The priority of the Net at one time probably enrolled the majority of adherents. Nor can we wonder, when we realise that in the case of a country so ancient as India we light on no method of fishing other than Netting—and even that till the post-Vedic literature after 200 B.C. most rarely—in Sanskrit or Pāli literature before 400 A.D.[1] Hence came the deduction, not unnatural but illogical, since it stresses too strongly the argument of silence or omission—_i.e._ because no specimen or representation of a thing exists the thing itself never existed—that the Net must have been the first implement. And even now after many years of exploration in Mesopotamia a champion of the Net or of the Line, if he similarly disregarded logic and all save Assyrian remains, might not unreasonably proclaim their antecedence to the Spear, of which no mention or representation as a method of fishing has yet been unearthed. In the case of Egypt the advocate either of the Spear or Net has not as strong, certainly not so clear, a case. Although examples of the first have been discovered in prehistoric graves, the Net finds representation earlier than the Spear. Be this how it may, the Spear, Net, Line, Rod flourish synchronously in the XIIth Dynasty _c._ 2000, or according to Petrie’s chronology about 3500 B.C. In China, unless the sentence of the quite modern _I shih chi shih_, that in the reign of the legendary Emperor who first taught the use of fire, “fishermen used the silk of the cocoons for their lines, a piece of sharpened iron for their hooks, thorn-sticks for their rods, and split grain for their bait,” be potent enough to produce a protagonist for the priority of the Rod, the boldest advocate would shrink from championing either the Spear or Net. The first mention _c._ 900 B.C. (I know of none actually written before this date[2]), shows them, and the Rod, in general and simultaneous operation. From Crete shines out no guiding light. The _débris_ recovered from centres of the ‘Minoan’ civilisation yields frequent and in the main vivid pictures of fish, _e.g._ those on the Phaistos Disc (which is considered the earliest instance of printing in Europe at any rate) and the flying fish on glazed pottery from Knossos. But unfortunately neither in the Annual Reports of Sir Arthur Evans to the British School at Athens nor (he tells me) in his forthcoming book do _modi piscandi_ obtain notice. In Greece, a champion of any single method would be sadly to seek. The Spear, the Net, the Line, and the Rod all occur in our earliest authority, Homer, and, curious to note, as a rule in similes. From the fact that the Spear finds mention but once, the Net twice, and the Line (with or without the Rod) thrice, a real enthusiast has deduced an argument for the priority of the last two over the Spear! This short survey forces the conclusion that we cannot fix definitely which was the method adopted by the earliest historical fishermen.