VI PREFACE. 



deavouring to expose a System of fishiog, founded 

 on certain known principles, of winch the diffe- 

 rent modes of fishing, when considered collec- 

 tively, constitute the practical art. Each sub- 

 division of this art has been by no means written 

 of as a separate and distinct treatise on the special 

 subject; on the contrary, it has been only so 

 dealt with as its relative importance and special 

 significance, or distinct characteristics, have 

 seemed to require. The whole taken collectively 

 forms the System which I have practised ; and 

 I believe that if what I have written be care- 

 fully studied in all its details, tediously minute 

 though they may at first appear, and my direc- 

 tions closely followed by the scholar, he will very 

 soon fall into a style of fishing which will yield 

 him unprecedented success. But I caution the 

 beginner to be careful rightly to understand my 

 expressions, or he will fall into sad disappoint- 

 ments. He must attend as much to the style of 

 working the bait (for example) as the bait itself. 

 Take the case of the gaudy artificial flies for up- 

 stream fishing : if he simply follows my instruc- 

 tions as to the manufacture of the flies, and 

 thinks he can kill fish with them in any other 



