8o ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



there being no ground for the excuse pleaded by the troller, 

 that he can work between weeds and cover water, imprac- 

 ticable for spinning. Jardine's snap-tackle has been now 

 generally adopted, in preference to the saddle and other 

 rigs familiar to pike fishermen for many years. 



A final word as to useful winter occupation for the angler. 

 When the low-lying lands are a yellow sea, and the heads 

 of the trees in which you were wont to entangle your fly- 

 cast in the summer, seem to be floating on a watery 

 expanse ; when the river has forgotten its bounds, and the 

 landmarks are swept away, there is no angling, save in a 

 few exceptional lakes which never become discoloured. 

 At home, you will be tired, sooner or later, of gazing at 

 those stuffed fish that day by day remind your admiring 

 household of your genius. The fondling of your rods and 

 books, and general impedimenta, palls after a while. But, 

 from the thoroughly practical books which have been pub- 

 lished, exhausting every phase of the subject of angling, 

 there is always something to be learned : and in the lighter 

 literature of the sport, which is part study of human nature, 

 part communion with nature, animate and inanimate, other 

 than human, and part rehearsal of angling experiences, we 

 may, through the darkest night and most inclement day, 

 be led to continue our recreation in the spirit, if not in the 

 flesh. 



LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET 

 AND CHARING CROSS. 



