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CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



THE angler who may, perchance, be also a bit of a bibliographer, will 

 probably exclaim at the appearance of another treatise on the gentle 

 craft. So many works on this charming subject have been written and 

 published, from Oppian to the present time, that another would seem 

 superfluous, and only capable of vain repetitions. This need not be so, 

 however, and in the following chapters I shall take care that it is not 

 so. A severely practical, careful rsum of what is known and proved, 

 and a concise account of what the writer has himself experienced, need 

 not come under the category of vain repetition, and may be useful to 

 many learners seeking those almost Parnassian heights, whence the fully 

 initiated smile at the scoffers and mockers of the art which Byron so 

 ill-naturedly termed "that solitary vice." And, indeed, there are 

 several other reasons why a dissertation on practical angling may not 

 be unwelcome. The price of every really capable work on the subject 

 is generally prohibitory to that class of persons who make the art 

 their chief recreation during the intervals of work at the mill or factory, 

 counter or desk. To such what I have to say will I hope at least be 

 interesting, and it is to such chiefly that I shall address myself. It 

 would probably be presumption on my part to suppose I could 

 say anything on so trite a subject which would enlighten those 

 who have the power of consulting a whole library of fishing authors, 

 whose chief merit, however, seems to be prolixity. The importance, 



