DR. DAVY'S ANGLER AND FRIEND. *
Or all sporting pursuits, that of angling, trifling as it seems, is the most fruitful in books of an elegant, didactic, belles lettrea cast. Hunting and shooting may equal it in the number of " guides " and other works of direct instruction. Narratives of shooting have of late been presented in conjunction with hair- breadth escapes and battle dangerous ; but they have occurred in foreign parts, and been told by travellers. Hunting has a poem expressly devoted to the theme--Somerville's Chase. We do not remember any book of remarkable popularity on either of those pursuits which combines specific teaching and general information about the sport with natural philosophy, semi-poetical description, and the discursive topics appropriate to dialogue, such as we find in Izaak Walton or Sir Humphry Davy. And now, in good time, we hove piscatory colloquies, ana an account of fishing excursions, by Sir Humphry's brother the Doctor.
Part of the literary prominence alluded to may arise from ang- ling being par excellence the "contemplative man's recreation," and the intellectual man's to boot. The organization and the habits of persons who much employ the brain are generally averse to violent exercise, which hunting is, as well as beyond most men's purses. Shooting is neither so violent nor costly, if a man is content with a permission now and then; but it is indirectly very expensive, or implies the possession of acres, if the sports- man intends to be out frequently. No pleasure in this world can be had for nothing, and even angling costs money in its way, but it is within the means of every one who has a taste for it. The most private waters are more accessible than even a squire's preserves. The main attraction, however, is in the pursuit itself and its con- comitants. The angler is carried amongst the most beautiful and mind-soothing scenery, and, as Dr. Davy observes, at the times when it is most attractive, the fish biting best when the landscape appears to the best advantage. The exercise, though sufficient, is quiet, and can be altogether controlled by the angler. He has not a
• The Angler and his Friend ; or Placatory Colloquies and Fishing Eicursiona.. By John Davy, M.D., F.R.S., &c. &c. Published by Longman and Co.
restive horse under him, or nerve-trying leaps to take with a whole "field " looking on, nor a critical keeper noting his shortcomings. He can fish or not as he pleases, and carry ill success to the ac- count of wind or weather, or those mysterious causes which in- fluence the appetite of the finny tribe. If he be a float fisher, he may meditate unrestrainedly ; but Dr. Davy denounces the whole race who work by quill and cork. Nay, with a sectarian feeling little to be expected from him, he would exclude all but fly-fishing and trolling from angling, by legal definition, and under cover of what is made to cover so much—philanthropy.
" One of the first things necessary is that fair angling should be legally defined. And I believe it would be for the advantage of all concerned were it made very stringent, and in a great measure confined to fly-fishing, and perhaps minnow, to the exclusion of ground-baits. It is these baits which are most killing, and which can be used with least skill, and are most effec- tive during rain, when the water is turbid, and when exposure is not with- out risk of health : indeed, many a labouring man, who, driven from his ordinary work by rain and then taking to angling, has paid the penalty in an attack of rheumatism, it may be almost crippling him for life, or in the production of some chronic disease, disabling him from work and shortening life."
The Angler and his Friend differs in several particulars from other piscatorial dialogues that aim at treating the subject with more variety and elevation than a mere treatise. It contains in- struction; for the " Amiens " of the dialogue starts as a mere tyro, and receives on occasion preliminary information as to choosing his rod and making his flies. It affords descriptions of natural scenery, and piscatorial adventures in the rivers and lakes of England and Ireland, with plenty of piscatorial exploits in catching and losing fish ; travelling remarks, and culinary ob- servations, when the anglers are taking their ease in their inn. With these matters are mingled topics of a rarer kind. The au- thor draws upon his experience in other lands, Christian and Pagan, to enrich his work with illustrations either fibm art or na- ture. As we have seen, he discusses the present defective state of the law relating to fish in rivers and lakes, offering many sug- gestions for its improvement. He continually touches upon the natural history of his subject, and notices the attempts at artificial breeding. Many topics of natural history, some of them at first seemingly remote but in reality closely connected with angling, are introduced. These things are not advanced dogmatically, but doubtfully ; thoughts thrown out for investigation. The pro- bable modus operandi of the influence of the atmosphere is an ex- ample, in reply to the question of Amicus, How is it that the angler is often disappointed when all seems promising, and some- times has sport when he hardly expected any P " Piseator. The subject of your inquiry is a difficult one, and not a little mysterious; so difficult, indeed, that I hardly know how to enter upon it. First of all. I may advert to the atmosphere itself, and how, from its very nature, the subject on which you ask information can hardly be clear. We know its principal elements—how it is composed of oxygen and azote and carbonic acid and aqueous vapour—these in pretty definite and ascertained proportions; but how little do we know of its numerous other ingredients, ponderable and imponderable, the existence of most of which are only indi- cated by their effects. How heterogeneous its composition must be you may imagine, considering that it is the natural receptacle of all that is volatile on the earth's surface ; as much so as the ocean is the natural reservoir of all that is soluble, or the ocean-beach of all that is solid, subject to attrition and comminution, exposed to the action of the waves, or to that of rivers losing themselves in the ocean.
