io8 SALMON AND TROUT. 



course, barring accidents, involving a certainty of drowning to 

 the wearer. Actual experiment has, however, completely 

 exploded this fallacy. Mr. John Lloyd, junior, who published 

 a letter on this subject in the 'Field' of September 7, 1867, 

 tested the question in a highly practical manner. 



' I put on my wading trousers,' he says, ' reeving the string at top 

 as usual round my waist, and dived head foremost into deep water. 

 The result agreeably surprised me, for I found that my legs were 

 gently buoyed up in a horizontal position near the surface of the 

 water, while my head was well above it, and I could use my arms 

 freely in swimming. 



' I swam with the greatest ease for about fifty yards, and it was 

 not for some minutes, and unril the water had found its way be- 

 tween the reeving string and my body into the trousers, that I felt 

 any inconvenience from having them on. My legs then began to 

 get heavy, and more depressed in the water, but not so as to 

 prevent my swimming easily. 



' I am convinced, therefore, that there is no danger in using 

 fishing trousers ; on the contrary, if reeved pretty closely at the 

 top, they will act for the first five minutes positively as life 

 buoys. It is not until after they fill with water that they become 

 dangerous. To prevent this, therefore, as long as possible, it is in 

 all cases most advisable to reeve the trousers tightly round the 

 body ; you can thus confine the air and exclude the water. 



' The same may be said of fishing stockings and wading boots ; 

 a reeving string round the thigh would in these have the same 

 beneficial eff'ect.' [The above experiment was in still water.] 



To ' make assurance doubly sure,' however, waders are now 

 manufactured by Messrs. Cording, the well-known water- 

 proofers, of 125 Regent Street, with an air- inflated edge — a 

 sort of 'life-belt trousers,' in fact — which enable the wearer 

 to face all contingencies of the drowning category with perfect 

 equanimity. 



For these the makers obtained a medal at the Fisheries 

 Exhibition. The ' life-belt ' part of the affair consists of a tube 

 about six inches wide when lying flat, 'inflatable' at will, which 

 comes under the arm-pits, being attached to, and forming part 

 and parcel of the waders. 



