IV PREFACE. 



bough, sullen and motionless as a statue of 

 despair the very image of gaunt hunger wait- 

 ing for a meal had his own share of interest 

 in the vernal landscape ; while the wild notes 

 of the curlew, and the plaintive cries of the 

 peewit, sounding through the marshes, filled me 

 with ineffable delight. They breathed a tale of 

 mountain breezes, of green hills, and rippling 

 waters ; they spoke eloquently of azure skies 

 and sunny evenings, when the skimming swal- 

 low and the speckled trout, sporting on the 

 silvery stream, should contend for the tiny fly. 



With a contemplative disposition, and a 

 mind sensitive to all that is beautiful in nature, 

 amid such scenes as these my early days were 

 spent ; and being permitted by indulgent par- 

 ents to pursue the natural bent of my inclina- 

 tions, so long as they did not interfere with 

 my studies, it is not to be wondered at, that 

 I speedily contracted almost amphibious habits; 

 and from being at first only a babbling dreamer 

 by lochs and streams, I became eventually a 

 confirmed angler and an occasional otter- 

 hunter. 



Such, then, is a brief sketch of the early life 

 of the humble individual who presumes to dis- 

 close the secrets of the delightful art which he 



