PREFACE. 



TO THE ANGLER. 



I PROMISE that you shall not be wearied by long yarns about the 

 fish that I have caught; the object is to set your rod bending, and 

 your heart leaping. 



Do not be afraid of the natural history. There is not more of 

 it than a good fisherman ought to know, and as it is expressed simply 

 I trust it is not very uninteresting. 



TO THE NON-FISHERMAN LOVER OF NATURAL HISTORY 

 AND PISCICULTURE. 



As you may not care to wade through the whole book for the bits 

 likely to interest you, and as those bits are necessarily scattered where 

 they are applicable, a special * Appendix will enable you to pick them 

 out without trouble or waste of time. 



You must kindly excuse the unscientific language used for the 

 sake of fishermen pure and simple, who will probably be my chief 

 readers. I plead and follow herein the example of that distinguished 

 and pleasant naturalist, Charles Waterton, who had both the courage 

 and the position to be able to say he had " confined himself to a few 

 simple words in preference to a scientific jaw-breaking description " 

 so that young naturalists might understand him at once, which was all 

 he aimed at. 



Ye giants in natural history, for whom this simple little book is 

 scarcely fitting fodder, but who may yet dally with it for half an hour 

 for the sake of the few crumbs to be gathered here and there, bear 



* Now omitted. 



