io6 LITERA TURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



setting every one talking about fish and fishing, has estab- 

 lished what may almost be called an "ichthyomania ;" and 

 the rapidly increasing number of anglers will naturally stimu- 

 late angling authorship. Moreover, as there is no finality 

 in the art of angling, and fish become more and more 

 " educated," so that the angler has to be constantly refin- 

 ing upon his tackle, lures and methods, dissertations on the 

 subject in all its branches follow almost as a matter of 

 course. Thus *' of making of many books " on angling, we 

 may presume, there will be " no end " ; but however many 

 there be, and however interesting and useful in their way 

 anglers and would-be anglers may find them, they must 

 bear in mind the caution given by Izaak Walton in his 

 " Epistle to the Reader " : — 



" Now for the art of catching fish, that is to say, how to make 

 a man that was none to be an angler by a book. He that under- 

 takes it shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Hales, that in a 

 printed book undertook to teach the art of fencing, and was 

 laughed at for his labour. Not but that many useful things 

 might be observed out of that book, but that the art was not to 

 be taught by words ; 7ior is the Art of Angling.'' 



