80 The American Salmon-fisherman. 



head. It should be thick enough to laugh at the rain, 

 wide-brimmed that it may drip elsewhere than down the 

 back of its wearer's neck, and soft so that he may adjust 

 it at any angle that the driving storm or the rays of the 

 sun may require. Stiff hats are a nuisance. If such that 

 they may be worn without embarrassment in every-day 

 life or when travelling, they are ill adapted for fishing; 

 while if adapted for fishing, he would indeed be a bold 

 man who would be willing to wear one except when fish- 

 ing. They are most inconvenient to pack in a trunk 

 both from their size and shape, and though brand-new 

 when they enter, will look when they emerge as if they 

 had been through a free fight. 



A good rubber-coat is a necessity. The rubber-coat is 

 often misunderstood, and therefore maligned. We have 

 all seen the moisture condense from the atmosphere on 

 the outside of an ice-pitcher. The same process takes 

 place inside a rubber-coat. The rain cools the coat, and 

 condenses the insensible perspiration from the body upon 

 its interior. Thus a coat is abused as leaky which is 

 really as tight as the ice-pitcher itself. The best rubber- 

 coat ever made will show a wet inside under these cir- 

 cumstances. Coats of this description may, however, 

 now be had in which this annoyance is met with either 

 in a diminished degree, or not at all. This is accom- 

 plished by perforating the shoulders and upper part of 

 the arms, and providing the coat with a short cape to 

 exclude the water from the openings. The air is then 

 no longer confined within the coat, the motion of the 

 arms and body, theoretically at least, keeping up a con- 

 stant circulation, and expelling the warm air before its 

 moisture has time to condense. 



