PREFACE. 



Custom having pronounced that a book is incomplete 

 without a prefatory introduction, it might savour of 

 arrogance if the tribute were withheld in the present 

 instance, although to a novice the task of complying 

 with this injunction is not a little embarrassing. 



In order to explain the motives which directed the 

 intrusion of the following pages upon the public, it 

 may be necessary to premise, that desire of fame, or 

 expectation of profit, was not amongst the number. 

 A wish that every lover of the angle should partici- 

 pate in the advantages to be derived from a constant 

 reference to the representations of the insects on which 

 his diversion so materially depends, induced the writer 

 to publish his observations on angling and specimens 

 of flies, which were originally only intended for private 

 inspection. 



M846871 



