xxii INTRODUCTION. 



and my inducement to swell the number further than 

 what seems absolutely requisite, has proceeded simply 

 from a wish to include every favourite and tried hook. 

 In selecting the fly-stock described in these lists, 

 I have received considerable assistance from various 

 quarters, and indeed, throughout the remaining chap- 

 ters of the volume and much of the foregoing matter, 

 I stand indebted to the friendly aids and suggestions 

 of more than one intelligent angler. 



But while drawing liberally upon the oral commu- 

 nications of others and from those sources which my 

 own experience has opened up, I have not neglected 

 the sinewing of a large portion of my work with 

 details and quotations from written authorities. In 

 doing this, however, I have taken especial care to 

 avoid pressing heavily upon the original matter of the 

 volume, or interlarding it with extracts which, although 

 confessedly to the point, are not in critical demand. 

 The great bulk of these details has been taken from 

 statistical sources, and stands incorporated in the 

 concluding chapters of the work. It consists, indeed, 

 of facts, already recorded, which are at the service 

 and within reach of every one who has leisure and 

 inclination to seek out and arrange them. This por- 

 tion of my task I have found to be more laborious 

 than I at first anticipated, but the principal difficulty 

 lay, not in the mere collecting of materials, but in 

 condensing and putting these together, so as to form a 

 summary of correct and useful information. 



