FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 63 



which lie carries, some " castoreum" or other lure on the 

 bank. 



One remarkable instance of the " knowingness " of beaver I 

 remember, and I think it occurred at the dam which I have tried 

 to describe, 



I went up the stream to the dam one evening with our chief 

 Indian " Gabe " and set one or two traps. Next morning we 

 paddled up to look at them. 



We found one of the traps gone ; the chain had been 

 fastened round a. small birch tree about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. 

 On examining the spot we found the birch tree was cut down by 

 beaver, and on more carefully examining the stump, and the tree 

 lying alongside, we found that a " chunk " of the tree was 

 missing. Beaver had cut down the tree below the chain, and then 

 (finding it would not come away) had cut the tree again above the 

 chain, and gone off, beaver, trap, and chunk of tree ! ! We felt 

 rather sore, or as the Yankees would say, " mean." 



But on proceeding in the canoe up the dam or lake, we saw 

 a commotion in the water, and paddling rapidly up, we found it 

 was the "chunk " of wood trying to float on the top of the water, 

 attached to the "chunk" was the chain, attached to the chain 

 was the trap, and to our great delight in the trap was a very 

 large beaver, which we carried back in triumph ; he was caught 

 by a hind foot. 



After the sober reflection of many years, I think I should 

 have let that ingenious beaver go ; but I didn't. As I said before 

 I was young. I carried that particular "chunk," with the neat 

 cutting of the beaver's teeth at either end, home to Scotland 

 with other " relics " and I am not sure that it is not there to this 

 day, as the story goes, with various other hunting trophies. 



The fishing — salmon and trout — which we had on some of 

 these canoe voyages, was just about the best one could get in the 

 world. 



I remember one day our passing down two or three long, 

 deep stretches of the Nepisiquit River, beautiful-looking water 

 for trout, and much to my surprise I could not for a long time 

 get a rise, though I fished carefully every here and there. Our 

 Indians (who belonged to and knew the river) at once explained 

 it. They said the trout in these deep stretches of water arc very 

 large and always go in "schools." "You will fall in with a school 

 somewhere, and when you do you will have to take off one of those 

 two flics you fish with." I was fishing with the usual cast of two 

 or three trout flies. 



Sure enough we soon did fall in with a school, I at once 

 hooked a three or four pounder, and Long before I could pull him 

 in, another fish of equal weight had seized my second fly. I forget 



