INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 15 



In closing this chapter I hope I have not wearied my 

 readers with the many details it contains, and I trust they 

 will study out the subject for themselves, for there is endless 

 amusement in the natural history of fish. I shall be amply 

 repaid if some of them take up the study, for I am sure their 

 pleasures would be all the greater and their angling excur- 

 sions all the brighter, for an extended knowledge of this 

 branch of the Great Creator's works. 



Mr. R. B. Marston, the Editor of the " Fishing Gazette," 

 some time ago gave me a copy of the Rev. J. J. Mauley's 

 " Notes on Fish and Fishing" and it is to this very excellent 

 book that I am indebted for a good many of the hints con- 

 tained in this introductory chapter ; it is only fair that I should 

 state this much, and I strongly advise anglers to purchase a 

 copy. It is published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and 

 Rivington, 188, Fleet Street, London. 



