XIX 



" with the blessing of God, we should 

 manage a good and useful book on fly- 

 fishing betwixt us." I slept well that 

 night. 



He has been frequently pleased to tell 

 me during the progress of my work, that 

 the benefit he received from my oral 

 information was such, that, notwithstand- 

 ing my father's notes and his own know- 

 ledge, he could not have produced a 

 standard work without it. I do not take 

 the compliment to myself. If I under- 

 stand any thing of fly-fishing, if I am the 

 "capital" fly-fisher he says I am, I owe 

 it to my father's instructions, Him I 

 followed throughout all my boyhood, and 

 during a great portion of my manhood, in 

 his fishing excursions him I observed 

 him I listened to I treasured up his 

 practice and his principles, and whatever 

 merit is due to my share in the work, I 

 willingly offer it as a just and due homage 

 to his memory. I have now stated why I 

 asserted at the out-set, that the following 

 work had been " called for ;" and I have 



