WADERS AND WADING. 107 



bank. The river at the point was about forty yards wide; 

 deep ; and the water discoloured by a fast rising flood ; never- 

 theless by dint of jumping, and striding like the Rhodes 

 Colossus from point to point of rock, submerged or projecting, 

 I managed to get across to the other side ; sed revocare gradum ? 

 . . . After killing my fish, a very fine fifteen-pounder with the 

 tide lice on him, I was fain to walk a good three miles round 

 before I could find a fordable place. 



Talking of the Roughty reminds me of a gallant and 

 enthusiastic salmon fisher * quartered ' in the neighbourhood at 

 the same time that I was. The Major was remarkable for his 

 steady absorption of 'poteen,' which he invariably carried, 

 when fishing, in his pocket in a soda-water bottle. On one 

 occasion whilst following fast after a fish that was tearing down 

 stream he successfully cleared a post and rails successfully, 

 that is, as far as the fence was concerned ; but his activity cost 

 him dear, for the sacred soda-water bottle, flapping about in 

 his coat-tail pocket, jerked up as he jumped, striking him in 

 the mouth and knocking two of his front teeth clean out. The 

 Major's language was a thing to be remembered or rather 

 forgotten ! . . . But the Roughty was a real sporting river, and 

 many a break-neck scamper I have had along its channel- 

 pity it was so netted and poached. 



I could fill pages, as no doubt most salmon fishers could, 

 with anecdotes of escapes or catastrophes in the wading and 

 ducking line : personal explorations plummet-wise of widths 

 'obvious' but depths 'uncertain' trifling errors in hydrostatics 

 on the force of currents unsuccessful ' negotiations ' of the 

 ' water jump,' &c. &c. For such emergencies wading trousers 

 are decidedly preferable on many grounds to boots or leggings. 

 They are also, I believe, far less dangerous, as, in case of having 

 to swim for it, instead of getting instantly filled with water, the 

 latter takes a ' measurable ' time to make good its entry. An 

 impression used to prevail that in case of sudden immersion 

 the trousers would buoy up the legs at the expense of the head 

 the latter performing the office of a sort of plummet, and of 



