OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



works, after the fashion of Dr. Kitchener, with the rod in one 

 hand and the pen in the other, broaches some new theories, cal- 

 culated to startle the prejudices of the brothers of the angle 

 But he reasons well ; and as the May-fly will now be upon the 

 waters, we advise them to give Mr Stewart's directions a fair 

 trial. If they do, we hope they will find his promise of a well- 

 filled pannier realised to the full." 



SCOTSMAN. 



" This book is the probable inauguration of a new era in the 

 art of angling. . . . . Although the angler's library is 

 already a pretty full one, each half-century for the last three 

 hundred years having produced one or more pleasant and useful 

 additions to it, we have no hesitation in saying that it cannot be 

 complete without this little volume. Nowhere that we know of 

 in the same compass, or indeed in any compass, is there so 

 much valuable practical instruction to the trout-fisher. Mr. 

 Stewart indulges but little in those graces of composition through 

 which some of our least useful angling-books are rendered the 

 most charming to the reader, but crams every page with infor- 

 mation which, from its obvious accordance with common sense 

 and sound theory, not less than from its being vouched for by 

 an angler of large experience, and of a skill that has never yet 

 been matched, commends itself as valuable even to the most 

 sceptical and self-satisfied adept." 



SATURDAY REVIEW. 



"Mr. Stewart's book, The Practical Angler, entirely fulfils 

 its title. The author, who is said to be the best fisherman in 

 Scotland, has an object, and keeps it steadily in view it is to 

 teach the art of killing trout in clear water. He says, and 

 with entire truth, that anybody can kill fish in a coloured 

 stream. His cardinal point of faith is to fish up-stream. Here 

 is true wisdom. A trout lies up-stream his work is to take 

 flies and food floating down-stream. In fishing up-stream you 

 are behind your fish, and, great as are the capacities of a fish's 

 eyes, it stands to reason that the angler at his tail has more 

 chance of being undiscovered than if he charges his enemy en 

 face. Next comes the advantage that in striking a fish your 

 chances are greater in striking against him than in snatching 

 from him. And when you have struck a fish you pull him into 

 water that you have already fished over you pull him down 

 stream, leaving all the water above you undisturbed. What is 



