464 THE PKACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



also a useful accessory. Another very useful appliance for keeping the 

 mouth of a fish especially jack open, is to be cut like the bifuricated 

 trimmer described before. The two prongs may be forced into Master 

 Jack's mouth, and the angler is then in no danger of his teeth whilst the 

 diegorger is at work. 



And now, in final conclusion, a word or two anent such clothing as 

 vitally affects the angler in his peregrinations after sport I mean boots, 

 w aterprooff , and their management. Boots should never be dried by the 

 fire. Let them be placed in a warm room if you choose, and then fill 

 them with oats this is my plan. The grain absorbs all the moisture, 

 and in the morning may be emptied out, and the boots cleaned and dressed. 

 The best dressing in my opinion is deer suet. Where this cannot be got, 

 cobblers' wax melted up with Russian tallow is the next best. Either of 

 these applications preserve the leather, and allows of the subsequent 

 application of blacking if the boots are desired to be polished which, 

 by the bye, fishing boots ought never to be. Indiarnbber outer soles 

 are useful when wading is to be done, because they afford a purchase 

 that leather does not, and thus prevent slipping. 



As to the waterproofs be sure they are never folded wet, nor hung up 

 except by a braid or string. At the best of times they are a nuisance, 

 and I personally much prefer a good Scotch tweed overcoat ; but if a hole 

 has been punched in the collar or shoulder of your mackintosh, the wet 

 soon by capillary attraction soaks throughout the inside. In the event 

 of the fisherman desiring to mend a rent in his waterproof, he can do so 

 with cement made by dissolving black indiarubber in turps or naphtha, 

 It should not be too thin. 



I have thus arrived at the end of my tether ; every scrap of informa- 

 tion given I have verified, either by means of unimpeachable authorities, 

 or, as in the greater extent, by my own experience. If any reader 

 not hitherto an angler be led to become a " Practical Fisherman," or these 

 pages serve to perfect any lovers of the " gentle craft," the object of 

 the little book will have been attained. 



