378 TROUT AND ANGLING. 



only place where we had ever yet visited where 

 the art of angling is enjoyed in its greatest perfec- 

 tion ; but so it was — we were bound to Cape 

 Saint to lodge, and even if we had been disposed 

 to stay, the tavern, which was also the toll-house, 

 appeared much too small to accommodate our 

 party without dispossessing the said officers, who 

 had already taken up their quarters there. 



" The salmon are taken with the rod, line and 

 artificial fly, and often in an eddy of the river very 

 near the bridge. The water here has scooped 

 out a vast hollow in the rock ; in this the salmon 

 were to be seen in the morning when the sun 

 shone, doggedly still, because seeing as well as 

 seen, but as the officer observed, all his efforts to 

 allure them by the most enticing flies, proved inef- 

 fectual, though he confidently expected better suc- 

 cess early tomorrow morning ; and well he might, 

 for we understood from the tollman, in French, 

 that four were taken yesterday with the hook, one 

 of which weighed eighteen pounds. 



" On the other side of the bridge, up the river, 

 there was also an elbow in the rock, forming a sort 

 of natural trap, where the salmon, in attempting to 

 leap a rapid, were forced back into a small pool, 

 from which they were taken and removed to another 

 and more secure pen ; out of this our informant took 

 one with a dip net, weighing about three pounds, a 



