BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. Ixv 



of old the general practice, and beyond dispute brought 

 considerable profit ; which happened in those days when 

 the curiosity of fly-fishing was intricate and impracticable. 

 However, Isaac Walton (late author of the Compleat 

 Angler) has imposed upon the world this monthly novelty, 

 which he understood not himself; but stufls his book with 

 morals from Dubravius and others, not giving us one pre- 

 cedent of his own practical experiments, except otherwise 

 when he prefers the trencher before the trolling-rod ; who 

 lays the stress of his argument upon other men's observa- 

 tions, wherewith he stuffs his indigested octavo ; so brings 

 himself under the angler's censure, and the common cala- 

 mity of a plagiary, to be pitied (poor man !) for his loss of 

 time in scribbling and transcribing other men's notions. 

 These are the drones that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees 

 that they bring them honey. 



" Theophilus. I remember the book, but you inculcate 

 his erratas ; however, it may pass muster among common 

 muddlers. 



^^ Arnol. No, I think not, for / remember in Stafford I 

 urged his own argument upon him, that pickerel weed of 

 itself breeds pickerel. Which question was no sooner 

 stated, but he transmits himself to his authority, viz. Gess- 

 ner, Dubravius, and Androvandus. Which I readily op- 

 posed, and offered my reasons to prove the contrary ; 

 asserting, that pickerels have been fished out of ponds 

 whf .e that w^eed (for aught I knew) never grew since the 

 nonage of time, nor pickerel ever known to shed their 

 spawn there. This I propounded from a rational con- 

 jecture of the heronshaw, who to commande herself with 

 a fry of fish, because in a great measure part of her main- 

 tenance, probably might lay some spawn about her leg in 

 regard adhering to the segs and bull-rushes near the shal- 

 lows, w^here the fish shed their spawn, as myself and others 

 without curiosity have observed. And this slimy substance, 

 adhering to her legs, &c., and she mounting the air for 



