PREFATORY NOTE. xi 



another famous angler (and politician), alas ! no more 

 the Johnson of Scotland, as he was well called I mean 

 Alex. Russel, Editor of the Scotsman, and author of the 

 book of 'The Salmon/ He and Stewart were two 

 of the finest fishermen that it has ever been my lot 

 to know, and I loved them both well for Mike and 

 difference,' as Mrs. Browning puts it though Stewart 

 was very wroth with me afterwards and devoted a 

 whole pamphlet to my annihilation, pugnacious ' moss- 

 trooping Scot ' as he was. ... No reason that, how- 

 ever, why I should not write his epitaph in the Field 

 when he died . . . 



I'd give the lands of Deloraine 



Stout Musgrave were alive again ! . . . 



But, some one asks ' Why do you not practise 

 what you preach ? You eulogise monographs, and you 

 write books yourself which embrace every variety of 

 angling and " fishey lore " from bait-breeding to salmon- 

 catching.' 



Dear critic (forgive the adjective when perhaps you 

 are in the very act of sharpening your ' scalping-knife '), 

 I do nothing of the sort ; and though it is true I have 

 'graduated ' in most kinds of fishing, from sticklebacks 

 upwards, there are many subjects germane to angling, 

 such as fish-rearing both of Salmonidce and ' coarse ' 

 fish fish-acclimatisation, and several special depart- 

 ments of angling itself, where I have need to learn 

 rather than to pretend to teach. Consequently I have 

 thought myself fortunate to be able to secure for these 



