PREFACE. 



EVERY reader who takes up this little volume 

 is certain to be more or less familiar with the 

 animal which we know as a fish. But this 

 familiarity will have been acquired through 

 many channels, varying with the individual. 

 One will have much to tell of angler's lore, of 

 knowledge gained by long hours of silent watch- 

 ing and waiting, ruminating on the mysteries of 

 Nature, and perfecting deep-laid plots to snare 

 her scaly children. He will talk with anima- 

 tion of a well-filled creel, and recount wondrous 

 tales of mighty fish lost when capture seemed a 

 certainty ; fish whose shades grow larger each time 

 the memory revives them, just as their solid selves 

 have doubtless been doing ever since, making 

 their capture less and less likely as they gain in 

 bulk. This must be so, for fish such as loom so 

 large in these stories never seem to be landed ! 

 He will regale us with delicious word pictures of 

 stream and lake and sea, and curious facts of the 

 ways and customs of fish of all kinds, and of all 

 lands. Another will have much that is worth 

 knowing to tell, concerning fish as a food supply, 

 and of the industries connected therewith, of which 

 enough might be said to fill another book of the size 

 of this little volume. Yet others could add curious 

 facts gained in our various fish-hatcheries, or facts 

 encrusted but too often by painful memories of 

 days of peril and exposure encountered in that 

 great arena, where men war with Nature, and take 

 from her as by force the deep sea-fisheries. 

 All these, in their respective spheres of know- 



