NOTE. 



^TTHE following chapters were written by Mr. Dawson sub- 

 sequently to his retirement from the editorship of the 

 Albany Evening Journal last September. The series was 

 broken off by the author's lamented death in February. 



The " Talks" attracted wide attention at the time of their 

 publication in the angling columns of the Forest and Stream, 

 and were received with very cordial appreciation. It is 

 thought that their collection into the present more perma- 

 nent form will prove acceptable. 



As a political writer of conceded power, Mr. Dawson 

 wielded a trenchant pen; when he turned from the conflict 

 of parties to the praise of the favorite pastime of " simple 

 wise men," his essays, limpid as the crystal streams, are 

 aglow with the soft summer sunlight and melodious with 

 the songs of birds. When angling was the theme, he wrote 

 from a full heart and in closest sympathy with the scenes 

 and pursuits described. These "Talks" are brimful of 

 manly, wholesome sentiment; there is in them all not a 

 particle of cant. Their sincerity and overflowing spirit at 

 once win the reader, and he perforce shares the author's 

 enthusiasm. The effect is magical, like that of the mimic 

 players in Xenophon's Memorabilia : he who reads, if he 

 be an angler, must go a-fishing; and if he be not, straight- 

 way then must he become one. 



FOREST AND STREAM OFFICE, APRIL, 1883. 



