188 Advantages of wading. Chapt. xiv.. 



"for the apparel oft proclaims the man" in more senses 

 than Shakspere meant, and you will have the Mahseer 

 chaffing you with, "who stole the donkey? The man with 

 "the white hat." Common shikar clothes are the things*-' 



Wading not only enables you to get at many a pretty 

 bit of water otherwise unapproachable, but when up to 

 the fork in water you are lower down, and consequently 

 less likely to be seen by the fish, than when standing out 

 in fine relief on the bank, with the sky for a back ground. 



I do not think fish see any great distance laterally in 

 the water, and I am inclined to think this is why you find 

 preying, and preyed on, fish living so near each other in 

 the same stream, without clashing half as much as one 

 would expect them to do. It is also a reason in my mind 

 for spinning in the right places, close to where you con- 

 clude preying fish to be lying. The case is very different 

 with the fly, for that shows against the light; and the 

 nearer it is to the surface the further it is seen by a fish 

 on the bottom; for conceiving a fly and the angle of ra- 

 diation or vision in the water, are represented by an isos- 

 celes triangle, of which the apex is the fly, the two legs 

 the angle of vision, and the base the bottom of the river, 

 it follows that an extension of the two legs extends the 

 base, or in other words, that the fly which is further off, 

 from being at the surface, is visible over a greater 

 breadth of bottom, than the fly which, from being sunk, 

 is nearer the bottom. 



An objection to wading is said to be that you are now 

 and then swallowed by a crocodile. But I have not ex- 



