A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 67 
will ; in her death covering herself with immortality 
giving her name to the torrent that destroyed her. 
Hastily launching one of the canoes, and rigging up our 
rods, my companion and myself, eager for the fray, com- 
menced tempting the innocent inhabitants of the deep 
with delusive baits. Evidently Mr. Eed Hackle was not 
one of their intimate acquaintances, and they took to 
him amazingly. The god of day was already declining 
behind the western hills, and casting long shadows over 
the now placid water, but the fish leaped at the fly in 
innumerable numbers, giving us such sport as we at least 
never enjoyed before. At almost every cast a trout, 
varying in size from a quarter of a pound to two pounds 
and a half, plunging out of water, seized the fly fear- 
lessly in his mouth, while often two or three were on the 
line at once. Large or small, they were most vigorous, 
making fierce struggles and mad rushes to escape, their 
silver sides glancing through the water, and their tails 
lashing it into a foam, l^o dull, heavy, logy fish were 
they, but active and lively, and excellent was the sport 
they gave ; so that when our men, having improvised a 
kitchen on the rocks, called to us that supper was ready, 
we were loath to leave our sport. It was then eight 
o'clock ; we had been fishing about three hours, and 
over one hundred and twenty fish, averaging about half 
a pound, were the net reward of our skill. 
The scene, as we took our supper upon the end of an 
old tumble-down dock, was peculiar. The light of the 
fires, making the surrounding darkness the deeper, served 
alone to illumine with lurid brightness the faces and fan- 
tastic dresses of our men, while the roar of the cataract 
