ANGLING DEFINED. 3 



teaching its modern theory and practice, together 

 with the recent discoveries, inventions, and im- 

 provements that have been made in the art. 



The art of angling is divided into three main 

 branches, the general principles of which being 

 understood, an acquaintance with minute detail 

 will follow gradually as a matter of course. 



The first branch embraces angling at the sur- 

 face of the water, and comprehends fly-fishing 

 with natural or artificial insects, the latter being 

 of more general use. The second embraces ang- 

 ling at mid-water, or thereabouts, and includes 

 trolling or spinning with a live, a dead, or an 

 artificial bait with a small fish, mouse, frog, or 

 their representatives. The third includes bottom- 

 fishing, which is angling at or near the bottom of 

 the water with worms, gentles, and many sorts 

 of inanimate baits. Bottom-fishing is the most 

 primitive, the commonest, and easiest mode of 

 angling ; trolling is less common and more dif- 

 ficult ; fly-fishing is the most difficult and amusing 

 of all, and though less commonly practised than 

 bottom-fishing, is more generally so than trolling. 



Although in teaching an art it would be more 

 regular to commence with the easiest branches of 

 it, I begin, for several reasons, with fly-fishing, 

 acknowledging it to be that division of the art of 

 angling which is learned the least easily. I shall 

 only give one reason for my irregularity, viz. that 



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