GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 173 
found that the large majority, rejecting the very re- 
stricted and the very latitudinarian interpretations, 
accept the word trolling as descriptive of Pike-fishing 
generally, and of no other kind of fishing; and in this 
sense I have used the expression in the heading to this 
part of my subject, the several kinds of spinning appli- 
cable to Salmon, Trout, and Perch,.being dealt with in 
the chapters devoted to each fish. 
In the “ Book of the Pike,”’* I have endeavoured to 
give a complete History of the fish, from the earliest 
times. There is no other species which has in itself 
so much character, if I may use the expression, and, per- 
haps consequently, so many curious anecdotes and 
quaint apocryphal legends clustered around it, almost 
from the dark ages down to our own days. I shall not 
here attempt to give any history of the fish, beyond 
noticing such of its habits and instincts as have a 
practical bearing on the art of Trolling. The space 
at my disposal moreover does not admit of ichthyolo- 
gical or anecdotal digressions. For the same reason, my 
observations will be confined as far as possible to 
describing what is in my opinion the best form of 
tackle for the various kinds of Pike fishing, without 
entering minutely into the arguments fro and con., or 
* ‘The ‘ Book of the Pike: a Practical Treatise on the various 
Methods of Pike-fishing, with an Analysis of the Tackle employed. Also 
a History of the Fish, &c.” London: Frederick Warne and Co., 
Bedford Street, Covent Garden, price 55. 
