PURE FLY-FISHING FOR SALMON. 



PART THE FlES'il.LJi'TH 



CHAPTER I. 



IN LAUD OF FLY-FISHING FOR SALMON. ON SALMON FLY- 

 RODS, WINCHES, LINES, AND ON THEIR MAKE, MATERIAL, 

 AND MANUFACTURE. 



I HAVE many times written about angling apolo- 

 getically. I have frequently written in its de- 

 fence, and very often in praise of it. I was 

 chiefly induced to do so, because the art was de- 

 fined as the occupation of a ninny by one great 

 writer = — Dr. Samuel Johnson ; and as the amuse- 

 ment of a cruel disposition by another — the most 

 popular of modern poets — Lord Byron. A host 

 of imbecile babblers and ignorant witlings took 

 up the cry, and ran, as they thought, this creature 

 of their contempt to death. They should have 

 recollected, and the doing so might have cooled 



B 



