aai PKEFACE. 



to such a pitch of perfection, and is such a large subject, 

 that it is impossible for me to do it quite the justice I could 

 wish; but I am in hopes that I shall set my would-be trout 

 and salmon-fishing readers in the right path, and that, with 

 the hints given them, added to certain experiences which 

 they must obtain for themselves, they will meet with such 

 success as their endeavours merit. I would recommend 

 those who wish to dive deeper into the mysteries of the 

 art of fly-fishing to read Francis Francis' " Book on Angling " 

 (Chapters IX. to XIII.), Halford's beautiful work on "Floating 

 FUes," Pritt's " North- Country Flies" and "Book of the 

 Grayling," Major Traherne on Salmon Fishing (in the Bad- 

 minton Library), Theakston's " British Angling Flies," and 



but that is enough to begin upon. 



Some of the engravings of tackle, and a few items of infor- 

 mation, are given more than once. This is necessitated by 

 the fact that each Division has to be complete in itself, 

 being published separately for the benefit of those anglers 

 who do not require or cannot afford the whole work. Any 

 repetition there may be is certainly inconsiderable, and should 

 be rather a convenience to the reader than otherwise. 



Angling is a progressive art, rendered so by the rapidly- 

 increasing cunning of fish. From time to time fresh devices 

 and expedients have to be invented to enable us to fill our 

 creels, and however frequently works on angling are published, 

 we may always look for something novel in them. It is now 

 some years since the last work on fishing generally was 

 written, and angling has made such advances in the mean- 

 time, especially as regards tackle, that I hope this volume 

 will be found to contain much that is fresh. 



My ideal of a text-book on angling, cock-fighting, mangling, 

 or any other subject, is a work which omits no necessary 

 information, contains no technical terms without an explana- 

 tion of them, and enables a person who is entirely ignorant 



