GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 175 



found that the large majority, rejecting the very re> 

 stricted and the very latitudinarian interpretations, 

 accept the word trolling as descriptive of Pike-fishing 

 generally, and of no other kind of fishing ; and in this. 



, sense I have used the expression in the heading to this. 



1. part of my subject, the several kinds of spinning appli- 

 cable to Salmon, Trout, and Perch, being dealt with in 

 the chapters devoted to each fish. 



In the "Book of the Pike,"^ I have endeavoured ta 

 give a complete History of the fish, from the earliest 

 times. There is no other species which has in itself 

 so much character, if I may use the expression, and, per- 

 haps consequently, so many curious anecdotes and 

 quaint apocryphal legends clustered around it, almost 

 from the dark ages down to our own days. I shall not 

 here attempt to give any history of the fish, beyond 

 noticing such of its habits and instincts as have a 

 practical bearing on the art of Trolling. The space 

 at my disposal moreover does not admit of ichthyolo- 

 gical or anecdotal digressions. For the same reason, my 

 observations will be confined as far as possible to 

 describing what is in my opinion the best form of 



I tackle for the various kinds of Pike fishing, without 



I entering minutely into the arguments pro and con., or 



* The "Book of the Pike: a Practical Treatise on the various 

 I Methods of Pike-fishing, with an Analysis of the Tackle employed. Also 

 I a History of the l^ish, &c." London : Frederick Warne and Co.,. 

 Bedford Street, Govent Garden, price 5^. 



