Let us turn now to American books about angling.  Of these the
merciful dispensations of Providence have brought forth no small
store since Mr. William Andrew Chatto made the ill-natured remark
which is pilloried at the head of this chapter.  By the way, it
seems that Mr. Chatto had never heard of "The Schuylkill Fishing
Company," which was founded on that romantic stream near
Philadelphia in 1732, nor seen the AUTHENTIC HISTORICAL MEMOIR of
that celebrated and amusing society.

I am sorry for the man who cannot find pleasure in reading the
appendix of THE AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK, by Thaddeus Norris; or the
discursive pages of Frank Forester's FISH AND FISHING; or the
introduction and notes of that unexcelled edition of Walton which
was made by the Reverend Doctor George W. Bethune; or SUPERIOR
FISHING and GAME FISH OF THE NORTH, by Mr. Robert B. Roosevelt; or
Henshall's BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS; or the admirable disgressions of
Mr. Henry P. Wells, in his FLY-RODS AND FLY-TACKLE, and THE AMERICAN
SALMON ANGLER.  Dr. William C. Prime has never put his profound
knowledge of the art of angling into a manual of technical
instruction; but he has written of the delights of the sport in OWL
CREEK LETTERS, and in I GO A-FISHING, and in some of the chapters of
ALONG NEW ENGLAND ROADS and AMONG NEW ENGLAND HILLS, with a
persuasive skill that has created many new anglers, and made many
old ones grateful.  It is a fitting coincidence of heredity that his
niece, Mrs. Annie Trumbull Slosson, is the author of the most tender
and pathetic of all angling stories, FISHIN' JIMMY.

But it is not only in books written altogether from his peculiar
point of view and to humour his harmless insanity, that the angler
may find pleasant reading about his favourite pastime.  There are
excellent bits of fishing scattered all through the field of good
literature.  It seems as if almost all the men who could write well
had a friendly feeling for the contemplative sport.