" Alnico& Truly, what you say is well adapted to make one aware of the mystery and difficulty of the subject. I can readily believe that the atmo- sphere may be more compounded than any sea-beach, or than the ocean it- self ; but whether wo examine the ocean or any portion of its shore, do not we find in each a constancy, and ought we- not to expect a like constancy in the atmosphere? ".Piscator. In all, whether ocean, sea-beach, or atmosphere, there is a constancy only within I believe, certain limits • that is, as regards the main ingredients. Look at the beach after a storm: the more carefully you exa- mine it the more additions you will find made to it, especially in fragments of animal an& vegetable organisms. These are discoverable by the eye. Had we the power of seeing gases and vapours after an atmospheric storm, it is probable we should discover not fewer,. even more traces in our atmo- sphere of added matters, of substance& small indeed in qugutity but potent in quality. At one time we might detect a noxious matter productive of agues; at another, another kind, the cause of cholera • now- the matter of the potato-blight, or in the South that of the vine-diseaLe."
An instance of the modern manner in which science discovers some natural principle, and art applies it to the purposes of life, even the humblest, with a profit
"Whilst we walk to our temporary home, to which you have invited me, allow me to ask you respecting points I should be glad. to be informedabout. And, first, what is gut, which seems so essential to fly--fishing? from whence is it obtained, and what are the marks of that beat fitted for use?
"Fiscator. Silkworm-gut, as the name implies, is obtained from the silk-worm, and in substance and composition differs but little from silk. When the caterpillar, the silk-worm, is for passing into the chrysalis state, and has in store the materialfor forming her cocoon„her nest of silk, in which to be enveloped when in that state, she is, killed by being immersed in vinegar; the silk-bag is opened, and its semi-fluid viscid contents drawn out into a thread, which presently. hardening on exposure to the air, constitutes what you are inquiring about. It is only of late years that gut has come into use for the purpose to which it is applied by the angler,—that is, within the last hundred years, and since the time that Izaak Walton and Cotton wrote; they making no mention of it, and employing always, as well for attaching their flies as for their casting-line and mzen-line„ horse-hair, to which even now some delicate anglers give the preference, when they can get choice hair of unusual strength. The late adoption of gut is not surprising, con- sidering the history of silk, and how in comparatively modera times, from a euriosity, and that a precious one, it has rapidly come into such common use. loll may remember that, even so late as the time of King James, is was hardly known in England, and that the first pair of silk stockings worn by a British monarch was lent him by a subject, the Earl of Arundel, on his return from Italy, from whence he had brought them."
Every one remembers Byron's couplet on Izaak Walton— "The quaint old cruel coxcomb, in his-gullet
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it" •
The question, however, whether fishes feel—or feel much—is unsettled. Dr. Davy, in some curious remarks on their sense% decides against their sensitiveness. "The last of the five senses, the touch, is probably over most parts of the surface very obtuse. The scaly covering, itself destitute of sensation, like our nail, leads to this belief, as do many facts which the experience of the angler furnishes. Often a trout has been captured with a hook in its mouth, which it had carried off only an hour or two before. I have retaken a salmon liberated as short a time, heedless of the wound given by the gaff in landing him; and other instances of the like kind have been related to me by accurate observers. Hence, I think, on the score of sensitiveness, you need have no compunction of conscience in becoming an angler; and were you acquainted with the habits of fish in all their details, you would, I am sure, be quite at ease on the subject. I allude now to the two great functions by which as individuals they are supported and their species maintained; viz. their mode of feeding and of breeding ; both carried on in the most inhuman way, according to our ideas of humanity. Take the ex- ample of a trout : its food is entirely animal matter, and its favourite food living animals, which it seizes and swallows entire; and so indiscriminately voracious is it, that, with the exception of the poisonous toad, there is no living creature that comes in its way it will not devour, from the frog or mouse to the common fly and gnat, from the slimy slug to the stony incased larva, and not even sparing its own kind, it being no uncommon occurrence to take a large trout with a smaller one in its stomach. In manner of breeding they can hardly be said to show any parental affection, at least the Salmonidte. Their eggs are deserted after having been properly deposited in a suitable bed of gravel, left to the mercy of chance to be hatched ; and the young fish consequently never know their parents, who, Satumlike, often feed on their helpless offspring."
A hint in dietetics, on the nutriment in fish.
" Piscator. This is a subject on which I have made some experiments, the results of which go far to prove that there is much nourishment in fish,. little less than in butcher's-meat, weight for weight ; and in effect it may be more nourishing, considering how from its softer fibre fish is more easily digested. Moreover, there is, I find in fish, in sea fish, a substance which does not exist in the flesh of land animals, viz. iodine; a substance which may have a beneficial effect on the health, and tend to prevent the produc- tion of scrofulous and tubercular disease, the latter in the feral of pulmo- nary consumption, one of the most cruel and fatal with which civilized society and the highly-educated and refined are afflicted. Comparative trials prove that in the majority of fish the proportion of solid matter, that is, the matter which remains after perfect deasication or the expulsion of the aque- ous part, is little inferior to that of the several kinds of butcher's-meat, game,. or poultry. And if we give our attention to classes of people, classed as to quality of food they principally subsist on, we find that the ichthyophagous class are especially strong, healthy, and prolific. In no class than that of fishers do we see larger families, handsomer women, or more robust and active men, or a greater exemption from the maladies just alluded to. " Amicti j s. May not other circumstances be concerned in rendering them so healthy, such as an unstinted diet, the sea air, and the living so much.in the o en air " iscator. These circumstances may contribute to the beneficial effect; but are not, I think, by themselves sufficient to account for the effect. There are facts of a corroborative kind; such as the well-ascertained efficacy of cod-liver oil—an oil containing iodine—in arresting the progress of con- sumption ; the efficacy of the same substance in relieving or curing some other chronic ailmente, especially bronchocele ; and the virtue of fish-diet- of raw fish, as employed in Siberia and in Holland—in the treatment of many chronic complaints resisting ordinary medical treatment, of which. there are well-authenticated accounts."
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