XIV PREFACE. 



Should my pleadings for the " gentle art " 

 induce any others who might have been in- 

 clined to dissent from this view of the case, 

 to refrain from pronouncing an opposite 

 opinion, my preface will have fully answered 

 its purpose, so will the Notes themselves, if 

 they at all tend to promote a love for Fishing 

 and Natural History. He must indeed be 

 a churl, who would not wish to see his friends 

 participate in the great pleasures which these 

 sources will never fail to afford him. 



In conclusion, it may be satisfactory to 

 the reader to know that (so far as I am 

 aware) every statement in the Notes may 

 be implicitly relied on. At least I can as- 

 sure him that I have throughout studiously 

 endeavoured to guard against exaggeration, 

 and that any inaccuracies which may have 

 crept in amongst them have proceeded wholly 

 from inadvertence on my part. 



To my friends Mr A. Z. Palmer, Mr L. 

 Dickinson, and Mr Halliday, my best acknow- 

 ledgments are due for their kind and valuable 

 co-operation, to which I owe the engravings 



