the interesting work of Dame Juliana Berners, prioress of Sopwell .Nmulery .4 Treat yse of Fysshyngc wyth an Angle. printed in England in 1496. This treatise presents de tailed instructions for the manufacture of tackle.
gives faultless directions for fly-fishing, and de scribes minutely "xij flyes wyth \veil e ye shall angle to ye trought& grayllying." The flies have been tied by a modern expert. in accordance with the directions given in the treatise, and they do credit to the taste of the first English authoress. Leonard Mascall's 4 Bookr of Fishing with Hooke c6 Live (1590), the next, work of impor tance in English. is largely a reproduction of the essay of the literary prioress. The Secrets of Angling, a delightful poem by John Dennys, appeared in 1013, and in 1651 Thomas Barker's The Art of Angling, the first work in which the reel is recognized as essential to success in the capture of large fish with rod and line. Two years later. Walton's The ('omnphat Angler; or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation, was given to the world. It was of this book that Charles Lamb wrote: "It would sweeten a man's temper at any time to read it; it would Christianize every discordant, angry passion." Angling is one of the richest departments of English letters. Westwood and Satchel's Bibliotheca Piscatoria, published as long ago as 1883, catalogues over three thousand works more or less concerning fish and fishing. Angling will be found treated in detail under three heads, viz.: fly-casting, bait•fishing, and trolling. To such as wish to understand the natural history of the objects of their pursuit as well as to master the various methods of capture, the following instructive monographs are recommended in addition to the volumes referred to in this article: lzaak Wal ton, Comp/eat Angler; or the rontemplatire Man's Recreation (first New York edition. 1S47 ) Glinther, _tn Introduction to the Ntudy of Fishes: Day, British and Irish Salmonithr; G. B. Goode, American Fishes (New York, 1SSIS) ; Seth Green. Home Fishing and Ilona,- haters (New York, MSS) : Green and Roosevelt, Fish Hatching and Fish Catching; Wright, Fishes, Their Lores. Passions, and intellurts; Chohnou deley-Pennell, Modern Improvements in Fishing Tackle (London, 1887) ; The .1naler Naturalist, and the two volumes of the Badminton Library of Sports, entitled Fishing; Nobbe, art of Troll ing, and J. J. Manley, Literature of Sea and Meer Fishing (London, ]8S3). See FLY-CAST ING ; BAIT-FISHING ; TROLLING.