CHAPTER XXI. 



FISHING GEAR AND OTHER SMALL BEER. 

 " The apparel oft proclaims the man." SHAKESPEARE. 



JUST a few short words on the clothes most convenient to wear when 

 fishing in India will add to the comfort of those that will be troubled 

 to read them. 



As you have already seen, you will have to do a good deal of wading 

 if you are at all keen about sport. But on no account get waterproof 

 wading stockings. First-rate things though they are in England, they 

 are not at all wanted in India. I doubt if they would keep good in 

 India. I am quite sure they would be unbearably hot in that climate, 

 and, much though I have waded, I never felt the want of any such 

 protection in India ; for the water is not perishingly cold, as in England, 

 but comfortably tepid, so that, if you make a rule never to be tempted 

 to go in over the fork, you will not be the worse for it. If you walk in 

 deeper, and stand in the water up to your stomach and vitals, I will not 

 be responsible for congestion of the liver, dysentery, and all the 

 rest of it. 



Remembering that you will be often in water up to the fork, shorten 

 your coat tails accordingly; and have your pockets high and dry, or 

 you will find, after landing a fish you have been very intent on, and 

 waded in to get at, that your fly-book, or some other valuable, has been 

 thoroughly soaked the while. 



The stony bottom, with its rounded boulders, is often very slippery, 

 and, as you see the native naked foot slips less than a shoe, you may 

 be tempted to wear thin shoes, so as to give you the better foot-hold. 

 I tried thin racket shoes, but was very soon convinced of my mistake. 

 Under water you cannot always see where you put your foot, and you 

 are watching your fly, etc., and have to feel the bottom with the foot, 



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