PR dos Ae, bs, 
THE rapid advance of late years of theoretical and 
material knowledge has produced a corresponding im- 
provement in the practice of ‘most of the arts and 
sciences; and the professors of the gentle art, though 
in a quiet and unobtrusive way, have been by no means 
behindhand in the general progress. The result is, that 
the fisherman’s library, for all practical purposes, consists 
only of some dozen books, all, or almost all, being 
the works of living authors. The names of Stoddart, 
Peard, Francis, and Stewart, as preceptors in the use of 
the rod and line; and in the cognate departments of 
ichthyology and angling Jdelles lettres, those of Russel, 
Westwood, and Buckland, are household words wherever 
English anglers are to be found. 
With such a phalanx of authors already in the field, 
however, it may be not unnaturally asked, Why is the 
present volume published? The answer is, that the 
admirable works of the writers referred to are, with one 
exception,* so far as the practice of angling is con- 
cerned, monographs, or treatises on particular branches 
only of fishing; and that there is a demand for some 
general and complete angling manual, bringing the 
* “A Book on Angling,” by Francis Francis, Esq. Longman 
and Co. 158. ° 
