AUTHOR OF FISH CULTURE,' 'THE ANGLER'S REGISTER,' ETC. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1867. The right of translation is reserved. PREFACE. SH439 F8 WHEN FIRST INFECTED with the fever of Angling, more years ago than I care to count up, my ambition was to catch every species of freshwater fish, from the minnow up to the salmon, which inhabits our British waters. That satisfied, my next desire was to write a work, which should contain within one volume (as far as might be possible) the fullest and most varied information upon angling generally, in every branch of the art, which had ever been published; and with this resolve I commenced collecting the matter for the present work nearly twenty years ago. Taken up and laid aside from time to time, little by little it has steadily progressed towards completion, so that it has not been by any means hastily carried out, whatever the result may be. In the course of that period of time I have taken occasion to visit and to fish nearly every river of note in the kingdom; my connection with 'The Field' affording M842720 me peculiar facilities for obtaining permission to fish very many waters which are closely locked against the general public; and I have roamed England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland over to gather fresh knowledge, and to put it into a practical and concentrated form for the use of my readers. A modern work on general Angling has long been much needed: we have works upon fly-fishing, and excellent ones too; we have good works upon spinning and trolling; we have few modern works upon bottom-fishing at large, for Bailey's 'Instructor,' a capital little work in itself, treats on a local style of angling; and we have no modern book upon all of them combined, since the last book of any note of that sort, which is Ephemera's Handbook,' was published twenty years ago, and angling has made great strides in the last twenty years. One thing the student may rely on, viz. all' that is set down here is the result of carefully conned experience, often proved. I have not entered the realms of fancy, and I have not borrowed the experience of others as though it were of my own, and of my own origination. I have endeavoured to borrow as little as possible, for my creed is, that if a person has not got his subject thoroughly within his own experience, it is of little advantage to the public for him to write |