324 Fishing Gear and Other Small Beer. CHAP. xxi. 



and you are sometimes in a little hurry, for life is not long enough for 

 dawdling, and then you bring your unprotected foot against a rock, and 

 generally right on the top of your pet corn. But what is worst of all 

 is when you get your unprotected foot jammed by the weight of your 

 body between two rocks. That will decide you in favour of thick 

 boots. 



Have good heavy boots, then, with the sole a trifle broader than the 

 foot, and of a good thickness. I mean the boots commonly made with 

 a sort of open verandah all round the foot. Ankle-boots are a pro- 

 tection to the ankle, saving it from being bruised and also from being 

 turned and sprained; laced boots best protect the ankle. In short 

 " the Alpine, boot" is about the most comfortable you can have. 



Walking amongst the rocks in, and on the edge of, a river is a 

 galloping consumption of boots. Nails are an antidote. But too many 

 nails make the sole slippery, make it almost as bad as one without any 

 at all. Have the sole studded all over with large nails an inch apart. 

 These will improve your foothold. 



After being so soaked your boots will get uncomfortably hard if not 

 greased. If you dry them first and then grease them they will shrink, 

 but if you grease them when wet and put them in the sun the grease 

 will take the place of the moisture, and the boots will remain comfortably 

 soft and unshrunk. The cheaper, less refined vaseline, as used by 

 veterinary surgeons and commonly called Vets' Vaseline, is the best 

 thing you can use. It never moulds, smells or becomes rancid. Keep 

 an old blacking brush for spreading it, and working it into the seams. 

 Use it freely, as it is cheap, and preserves the leather. In its tin it is 

 very portable. 



Braces are a mistake, for when exerting the arms by making a long 

 stretch in clambering round a rock, for instance, they give, or, more 

 likely, a button flies. The trousers should be supported from the 

 waist. 



Good thick socks are not only a wise precaution for health's sake, 

 but a comfortable protection more or less against the sand, which, 

 however, will get in when stirred up from the bottom in wading, and 

 which proves a nuisance when walking home again. 



The forest-clad riversides often swarm with leeches, which bite 

 better than the fish. Tuck the trouser into the sock, and tie round 

 tightly with a string in lieu of leech gaiters. 



