This is a two-volume treatise on fishing, with about 100 woodcuts and 52 photogravures. Peter Henry Emerson contributed 27 of the gravures and George Bankart provided 25. While Bankart's images are sharp, deeply toned and printed in brown ink, Emerson's are soft, delicate, and printed in a more muted gray.

Emerson produced pale, low contrast images, stating in his subsequent book "Naturalistic Photography" (1889) that he preferred photogravure to every other photographic medium, including platinum printing. He found the process the only satisfying means of publishing his images because of the range of inks and papers available. By using his original negatives and closely supervising the printing of his photogravures, Emerson was the first to reveal the creative possibilities of a process that was developed as just one more means of reproduction. He published many books in photogravure including "Marsh Leaves," "Wild Life on Tidal Water," and "Pictures of East Anglian Life."