OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



observation not a little sharpened and their prejudices sapped. 

 The treatise is remarkably complete in all the details of the trout- 

 fishing art. Fresh-water trout the causes of their decrease, the 

 season when they are in highest condition, and every phase 

 of their natural history claim a chapter. All the minutiae of 

 an angler's equipment are gone into with quite a Gerard-Dow 

 minuteness, and so on to artificial fly-fishing, flies, fly-dressing, 

 May-fly fishing, and trouting with the fly. Angling with the 

 worm, which he considers to possess one very solid advantage 

 over fly in the superior size of the trout caught, is also copiously 

 handled, as well as minnow and parr-tail baits. Loch-fishing, in 

 which the accomplished angler and the tyro are most upon a 

 par, has, nevertheless no small charm in his eyes ; and his book 

 is appropriately concluded by some precepts on ' the best means 

 of filling a basket in May, June, July, August, and September.' 

 The author has shown, to quote the late Mr Barnes, * lots of 

 grapple' in dealing with his subject ; and we trust that his 

 readers may be able to act up to the spirit of the phrase, and 

 remember his advice when they feel the thrilling nibble, and 

 have to go gallantly into action at a moment's notice with a 

 Highland Salmo ferox in the approaching summer." 



BELL'S LIFE IN LONDON. 



" Without hesitation we pronounce this little treatise the best 

 we have ever read on angling for trout with the artificial fly, 

 worm, minnow, and other baits. It is written with most minute 

 care by an angler of fifteen years' constant practice, of great and 

 varied observation, unprejudiced by egotistical theory, of sound 

 judgment, and whose wholesome knowledge of the habits of 

 trout renders all that he says about the best modes of capturing 

 entitled to the utmost confidence. .... Every young 

 fly-fisher, desirous of becoming proficient in by far the pleasantest 

 and best branch of the angling art, should study the excellent 

 and manifold maxims laid down in this most valuable little 

 treatise. The tyro that does may rest assured that he is in his 

 right path, following 'a practical, experienced, clever, and con- 

 scientious guide." 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



" The followers of good patient Izaak, or rather of his scholar 

 Charles Cotton, will do well to look to a little volume just pub- 

 lished, under the title of The Practical Angler, or The Art of 

 Trout- Fishing, more particularly applied to Clear Water, by 

 W. C. Stewart. The writer, who appears to have written his 



