FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



approached to salmon fishing in its methods and in 

 the sport which it affords, I should unhesitatingly 

 reply in favor of the angling for my old friend the 

 ouananiche, or fresh-water salmon of Lake St. 

 John and other far northern waters. I have 

 known him and loved him these many years, 

 though frequently he has matched his cunning 

 and agility against mine and worsted me in the 

 struggle. He is a plucky, open, fair-fighting op- 

 ponent, by whom it is no disgrace to be beaten. 

 And so when the salmon pools are too far away, 

 and the necessary leisure to reach and fully enjoy 

 them is wanting, I find the best substitute for 

 salmon fishing when I have set up my trout rod 

 by the roaring rapids of the Grande Decharge of 

 Lake St. John, and dropped my cast of flies upon 

 the oily, foam-flecked water eddying round the 

 rocks or birch-bark canoe. So violent are the 

 rapids, so heavy the water, that it is scarcely safe 

 to fish from a canoe with less than two guides. 

 Very often the ouananiche swimming around the 

 pools amongst the rapids, watching the opportu- 

 nity to snatch the files entangled in the foam, keep 

 so near the surface of the water that their dorsal 

 fins protrude from it like those of a school of 

 sharks. If the fish are on the feed, a judicious 

 cast of the > angler's lures is likely to secure an 



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