THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



David Foster, the author of "The Scientific Angler," 

 was born at Burton-on-Trent, England, September 22d, 

 1815, and at the date of his recent death, was known 

 wherever a salmon, trout or grayling fly is thrown in 

 the kingdom of Great Britain, as the Izaak Walton of 

 the nineteenth century. This angling patronymic, joined 

 to that of te Old David," by which he was more famil- 

 iarly known, indicates the esteem and affection in which 

 he was held by English lovers of the angle. He was 

 certainly one of the most observant and practical rod- 

 sters that England, where the cultured angler is an 

 artist, has ever produced. The book before us is an 

 attestation of this fact. 



My province, as editor, has been confined to foot 

 notes, more or less copious, in which I have endeav- 

 ored to make plain to the American reader the ang- 

 ling phrases, terms and tackle used in England, giving, 

 so far as practicable, American analogues of the English 

 fish. The text of the author remains untouched, with 



the exception of the exclusion of a few paragraphs on 

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