68 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



As soon as his tackle is inspected, the angler makes prepara- 

 tions to retire. The dogs are chained up at the door of the 

 tent; he takes his rifle out of its case and fills the magazine 

 with cartridges, for sometimes the Indians of this locality are 

 inclined to be thievish, and even murderous. Then the light 

 is extinguished at the door, a bucket of water thrown on the 

 camp-fire, and all is still, save that the dogs occasionally 

 utter a low growl at some prowling raccoons. 



At 3:30 o'clock in the morning a strange jarring, jingling 

 noise is heard. It is the sound of the alarm-clock set to waken 

 the angler at that hour. Before its whirring ceases he is up and 

 dressed, and, with his tackle in hand and paddle under his 

 arm, he seeks his canoe. But when he reaches the shore 

 there arises a subdued sound of muttered disappointment, but 

 so low that it cannot reach distant ears, for the Salmon will 

 not take the spoon when the tide is low. Tossing his paddle 

 and tackle into the canoe, he returns to the tent, unchains 

 his dogs, and then, taking his axe, wanders down the beach 

 to where there are some great logs of fir lying. Then he 

 engages in some of the exercise that the great English liber- 

 ator of Ireland loves — not that he admired, or even loved, the 

 exercise — but wood must be procured for camp use. Then, 

 after chopping a sufficient quantity, he began, Caliban-like, 

 to carry great pieces of the log to camp. When this was 

 done he again chained up his dogs and returned to the canoe. 

 The tide had turned; but looking over the smooth channel, 

 he could not see the splash of a fin or a silver body leaping 

 in the air. He sat down on his canoe and waited. 



Splash! splash! beat the waves on the shore. There was 

 not a ruffle on the water, yet the waves beat gently on the 

 shore. Strange are the mysteries of earth, but far stranger 

 and deeper are the mysteries of the great ocean. Who has 

 not listened to its strange and eerie moaning without a desire 

 to learn the secret of its distress — why its waves beat con- 

 stantly on the shore, and what causes its continual grieving. 



