INTRODUCTION. 



Though this Handbook far exceeds in length all the 

 other members of that large family to which the Fisheries 

 Exhibition has given birth, it cannot pretend to traverse 

 thoroughly all the ground indicated by its title. The 

 Literature of Sea and River Fishing is so extensive, that 

 within the present compass only a comparatively brief 

 survey can be essayed ; and this must be mainly confined 

 to the literary productions of our own country. Even 

 the names of many English authors must necessarily be 

 omitted, and the chief of them only find a place. 



Necessarily, too, the literature of Freshwater Fishing will 

 take up by far the greater portion of the space at com- 

 mand, as books on Sea Fishing are limited in number, and 

 generally speaking of a purely technical or commercial 

 character. 



Criticism has not been indulged in to any great degree 

 in the following pages, as the Handbook is principally 

 intended to be a work of " reference," and something in the 

 way of a " guide " to those who may desire to form a 

 general idea of the extent and character of our angling 

 literature. 



The quotations introduced may strike some readers, who 

 are more or less familiar with the subject, as somewhat 

 " hackneyed " ; but necessarily they are so, because they 



