io6 SALMON AND TROUT. 



the tackle &c. is made by a double back the lunch case, book, 

 and flask being fitted into separate compartments. 



Fig. 3 is another creel made by Messrs. Farlow, in which 

 an interior cloth 'bag' for holding lunch, tackle &c. is sub- 

 stituted for the fixed compartments. No 3 is the form of 

 creel I use myself as being, take it altogether, the most handy. 



For all sorts of boat work a basket is to be preferred to a 

 bag. 



Following up the subject of the fly-fisher's equipment, let 

 me strongly advocate the use of waterproof boots, stockings, or 

 trousers whenever wading is really necessary. When it is not 

 indispensable several self-evident advantages are presented by 

 fishing from terra firma. But by getting wet and remaining so 

 are engendered many of the after ills that flesh is heir to, in 

 the shape of rheumatisms, neuralgias, varicose veins and what 

 not, which when 'wild youth's past,' are apt to remind the 

 veteran of his early indiscretions. I formerly suffered a small 

 martyrdom myself from lumbago the result of * fairy follies ' 

 in the wading line when I was still in my 'teens, and used to 

 look forward to a sort of amphibious existence for eight or ten 

 hours as ' half the fun.' To have unfrolicked such fun I would 

 since have given something considerable. . . . Ergo, don't 

 make a practice of going into the water without waders. 



In the matter of material for waterproof boots, c., there is 

 a plethora of choice, and 'scope and verge' enough for the 

 most fastidious. It matters little, really, whether the waders be 

 of waterproof cloth or leather, or felt or leather india-rubber 

 coated, so that they keep the legs dry and have plenty of nails. 

 Of ' felt soles ' I have had no practical experience ; but I know 

 that a scientific distribution of sharp-cornered nails will add 

 greatly to the security of the foothold in deep and swift water. 



It is astonishing, by the way, what ' heights and depths ' 

 one can ' negotiate ' in safety with a salmon at the end of the 

 line places which it would be sheer madness to attempt in 

 cooler blood. I recollect once when fishing the Roughty, near 

 Kenmare, getting my fish fast round a stone under the opposite 



