PREFACE. V 



has been privileged to pursue with pleasure and 

 success. 



Upon the merits and delights of angling I 

 need scarcely descant. Every angler knows 

 that his feet are never put to the ground with 

 such alacrity and right good- will, as when 

 tramping to the river rod in hand full of 

 hope and expectation, on a fine April morning. 

 Serenely happy, he then proclaims a universal 

 amnesty to every created being (except an 

 opposition angler), and feeling internally at 

 peace with himself, the world, and all man- 

 kind, every object that meets his view seems 

 to wear the same sunny smile that gilds his 

 own happy reflections. Would that all our 

 dealings and pursuits in the ordinary avoca- 

 tions of daily life were productive of such 

 blessed results ! 



I have often beguiled the dreary days of 

 winter, when spotless snows formed nature's 

 universal winding-sheet, by longing for the 

 appearance of the yellow catkins of the sallow, 

 the buds of the woodbine, the maiden notes of 

 the thrush, borne by the breeze from the top 

 of some tall pine, or the hoarse croak of the 

 frog. For well I knew them to be sure har- 

 bingers of the time when the speckled trout, 



