HINTS ON REFRESHMENTS. 169 



flask filled with the spirit, and will probably find milk 

 at some farm-house, wherewith to renew the compound. 

 In a hot summer-day, when he sits down to luncheon 

 at the river-side, he ought to immerse his bottle for a 

 few minute in a shady part of the stream, or better, 

 in a spring or covered runner, if it is to be had ; and 

 a cool and grateful, as well as strengthening beverage, 

 will thus be obtained. These minute instructions are, 

 of course, trivial, but the want of " gumption" on the 

 part of the anglers who, usually " in populous cities 

 pent," escape for a day or a week to the country, is 

 often astonishing. We have met some who did not 

 even know how to wash their hands, and had either 

 to eat their food with fingers embrued in the blood of 

 trouts and encrusted with the entrails of worms — im- 

 pervious to any amount of rubbing with simple water 

 — or to go without. Cold water by itself, even with 

 soap, is ineifectual to produce cleanliness in such cases ; 

 but a handful of sand from the edge of the water, or 

 even of mud or earth, will in a couple of minutes 

 make them as fit for the dinner-table as if the ablution 

 had been performed in hot-water with a cake of patent 

 Windsor. The angler should not neglect refreshment ; 

 for although we have fished sixteen hours without eat- 

 ing, and experienced little stomachic inconvenience 

 save for a little at the recurring hours for meals w^e are 

 of opinion that it heightens the effect of the fatigue 

 afterwards. Neither, if the angler intends to fish next 

 day, should the exertion, unless for some special object, 

 be too long kept up. Ten or twelve hours angling 

 ought to satisfy any reasonable mortal, and allow of 

 intervals of rest. Celebrated anglers are often distin- 



