RED RUBBER SHOE SOLES. 151 



bits of gravel and other rubbish being apt to get into 

 them. In rainy weather during the Franco- German 

 war of 1870, for instance, the French infantry suffered 

 much from wearing shoes over which the mud worked 

 its way, and caused much distress and many sore feet 

 a very serious matter either to sportsmen far out in 

 a wild country, or to soldiers during a campaign. For 

 broken weather, and some sorts of rough grounds, 

 especially where snakes are numerous or where there 

 are grass leeches, jiggers or bad stinging ants, boots 

 are to be preferred to shoes ; but where there are no 

 special reasons against them, these shoes have the 

 great advantage of being light, and easily taken off 

 and put on: and the better class of brown leather 

 lawn tennis shoes, with thick smooth red vulcanite 

 rubber soles are about the very best class of footgear 

 for stalking purposes. On the steep slopes of the 

 Himalayas, Col. Kinloch says he finds " they give a 

 better hold on nearly all kinds of ground than any 

 other material. They do not even slip on dead pine 

 leaves, the most treacherous material on which one 

 can walk." Those with grey corrugated soles were 

 found to wear out very rapidly. * 



The same accounts come from Central Africa; when 

 used in the forests there, in elephant hunting these 

 shoes were found very serviceable, and much more 

 noiseless than boots, so that by their means the hunters 

 were often able to approach quite close to these wary 

 beasts without being heard. 



Attention to the colour of the dress is also very 

 necessary, in order that it should harmonize well with 



* Large Game Shooting in Thibet, the Himalayas and Northern 

 India, by Col. Kinloch, Calcutta 1885, p. 212. 



