LAKE SUPERIOR. 107 



the lake, and towards evening the river near its 

 mouth Avas alive with them, breaking in every di- 

 rection ; yet, strange to say, although we cast our 

 flies frequently directly over them, and kept on fish- 

 ing till it was night, not a trout did we take. In 

 all our experience such a thing had never happened, 

 and where they were so numerous, a dozen often 

 being visible at the same instant, so voracious and 

 unaccustomed to the presence of man, it was extra- 

 ordinary. Fish will fi-equently, although breaking 

 freely, refuse the fly, but generally a few will be 

 misled, and occasionally one will be caught ; but 

 here in the Aga\va, a hundred miles from civiliza- 

 tion, we saw ten thousand trout in the space of five 

 hundred yards, and after expending skill and pa- 

 tience, failed to take a single one. 



No explanation of this phenomenon presented 

 itself; there was nothing in the air, water, or time 

 of day to explain it, and although it was followed 

 during the night by a great change of temperature, 

 there would appear to be no connection between 

 the two events. The fish seemed to be playing 

 rather than feeding like salmon running in from 

 the s^a ; and, anticipating cooler weather, may have 

 been preparing to ascend the river. And it is 

 proj)er to mention here that two gentlemen, who 

 fished tlie river a few v/eeks afterwards, had remark- 

 ably fine sport. 



Fishing having proved itself vanity and flies a mis- 

 conceptiqn, we returned to the tent and superin- 

 tended the payment of the guides, by impressing 



