HALIBUT FISHING. 14.5 



novelists, who are prone to draw imaginary 

 sketches, would lead the uninitiated to believe. 

 It would be impossible to trust oneself in a more 

 uncomfortable, dangerous, damp, disagreeable 

 kind of boat generally designated a ' fairy 

 barque,' that ' rides, dances, glides, threads its 

 silvery course over seas and lakes, or, arrow- 

 like, shoots foaming rapids.' All a miserable de- 

 lusion and a myth! Getting in (unless lifted, 

 as I was, bodily, like baggage) is to any but 

 an Indian a dangerous and difficult process ; 

 the least preponderance of weight to either 

 side, and out you tumble into the water to a 

 certainty. Again, lowering oneself into the 

 bottom is quite as bad, if not worse, requiring 

 extreme care to keep an even balance, and a 

 flexibility of back and limb seldom possessed 

 by any save tumblers and tightrope-dancers. 

 Down safely, then, as I have said, you are com- 

 pelled to sit in a most painful position, and the 

 least attempt to alter it generally results in a 

 sudden heeling-over of the canoe, w r hen you find 

 yourself sitting in a foot of cold water. 



We are off, and, swiftly crossing the harbour, 

 the beach grows indistinct in the distance ; but 

 we still see the dusky forms of the Indians, the 

 rough gaudily painted huts, the gleam of many 



VOL. J. L 



