HINTS ON REFRESHMENTS. 175 



we know of nothing comparable to whisky-and-milk 

 in equal proportions, and if a soda-water bottle-full 

 should be judged insufficient, the angler can have his 

 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 minutes 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 ineffectual to produce cleanness 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, we 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, 



