FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



of the same fish when his changed environment is, 

 more or less, a controlling factor. I shall divide 

 these memories into two chapters, recording my 

 experience with the familiar chap called the togue 

 or laker, which is sometimes, I fear, passed off as 

 a brook trout by imaginative sportsmen when 

 relating the size and weight of a catch. 



CHAPTER I— THE DEAD 



It is several years since I was first introduced to 

 the togue. A friend, a good-hearted, generous, 

 and delightful sportsman, informed me, while I 

 was at his camp, that in a lake some four or five 

 miles away there were plenty of togue to be taken ; 

 and he even went so far as to trust to my care and 

 keeping a rod as strong and beautiful as that used 

 for salmon, but much stiffer. The reel was a 

 large one, with plenty of line. He also gave me 

 a weird and strange combination of hooks, in clus- 

 ters of three, some twelve in all, I think, strung 

 on a strong, stiffened gut, at varying distances, on 

 which I was instructed to fasten a live minnow. 

 I knew nothing at all about the togue or laker, 

 and, asking for information, gained these points : 

 The fish in this lake are large ; they take the bait 

 fiercely, and then dive to the bottom with a quick 



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