Valley of the River Rouge, fyt. 273 



quite as voracious as the pike, and on one occasion I landed a 

 small trout which had a "chub" sticking half out of its mouth 

 having been too large for its captor to swallow entirely. In gene- 

 ral the pool below each little fall on a brook was inhabited by a 

 single trout, which in such places rarel} 7- exceeded six or seven 

 inches in length and was usually much smaller. In summer when 

 the small creeks running into the Rouge were almost dried up, it 

 was wonderful how the trout, even of considerable size, contrived 

 to conceal themselves, when disturbed, behind every little stick or 

 stone in the water, Those we caught on the 8th September in 

 a stream flowing into Trembling Lake were full of spawn of the 

 size of duck shot, but the larger ones in the lake itself would not 

 bite, on the 10th however, they began to bite again in the Lake 

 of Three Mountains, and during the remainder of the month and 

 first week of October we captured great numbers of fine trout in 

 that lake and the numerous others connected with it. They lay 

 in shoals amongst the Equiseti which grow thickly at the mouths 

 of the creeks running from one lake to another. At this season 

 of the year when the Mosquitoes, Black and Sand-flies have ceased to 

 be troublesome, and the hills clothed with trees, in their autumnal 

 hues, vie in richness of coloring with the splendid trout themselves 

 lying struggling and gasping at the bottom of the canoe, nothing 

 can be more delightful than a day's fishing in one of these retired 

 lakes, whose calm and tranquil surface is undisturbed by anything 

 save the dimples caused by the rising of the lazy fish, by the flocks 

 of Mergansers -as they hurriedly rise at our approach, or by the 

 white breasts of the loons popping up here and there after a long 

 sustained dive. Nothing however, could be less artistic than ou r 

 mode of catching these beautiful fish, now al their prime, fat and 

 full of strength from their ■summer's feast on the flies, and biting in 

 a very different manner from those taken in spring when they are 

 weak and languid after their long winter's fast. Our implements 

 consisted of a fir pole, a few yards of whip-cord and a mackarel 

 hook, with a lump of fat pork or a piece of a squirrel for a bait. 

 We usually fished from a canoe, as the trees everywhere growing 

 down to the water's edge rendered it impossible to throw our 

 lines without entangling them in their branches, and it is some- 

 what nervous work when three persons fish from a small bark 

 canoe, and the trout kicking and plunging on the lines causes the 

 frail craft to roll from side to side in anything but an agreeable 

 manner. Their coloring varied very much, some were like those 

 Canadian Nat. 3 Vol. IV. No. 4. 



