vi PREFACE. 



subject up to the mark of modern art, and saleable at a 

 price not beyond the reach of the masses. . The present 

 work is an attempt to supply this desideratum. 



In regard, moreover, to the theory and practice of the 

 most important branch of angling, viz., Fly-fishing, I 

 have arrived at conclusions not only differing widely 

 from hitherto received canons, but which, if accepted, 

 will go far to revolutionize, in the direction of simplify- 

 ing, the whole system both of making and using artificial 

 flies. 



The question of tackle, also, has for many years 

 occupied much of my attention ; and the details of this 

 subject — especially as regards hooks — are entered into 

 with a minuteness which may perhaps seem to require 

 apology. The apology is, that the whole art of angling 

 consists really of an aggregation of minutiae, and that 

 upon the difference between, say, a hook of one pattern 

 and a hook of another, often depends, in effect, the 

 difference between a good and a bad day's sport. 



The present opportunity is taken of submitting to the 

 judgment of anglers a new pattern of hook, constructed 

 on mechanical principles, and the result of some thought 

 and experiment. 



In the department of Trolling — using the term in its 

 widest sense — almost the whole of the tackle described 

 is original, and might properly be called new, but that 

 some of it has already appeared in the " Book of the 

 Pike." Amongst the additions are an improved form of 

 spinning-lead, an artificial trouting-minnow, new flights 



