490 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



As mention of the " Houseless" has most likely been made 

 in the preceding, and certainly will be in the following, pages, 

 it may not be out of place here to explain what is meant by 

 the word, or rather to what it refers. 



About twelve years since, a few brethren of the rod and 

 angle, some of whom had met for the first time on the stream, 

 and had become acquainted without any conventional intro- 

 duction, feeling that they were drawn towards each other by 

 a love of the gentle art, met by agreement at the house of one 

 of the brethren, and formed themselves into an association, 

 under the unassuming name of the " Houseless Anglers." This 

 title was adopted in contradistinction to the old Fish-House 

 clubs — associations rather of a convivial tendency than that 

 of pure angling. 



All the members (their number never exceeded ten) were 

 fly-fishers. They were of various pursuits: amongst them 

 were a few artists, professionally so, and two more who were 

 merely amateurs. To one of the latter I am indebted for the 

 vignettes and some of the. drawings of fish found in this 

 book. 



Stated meetings of the association have fallen into disuse 

 of late years, some of the " Houseless" having removed to 

 neighboring cities, and some to the country ; but as many as 

 can do so, meet occasionally in a social and informal way, and 

 whatever their tenets — religious, political, or otherwise — they 

 are one as regards angling, and still the subject that most 

 interests them is fly-fishing, with its blessed associations and 

 scenes. 



The prevalent feeling, or if the reader is so disposed to 

 call it, the sentiment amongst the members has been to avoid 

 display or notoriety, or setting forth their piscatorial achieve- 

 ments in public print ; believing with Izaak Walton, that 

 fishing, like virtue " is its own reward." Also, as far as they 



