INTEODUCTOET EEMAEKS. 6 



discovered ; and it may often be within the power of the 

 angler-naturalist to observe and accurately describe cha- 

 racteristics and peculiarities of the highest interest to 

 science. Notwithstanding, however, these inducements, it 

 is astonishing how many there are, calling themselves sports- 

 men, who are content to remaia all their lives simply Killers 

 of fish — of the habits, idiosyncrasies, and even of the very 

 names of which they are too often ignorant. Nor let it be 

 supposed that this is a mere figure of speech : many 

 species, particularly of the Salmon and Carp families, are 

 only distinguishable by minute, though well-defined, dif- 

 ferences, imperceptible to the uneducated observer ; and it 

 is perhaps not too much to assert that a very large pro- 

 portion of the former are chronicled by their captors under 

 names with which they have no connexion whatever. 



This observation is even in some degree applicable to old 

 and experienced fishermen. " Names are the representatives 

 of things ; if a man does not know the names of things in 

 the water, he may sit by it all his lifetime without gaining 

 much information for himself, and absolutely none that he 

 can convey to others. The alphabet of science is its tech- 

 nicalities ; and consequently the unlearned sitter by the 

 water is in an exactly similar position to the man who 

 attempts to study a book without having first learned his 

 A B C." 



To their credit be it spoken, however, there are very 

 many who aspire to better things, and who have endea- 

 voured really to qualify themselves for the name of Anglers 



b2 



