PREFACE. 
The author of the following pages having been situated lor a 
number of years where the necessity of some general inform- 
ation on the subject of the art of Angling was daily seen, at 
first conceived the idea of publishing an American edition 
of Walton’s Complete Angler; but on a later and more care- 
ful perusal of its pages, and that of other writers, it was found 
that but little, comparatively, real practical knowledge could be 
given of the large variety of the fishes of our own country ; he 
therefore concluded to publish, in a small form, the opinions 
and practice of the various English authors, with remarks, 
thereon, and such information as could be gathered from 
American books and American sportsmen. Of the former, 
very few could be obtained : magazines and philosophical 
works were searched with but little success; the sportsmen 
were consulted, and much valuable information obtained; 
still there was a general lack of proper knowledge of the 
nature and habits of the great body of our northern and west- 
