DIES PISCATORI^. 



Many readers, when they come to " Appendix," will shut 

 up a book and throw it aside, for the word sounds to them 

 very much like " appendage," and is associated in their minds 

 with caudal appendage, or, according to the nomenclature 

 adopted by that eminent naturalist Mr. Sparrowgrass, in his 

 observations on the dog, " organ of recognition." Such 

 people think, with Mr. Sparrowgrass's butcher, that a dog's 

 tail or any other appendix is a useless or superfluous thing. 

 I differ with them, for it is not so with the appendix to a 

 good book or to a good saddle of mutton. An author, 

 though, or a politician, must not combat popular prejudice, 

 if he would gain the ear of the people ; but when an old 

 idea or an old principle becomes hackneyed or unpopular, it 

 may still be presented to advantage under a new name, " by 

 either of the aforesaid, as the case may be." I therefore dis- 

 card that stale old word " appendix," and use the new bait at 

 the head of this page, to lure the reader on to the end of the 

 book. 



In the following pages, I have taken up the old angling 



authors' dialogue-method of telling what I have to say about 



fishing-places. The information given is fact, the scenes 



described are real, and the persons appearing to take part in 



the dialogue are real and of the * " Houseless." The place 



mentioned as the scene of each nooning is real or supposed, 



or both, or like the romance " founded on fact." 



(489) 



