226 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



up the rift, and the brilliant colors of the fishes shone out 

 in full display, as back and forth beneath our stance they 

 flashed and glided past. I had not then, nor have I since, 

 seen such a magnificent fish preserve, albeit scarce noted by 

 eye of angler till we reached the spot. 



Taking his axe, Old Poetry proceeded to build a camp, 

 while I made up a cast of hackles, gray, brown and red, and 

 sent them downward from the rocky shelf on which I sat. 

 They were instantaneously seized by as many Trout, and I 

 found that the fish wefe larger than I had thought. To land 

 them was the difficult}', and this was at last accomplished with 

 the loss of one, but the school had departed. 



They were not of large size — few being over a pound in 

 weight, but their numbers seemed endless. 



I went to the head of the pool where a fall of three or four 

 feet poured in, and taking off two of my flies, secured a Trout 

 at nearly every cast, until a halt was called, my assistance 

 being required in arranging the roof of our bark camp. I 

 hung my string of Trout upon a stub, some five or six feet 

 from the ground and obeyed the summons. Returning in a 

 quarter of an hour, I found to my surprise that the most of 

 my fish had disappeared, while those remaining were all more 

 or less mutilated. Calling the hunter in my turn, his practiced 

 eye took in the situation at a glance. 



"The spoiler hath been here," he said, and "it's a cussed 

 mink. I'll set a 'kilheeg' (log trap) for him after supper." 



This was done, and thoroughly wearied with our long tramp 

 wc lay down on our beds of fir boughs before the fire, and 

 soon slept the sleep of the weary. 



At daybreak Poetry was up, and inspecting his trap, in 

 which he found a half-grown mink. " 'Twasn't you, you little 

 cuss," he said, "'twas your mother, and I'll have her 'fore 

 night;" and sure enough he did. 



It was still too early in the season to tind the furs in prime 

 condition, and the hunter passed the most of his time in 



