AND ANGLING SONGS. 215 



the most suitable month. The trout are then, throughout the 

 greater portion of the day, in feeding humour ; and it is seldom 

 that the angler has to complain of want of sport on account of 

 a want of wind to ruffle the surface ; whereas, in the height of 

 summer, such an occurrence is quite common, and vexatious 

 often beyond measure. 



My annual visits to St. Mary's in spring averaged, in their 

 duration, upwards of three weeks. In the matter of weather, I 

 was often, as far as personal comfort was concerned, unfortu- 

 nate, impatience leading me out before the easterly winds had 

 had their surfeit, or even the snow drifts on the Coppercleugh, a 

 rocky hill which overshadows the lake not far from the entrance 

 of the Meggat Water, had shown a melting disposition. Cordings 

 and Mackintoshes, in the shape of water-proof boots and stockings, 

 were then unknown, but wading was practised nevertheless. 

 Some of the choicest ground in the Loch cannot be commanded 

 without plunging thigh-deep into the water. There was no 

 saying nay to it in those days ; and although I should not like to 

 recommit myself to the practice, I see no reason to associate 

 with it such harmful results as those attributed by Sir Humphry 

 Davy and others. The precautions to be taken are to keep 

 moving, to walk smartly home to your quarters, and forthwith to 

 exchange your wet habiliments for dry, warm clothing. A glass 

 of reeking hot whisky-punch will prove the best of all restora- 

 tives, should a tendency to shiver really occur. As to the water- 

 proof stockings and wadingrboots now in general use, they are 

 not to be held absolved, as sources from which mischief may 

 equally accrue. They induce violent perspirations, which are 

 liable to be suddenly checked, and surround the limbs with fetid 

 vapours, which cannot but prove, in their action upon the pores 

 of the skin, enervating and deleterious. As regards cramp, lum- 

 bago, and rheumatic attacks, I must admit that, in the course of 

 my life, I have had a plenary share of them ; but I have gene- 



