EQUIPMENT FOR SOUTH AFRICA 227 
quarters are handy he may—especially if he fears 
rheumatism—wade for a brief spell and be able 
then to have a speedy change of clothing. In 
the Cape Province it is urged that on the Eerste 
(Stellenbosch) and the Buffalo River (King 
William’s Town district) wading is necessary ; but, 
generally, waders are proportionately much less 
used in South Africa than in the United Kingdom. 
Whatever you do, do not imitate my supreme 
folly. Once—for one day only—lI attired my- 
self in football shorts, It was on the Umgeni, 
when I was staying with hospitable friends, 
the Ross family. Sentiment alone was the 
cause of my turning out in those football shorts. 
They were those in which I last played foot- 
ball for Shrewsbury Town. I had kept them as 
a kind of trophy. It pleased me to wear them 
again, and as I walked down to the riverside, 
knowing sport was practically sure, I had happy 
memories of matches at Copthorne (now the site 
of many buildings). But to fish in shorts was 
foolish, because there was no precaution against 
snake-bites. You will be on the safe side if you 
include in the equipment a proper remedy for the 
unfortunate chance of asnake-bite. A Natal friend 
who was bitten bya snake and had no preparation 
handy, as a rough-and-ready form of treatment, 
instantly applied a small quantity of gunpowder 
to the wound in order to cauterize it, with 
beneficial results.* Wearing shorts was also 
* The snakes of South Africa, “their venom and the treatment 
of snake-bites,” form the subject of a fully illustrated book by F. W. 
Fitz Simmons. (Published by T, Maskew Miller, Cape Town.) 
