Introduction 



this subject. When a very young man 

 he began practising this method of 

 angling, and from that time he has 

 used no other lure than the floating 

 fly. When forty -five years old he 

 retired from business, and since his 

 retirement (he is now nearly seventy) 

 has devoted his life mainly to the study 

 of his favorite sport. Therefore, his 

 works have become text-books, studied 

 and followed by all other dry-fly an- 

 glers and writers. 



But though twenty-three years have 

 elapsed since his most important work 

 appeared, it has produced but little 

 effect upon American angling methods, 

 and the number of Americans who have 

 read his books is so comparatively small 

 as to be almost a negligible quantity. 

 Among the few who have studied his 

 doctrines and followed his methods the 

 effect has been great; they have be- 



[ix] 



