CHAPTER I. 



IN PRAISE OF FLY-FISHING. 



WHEN an author chooses of his own free- 

 will a subject to write upon, it must of course 

 be supposed, that he is attached to it. Attach- 

 ment and devotion to a subject, whatever it 

 may be, whether it embraces an art or a science, 

 implies in a person of common sense, unsway- 

 ed by foolish partiality or caprice, a knowledge 

 of that subject. From our boyhood upwards 

 and we have been now man and boy full 

 thirty years we have been, and still are, 

 passionately attached to the amusement of 

 angling, at least to those higher and more 

 difficult branches of the art which come under 

 the heads of fly-fishing and trolling. Now 

 the range of our intellect must be very limited 

 indeed we must be sadly deficient both in 

 memory and observation if, for nearly a 

 space of time that would comprehend a quin- 

 tuple apprenticeship, we have followed, we may 



say, perseveringly pursued, an art without 

 B 



