WADING BOOTS. 59 



however, a dress of warmer texture is often found 

 essential; and there are fifty stuff's, suitable for cold 

 weather, on the shelves of every clothier, which the 

 most fastidious of our fraternity could not object to 

 wear. But I have no design to interfere with the taste 

 or tailor of any man, and shall, therefore, refrain from 

 entering into details upon this matter, or giving 

 directions as to how a fishing jacket ought to be made 

 and furnished, or what description of head covering the 

 angler should use. With regard, however, to what, 

 strictly speaking, forms the equipment of our craft, 

 apart from rod and tackle, I think it requisite to offer a 

 few observations. First of all, then, as to an article, 

 which, in many localities, it is almost essential for the 

 angler to possess : I mean 



WADING BOOTS. It is quite true, that, in my 

 younger days, I regarded these a cumbersome and 

 unnecessary part of my equipment, and so they would 

 prove in all pedestrian excursions, undertaken by 

 juvenile anglers, in the hey-day of health and vigour ; 

 but as one becomes sobered down, and more chary 

 of his exertions, he not only reconciles himself to 

 their use, but actually feels out of place in their 

 absence. To a salmon fisher who has no boat at 

 command, and who, to obtain sport, requires to 

 plunge knee-deep in the element, during the months 

 of March and April, as well as October, in seasons, in 

 fact, when the temperature is by no means high, they 

 are absolutely necessary ; and even to the trout fisher, 

 in May and June, who is liable to suffer from habitual 

 exposure to wet, they constitute a desirable means of 

 protection. I need not, therefore, to recommend them 

 as an article of expediency, the more especially as the 

 various inventions and improvements of the age render 



