98 SALMON AND TROUT. 



indispensable several self-evident advantages are presented by 

 fishing from terra firma. By getting wet and remaining so are 

 engendered many of the after ills that flesh is heir to, in the 

 shape of rheumatisms, neuralgias, varicose veins and what not, 

 vhich when ' wild youth's past,' are apt to remind the veteran 

 of his early indiscretions. I occasionally suffer martyrdom 

 myself from lumbago the result of ' fairy follies ' in the boot- 

 less wading line before I had sown my wild oats, and used to 

 1 ;ok forward to standing (?) in the water from 8 o'clock in the 

 morning till about the same hour of night as ' half the fun.' To 

 have unfrolicked such fun I would now give a good round sum 

 say to the Temperance League, as my share of the ' water rate ' 

 better give it to them than to the druggists ! . . . 



But I shall touch upon this theme in the next volume, and 

 will therefore only repeat here my caveat Don't make a practice 

 of going into the water without waders. 



In the matter of waterproof boots, etc., there is such an em- 

 larras de choix, that I can hardly suggest anything on the 

 subject likely to be of practical use. It matters little in my 

 opinion, whether the waders be of india-rubber or leather, so 

 that they keep the legs dry and have plenty of nails. 1 



It is astonishing what ' heights and depths ' one can scale or 

 cross in safety with a salmon at the end of the line, which it would 

 be sheer madness to attempt in cooler blood. I recollect once 

 when fishing the Roughty, near Kenmare, getting my fish fast 

 round a stone under the opposite bank. The river at the point 

 was about forty yards wide; deep; and the water discoloured by 

 a fast rising flood; nevertheless by dint of jumping, and striding 



1 A recent writer in the sporting press, under the signature of 'Watchet,' 

 re-commends the following ingenious plan for insuring a good supply of na : ls 

 without any risk of their leaving holes in the actual sole, which would have the 

 e.Toot of making the boots un-\vatcrproof. He has nails ' put into a rather th:n 

 gutta-percha sole, and the ends of the nails which protrude through the sole 

 flattened down (easily done by hammering on an iron \v< ight). This sole, 

 armed with nails, is then fastened with gutta-percha to the sole of the wading 

 hoot. The points of the nails being bent and flattened down, they hold well 

 in the lo\*er sole, and cannot injure the upper one by penetrating it, as they 

 Would if left protruding.' 



