ANGLING. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF 

 THE ANGLER AND HIS ART. 



ANGLING, or the art of fishing with rod and line, 

 includes those branches of the piscatorial trade 

 which are usually followed, not so much for profit, 

 as for pleasant recreation. That the practice of 

 " casting angles into the brook" had its origin in 

 necessity, the mother of so many inventions, can 

 hardly be doubted; but it is equally clear that the 

 refined skill exhibited in this pursuit at the present 

 day has been derived from leisure and the love of 

 sport, aided by the more delicate gear which modern 

 ingenuity has invented for the deception of the 

 finny race. 



The comparative merits of angling, and of the 

 kindred occupations of the fowler and the huntsman, 

 are not likely to be determined by any portraiture 



