6 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



of distinct varieties and orders ; and putting it in their 

 power, by the accurate observance, and correct recording, 

 of a few simple signs, to render invaluable service to the 

 cause of science, in one of the most important, and the 

 least understood, of its branches. 



And, before I proceed farther, I shall beg gentlemen 

 from remote sections of the North, East, West, and South, 

 not to wax wrathful and patriotically indignant, nor to 

 reclaim fiercely against the author of this work, because 

 they fail to find therein described some singular local 

 mode of capturing some singular specimen of the piscine 

 race known in their own districts, and there regarded 

 as a Sporting Fish, but unknown as such to the world at 

 large. 



Some gentlemen, doubtless, regard bobbing for eels, and 

 bait-fishing through holes cut in the ice ; others, hauling 

 up sharks with ox-chains and tenter-hooks ; and others, 

 yet, harpooning garpikes, as excellent sport, and as 

 scientific fishing ; as many more will probably deem of 

 hauling the seine, or fishing with the set-line, or the deep- 

 sea line. None of these things come under my ideas of 

 fair or sporting fishing ; and the gentlemen who admire 

 these and similar practices, I beg leave to premonish that 

 they will be surely disappointed if they peruse the 

 pages of this work. By omitting to do so, therefore, they 

 will spare themselves a displeasure, and the author an 

 animadversion. 



