PREFACE. V 



that the early sheets had been so written, that in 

 order to work up the whole to a good or complete 

 arrangement, I should have had to re- write them 

 from beginning to end. In England this would 

 have been no difficulty, but in India, where English 

 writers are not for such purposes to be obtained, 

 I had either to give up the idea of publishing, or 

 to send to the press the manuscript as it was. 

 Convinced that I had embodied in some form or 

 other in the book all the knowledge I possessed 

 that could be of any assistance to a fisherman, 

 I determined to offer it to my friends in the hope 

 that they would make kindly allowances for 

 defects. 



I feel sure that in perusing the work some 

 will think me tediously prolix in one part, whilst 

 others will consider me unsatisfactorily brief in 

 another. The artificial fly fisher will think I 

 have not written enough on his branch of the 

 art, whilst the minnow fisher will complain that 

 I have spun out worm-fishing and cut down 

 minnow-fishing to an inadequate conciseness. To 

 each and all I apologize, but at the same time 

 be<r them to understand that I have been en- 



