n8 SALMON. AND TROUT. 



of; containing in a small compass the engraving is of the 

 actual size scissors, knife, and ' disgorger . blade ' three im- 

 plements which are liable to be called into requisition at every 

 turn. It is based on a pattern of my own. 



The second ' etcetera ' is rather a bulky one, being in fact a 

 fishing boat ! As such boats made of inflatable india-rubber 

 can now be obtained at several waterproof manufactories, 

 and at a reasonable price, and as the comfort of one of 

 them on many fishing expeditions, especially in lake districts, 

 is simply not to be exaggerated, I think fishermen travelling 

 en luxe, will be wise to make a portable boat part of their 

 equipment. They are made to hold * any number ' of people. 



CORDING'S COLLAPSING FISHING BOAT. 



From the c folding-up' point of view, at any rate, the inflated 

 rubber boat eclipses in portability its rival, the Welsh Coracle, 

 said to be the earliest floating vehicle in the British Islands. 

 A frame of ash-laths, bent into the shape of an elongated 

 walnut-shell, some four feet long by three feet wide, is covered 

 with pitched canvas the seat, adjusted with a view to equili- 

 brium, occupying a central position right across the middle. 

 What the coracle is now, is probably to judge by old records- 

 for all intents and purposes what it was a thousand years ago 

 (and who can say how many thousands before that?). A 

 Welsh chronicler, Giraldus de Barri, writes that he crossed the 

 Towey (presumably in a coracle) in 1188, whilst preaching the 

 Crusades in Wales in company with Archbishop Baldwin, and 

 that the boats they (the Welsh) ' employ in fishing or in getting 



