PREFACE. 



I" the Angler. 



I promise thai yen shall not he wearied by long yams 

 about the fish that I have caught ; the object is to set 

 your rod bending, and your heart leaping. 



Do Dot be afraid of the natural history. There is not 

 more of it than a good fisherman ought to know, and 

 as it is expressed simply I trust it is not very uninterest- 

 ing. 



To the Non-Fisherman lover of Natural History and 



Pisciculture. 



As you may not care to wade through the whole book 

 for the bits likely to interest you, and as those bits are 

 necessarily scattered where they are applicable, a special 

 Appendix will enable you to pick them out without trouble 

 or waste of time. 



You must kindly excuse the unscientific language used 

 for the sake of fishermen pure and simple, who will 

 probably be my chief readers. 1 plead and follow herein, 

 the example of that distinguished and pleasant naturalist, 

 Charles Waterton, who hail both the courage and the 

 position to be able to say he had " confined himself to a 

 "few simple words in preference to a scientific jaw- 

 '' breaking description ;" so that young naturalists might 

 understand him at once, which was all he aimed at. 



Ye giants in natural history, for whom this simple little 

 book i- scarcely fitting fodder, but who roaj yei dallywith 

 it for half an hour for the sake of the few crumbs to be 



