INTRODUCriON 



of the lateral line, the placement, number, and 

 relative size of the scales and other minor but 

 important characteristics. 



And, all through these practical teachings, the 

 author has infused a touch, a breathing, as it were, 

 of the elevating influences of life along the streams 

 and in the depths of the forest. He has handed 

 dov^^n to us, through the centuries, the pure spirit 

 of Walton, in that our Old Master tells us in 

 words never to be forgotten by his scholars : 



" And the birds in the adjoining grove seemed 

 to have a friendly contention with an echo whose 

 dead voice seemed to live in a hollow tree near 

 the brow of that primrose hill. There I sat view- 

 ing the silver stream glide silently toward their 

 centre, the tumultuous sea, yet sometimes opposed 

 by rock or pebbles that broke and turned them 

 into foam. As I sat there, these and other 

 thoughts had so fully possessed my soul with con- 

 tent that I thought, as the poet has so happily ex- 

 pressed it : — 



" * I was for the time lifted above earth 



And possessed joys not promised at my birth.' " 



It has been my privilege to view the original 

 oils from which the replicas of the large litho- 

 graph plates were made. These reproductions 



XXV i 



