PREFACE. 



EIGHT or nine years ago my publishers informed me 

 that this book would soon be out of print, and proposed 

 a new edition. I replied that I desired to revise and 

 partly, at least, to rewrite it, before doing which I 

 wished to begin and conclude certain experiments, the 

 deductions from which I believed would add materially 

 to the value of the book. Though these experiments 

 were many in number, that which I regarded as of first 

 importance was the further investigation of how lines, 

 leaders, and flies appeared to trout under the varying 

 conditions of light and water which confront the angler 

 when rod in hand. It is not my nature to be content 

 with one experiment when another and a more conclu- 

 sive method of investigation suggests itself. My plan 

 was to procure a diver's outfit, together with the nec- 

 essary skilled assistance, and at various depths beneath 

 the surface of the water, and over light and dark col- 

 ored bottoms, and in sunshine and shadow, myself im- 

 personate a fish while a friend angled for me, as it were. 

 Thus, and with aid of telephonic communication and 

 a stenographer, I hoped in two or three weeks' time to 

 make quite an impression on the problem. 



But, alas, how wide the divergence between inten- 

 tion and performance. 



Summer after summer has come and gone; and al- 



