TACKLE AND EQUIPMENT 55 



have to sit in a dogcart with the rain pouring off you 

 and deluging your seat, you might almost as well have 

 spared'yourself the burden of any protective covering 

 at all. Of course, if you have wading trousers instead 

 of stockings my remarks do not apply — but I do not 

 recommend them except for very deep wading in very 

 still water. My own conviction is that when you are 

 going into a rapid stream deep enough to feel the 

 water trickle into your stockings, you have gone deep 

 enough.^ Few anglers have waded much without 

 going through some disagreeable if not dangerous 

 adventures ; and once at least I can remember being 

 in serious peril. I had waded down the North Esk 

 trying a minnow in a very heavy flood, in what was 

 ordinarily a shallow. Step by step I advanced, but 

 keeping within a few yards of the left bank, I 

 imagined myself secure, and went deeper than I would 

 otherwise have ventured to do. When I found that I 

 only stood with difficulty, I thought it time to beat a 

 retreat ; but when I tried to move I found the water 

 deepening into a hole, and that escape in that 

 direction was impossible. A heavy and dangerous 

 fall was just below, ending in a torrent rushing among 

 great rocks and boulders, and, good swimmer as I 

 am, I doubt if I should have ever regained the shore 

 had I once been swept off my feet. There was 



