INTRODUCTION. Ill 



it all day !" They were surprised and vexed 

 because there were not a dozen fish among 

 them. This at once showed that there was a 

 great deficiency somewhere, as the same means 

 were in their power, and they had been fish- 

 ing in the same place and at the same time. 



It is to obviate such disappointments that 

 the following pages are written, and they will, if 

 they be well perused and acted upon. Angling, 

 after all the jeers that may be thrown at it, is 

 a healthful and innocent recreation ; and such 

 recreations are really necessary, both for body 

 and mind. The Author has spent in it many 

 pleasant hours, from .his earliest childhood, 

 and flatters himself, that if fish are to be taken, 

 he can take them, and the experience he has 

 acquired he submits to his angling friends 

 without any reserve. He has, indeed, often 

 made the water-side a place for meditation, 

 and instead of shutting himself in his study 



