INTRODUCTION 5 



readable. I do not ask any one to agree with 

 me ; indeed, I rather expect to be disagreed with, 

 for in some cases my findings have been at 

 variance with those of the accepted savants. I 

 only ask you to remember that what you find in 

 these chapters is the opinion of one humble fol- 

 lower of Izaak Walton and a lover of trout. 



I have reached a place in my angling ex- 

 perience when I am ready to let X, the sign of 

 the Unknown Quantity, stand for the denizens 

 of our cold streams and noisy brooklets. Just 

 what trout will do under a given condition no 

 mere fisherman knoweth. In that delightful 

 poem of Lowell's, "The Courtin'," you remem- 

 ber the verse that runs on this-wise: 



"To say why gals acts so or so, 

 Or don't, 'ould be persumin' ; 

 Mebby to mean yes an' say no 

 Comes nateral to women." 



Perhaps, as has been asserted, that statement 

 is a libel on the gentler sex; be that as it may, 

 the verse has always described the ways of a trout 

 to me: the most uncertain, whimsical and alto- 

 gether unreliable fish that swims. To me this 

 very unreliability places trout-fishing in a class 

 by itself and makes it the most attractive of all 



