BOAT-FISHING. 145 
the bow, which should be kept head on to the 
waves. It is always best to signal for assistance 
if available, lying off in the slack water for the 
purpose, as a ready hand to guide the boat out of 
danger will save at any rate a wetting. After 
a correct knowledge of the actual handling of 
boats, perhaps the most important qualification 
for comfort is to refrain. from standing up too 
suddenly or jumping about. The man who jumps 
about in a small boat is best over the side, and 
there he will in all probability soon be. 
What no one should be without is a knowledge 
of swimming; not merely how to swim 
: 4 : Import- 
for a short spell in a swimming-bath, where ance of 
there is as a rule a premium on all manner Swim- 
of fancy strokes, but how to reserve one’s st 
strength, keep one’s wind, and ward off cramp. No 
one who fishes in small boats in any kind of weather 
should neglect to practise /oxg swimming, speed 
being no object, on every possible opportunity. He 
may never have to use it—I never have in some 
fifteen years of boating in all weathers—but the 
consciousness of being able to swim two or three 
miles if necessary is a wonderful factor in one’s 
pleasure, especially when a squall comes up sud- 
denly. Mercifully, those who cannot swim, including 
a large percentage of the able-bodied sailors in our 
merchant-service, if not indeed in the navy, rarely, 
I am assured, feel any fear of drowning. I have 
been out with Cornish fishermen who could not 
swim a stroke ; and only once, when we were with- 
in a fraction of an inch of an upset in a boiling 
sea, did I see one quail. And on that occasion, 
it was not my boatman who was the more anxious 
of the two, for I realised how very small a chance 
L 
