INTRODUCTORY 9 



censorious world, they are in too many cases guilty 

 of habitual and most intolerable exaggerations, not to 

 use a stronger word. We think it a duty on the part 

 of all sober-minded and truthful anglers, to set their 

 faces against this vice, and to expose its " hideous 

 mien " on all occasions. It has brought a stigma 

 on our fraternity ; it has been the cause of many a 

 day's disappointment to believing listeners ; and it 

 has a tendency to propagate itself, for an honestly 

 disposed angler is often through it himself driven to 

 desert the ways of truth, in order that his " take " 

 may not sink into utter insignificance beside that 

 of a more boastful but less veracious companion. 

 Returning recently from a day's fishing, which had 

 been cut short by a violent thunderstorm, we en- 

 countered at the railway station a well-known angler, 

 and waited till the appointed time, well pleased to 

 listen to his pleasant stories about angling, holding 

 a foremost place amongst which were tales of his 

 having detected the frauds and impostures of brag- 

 ging brethren. Of his own spoiled sport that day 

 he remarked that he had only caught four trouts, 

 but that they weighed half a pound each. The 

 statement naturally excited surprise and suspicion. 

 Such an " average " in that particular stream was 

 unusual on any day ; and on this occasion, as no 

 trout of that size had come our way, or that of the 

 friends who were with us, we had arrived at the 

 conclusion that the " good ones " were sulking, as 

 they will sometimes do. In the railway carriage 

 the man of half-pounders stuck to his statement, 



