INTRODUCTION. 13 



this on the word of an old fisherman: take 

 personal experience ; try the contrary, but not 

 too long, for an empty pannier is an unpleasing 

 subject for reflection at an inn. Above all 

 things, then, select the colour of the insects 

 on which the fish are feeding. 



Worm, paste, and all bottom fishing which 

 demands stationary propensities in their slave, 

 I hold in utter contempt and abhorrence ; nor 

 would I be guilty of trying to teach any such 

 abominations, neither attempt to confirm the 

 more mature, in spite of our amiable master, 

 ancient Isaac. 



That the "Jury of a dozen flies," written 

 about by our ancestors, may have condemned a 

 few fins to death, I cannot dispute; but I be- 

 lieve they were mercifully pleased to acquit 

 forty-nine out of every fifty that were arraigned 

 before them. The moderns are not so mer- 

 ciful. 



But there are other baits besides flies, which 

 the angler need not scorn ; nay, I may ven- 

 ture to assert, by whose aid he will many a 

 time and oft astonish both the natives of the 



