CHAP. xxi. Leeches. 325 



I have been told that the after itching, which is the worst part of 

 their bites, may be prevented by rubbing gunpowder into the bite 

 immediately on your return home, and that no mark is left by the gun- 

 powder, but I am satisfied the amount of after itching is entirely 

 dependent on your then state of health, and that nothing you can do 

 affects the matter. 



It is better to get them to let go their hold themselves, than to risk 

 the leaving of a broken tooth in your leg by pulling them off. If you 

 should happen to be so far behind the age as to have a flask of powder 

 in your pocket, a little of that sprinkled on the leech will effect the 

 desired release. They cannot stand the saltpetre in it any more than 

 common salt. Tobacco juice or a hot cheroot end will get rid of 

 them. 



But all this is a somewhat luxurious method of being leech-bitten. 

 The usual recipe is grin and bear it, but never scratch the annoyingly 

 itching bites, or you will rue it in their long continuance. 



As to the material of your clothes, you need not " fash " yourself, 

 though woollen, of course, is most comfortable. But as to the colour 

 you should be careful. White turbans, white coats and white trousers, 

 are all to be eschewed ; "for the apparel oft proclaims the man " in 

 more senses than Shakespeare meant. Common shikar clothes are 

 the things. 



Wading not only enables you to get at many a pretty bit of water 

 otherwise unapproachable, but when up to the fork in water you are 

 lower down, and consequently less likely to be seen by the fish, than 

 when standing out in fine relief on the bank, with the sky for a back- 

 ground. 



I do not think fish see any great distance laterally in the water, and 

 I am inclined to think this is why you find preying, and preyed on, fish 

 living so near each other in the same stream, without clashing half as 

 much as one would expect them to do. It is also a reason in my 

 mind for spinning in the right places, close to where you conclude 

 preying fish to be lying. The case is very different with the fly, for 

 that shows against the light; and the nearer it is to the surface, the 

 further it is seen by a fish on the botton ; for conceiving a fly and the 

 angle of radiation, or vision in the water, are represented by an isosceles 

 triangle, of which the apex is the fly, the two legs the angle of vision, 

 and the base the bottom of the river, it follows that an extension of the 



