PREFACE, 



I HAVE been for a long time exceedingly desirous 

 of rendering fly-fisliing for salmon more acces- 

 sible to the public than it has hitherto been ; and 

 for some years past have been making advances, 

 step by step, towards the consummation of my 

 wishes. I do not think myself unknown to the 

 majority of the angling community; perhaps I 

 have a right to flatter myself that I am favour- 

 ably known to them, for my zeal at least, if not 

 for my actual services, in their cause ; and, if they 

 will consent to tax their memory a little, they 

 will perceive that, both in my periodical writings 

 and in my books, I have been steadily preparing the 

 way for the more facile and general acquisition 

 of the higher branches of angling. Heretofore 

 my piscatorial prolusions may, in some sort, be 



