PREFACE 



MY apology for offering this work to the public 

 is that the Editors of the Angler's Library have 

 kindly asked me to write it ; and because all my 

 life I have been specially interested in the Fisheries 

 of the Lake District. This magnificent system of 

 lakes, tarns, and rivers, now constitute fisheries 

 mainly in a potential sense only ; for there is not 

 the slightest comparison between the sport or food- 

 supply they yield to-day with what they might 

 and will yield in the not distant future. A few years 

 ago fish-culture and the management of fisheries 

 were in their infancy ; but of late the knowledge of 

 the subject has made enormous strides. Once the 

 results of systematic re-stocking are seen, the cul- 

 tivation of water will be looked upon far differently 

 to what it is to-day. There is probably no like 

 area in the whole of Great Britain which has so 

 many natural advantages in this respect as the 

 English Lake District, but as yet these advantages 

 have been but little realised. 



If the present volume but arouses an intelligent 

 consideration of the question by those most nearly 



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