PREFACE v. 



While the fisherman's sporting instincts will be aroused 

 by the difficulties and thrilled by the triumphs of salmon 

 fishing, the artistic and poetic side of his temperament 

 will be as strongly appealed to and affected by the charms of 

 trout fishing. 



The salmon river will inspire the mind with the strength 

 and force of its beauty, and invigorate the body with the 

 health-giving scent of its pine forests and heather ; the 

 trout stream, on the other hand, will lull the senses into 

 delicious content, as the rippling notes of its liquid harmony 

 are heard, and the delicate perfume of its surrounding flowers 

 is inhaled, while 'the eyes will be soothed by the varied 

 shades of the leaf y surroundings of these haunts of the trout, 

 and by the exquisite pictures reflected from the surface of 

 their limpid depths. 



Hardly any water-side exists which fails to interest and 

 attract the fisherman, and the pleasure of wandering by the 

 side of any brook or mountain stream and watching 

 the changing beauties and the wonder of its natural life is 

 always enhanced by the infinite probabilities of sport which 

 it suggests to the ardent angler, and the recollections which 

 it arouses of sunlit days and happy associations of the past. 



The author's thanks are due to many who have kindly 

 assisted him in writing this book, and their names will be 

 noticed from time to time in its pages. He cannot, however, 

 omit a special reference to the kind assistance which has 

 been given to him by his secretary and friend, Miss Helen 

 Stanton. 



The author has but recently discovered that much of 

 his own experience and advice on fishing for trout is 

 supported by the admirable writing of the late Mr. Francis 

 Francis in " A Work on Angling," in which book there 

 does not seem to be any aspect of fly fishing to which this 

 gentleman has not lent the charm of his pen and the wisdom 



