PREFACE. 



" Therefore it is," replied Lobworm, " that I 

 would have you by all means to refrain : that 

 book will always stand unrivalled and unap- 

 proachable. Excuse me, but ' ex quovis ligno 

 non fit Mercurius.' " 



" Nay, nay, you cannot for a moment imagine 

 that I shall attempt such a flight as that. I have 

 read of Icarus, and also of the Ulm Tailor, who 

 on the first trial of his patent wings fell into the 

 Danube, instead of pitching upon the opposite 

 bank ; so, as I cannot touch the summits, I must 

 perforce be content to creep on level lands, — 

 ' timidus procellas : ' — mine shall be a work quite 

 of another character." 



" There is not the least doubt of that, I 

 think," said Mr. Lobworm. " Know likewise," 

 continued he (I never knew him so loquacious 

 or so disagreeable before), — " know likewise, to 

 thy discomfort, nay, to thy utter confusion, that 

 a book has lately appeared yclept ' The Rod and 

 the Gun,' so amusingly written, and so complete 

 in all its parts, that there is not the least occasion 

 for you to burthen Mr. Murray's shelves with 

 stale precepts that no one will attend to." 



" Pretty discouraging that, most certainly," I 

 responded. " And then we have ' Salmonia,' 

 which is, or ought to be, a settler too ; and also a 

 scientific work by Mr. Colquhoun, who touches 



