Vi PREFACE. 
subject up to the mark of modern art, and saleable at a 
price not beyond the reach of the masses. The present 
work is an attempt to supply this deszderatum. 
In regard, moreover, to the theory and practice of the 
most important branch of angling, viz., Fly-fishing, I 
have arrived at conclusions not only differing widely 
from hitherto received canons, but which, if accepted, 
will go far to revolutionize, in the direction of simplify- 
ing, the whole system both of making and using artificial 
flies. 
The question of tackle, also, has for many years 
occupied much of my attention; and the details of this 
subject—especially as regards hooks—are entered into 
with a minuteness which may perhaps seem to require 
apology. The apology is, that the whole art of angling 
consists really of an aggregation of minutiz, and that 
upon the difference between, say, a hook of one pattern 
and a hook of another, often depends, in effect, the 
difference between a good and a bad day’s sport. 
The present opportunity is taken of submitting to the 
judgment of anglers a new pattern of hook, constructed 
on mechanical principles, and the resuit of some thought 
and experiment. 
In the department of Trolling—using the term in its 
widest sense—almost the whole of the tackie described 
is original, and might properly be called new, but that 
some of it has already appeared in the “ Book of the 
Pike.” Amongst the additions are an improved form of 
spinning-lead, an artificial trouting-minnow, new flights 
