PREFACE 



The subject of fish and fishing has always been 

 of such interest, particularly to inhabitants of sea- 

 girt lands, that this book (professedly non- 

 technical) recording my experience of the life 

 and habits of fishes, and the various modes of 

 capturing them in Great Britain and elsewhere, 

 does not, I think, require much justification for its 

 existence. 



In many countries the harvest of the sea ranks 

 first in importance, while in others it is of hardly 

 less consequence than the annual ingathering of 

 wheat and other cereals. 



Let us imagine, if we can, not only our coasts 

 (already yielding fewer fish than formerly), but 

 the Dogger Bank and other productive fishing- 

 grounds in the " near seas," closed to us by the 

 outbreak of a general European war, or deserted 



