A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 73 
to's, but burns, and I never again shall despise a thing 
becanse it is small. Compelled to surrender all hope of 
sleep, I gathered the dying embers of the fire, and add- 
ing fuel, drove away the pests, while, at the same time, 
with infinite relish, I scorched our men, who, to my pre- 
vious disgust, had been sleeping during my sufierings as 
though they were in paradise. 
By the earliest dawn I had waded into the river and 
made the discovery that fish, unlike the proverbial birds, 
will not take the fly too early. Just before the sunlight 
tinged the mountain-tops, they, thinking to provide their 
own breakfasts, provided me with mine, so that, when 
the time came to leave off, I had taken twenty fish 
weighing over forty pounds. 
Immediately after the meal was over, we continued 
our ascent as rapidly as possible, dreading another expe- 
rience such as we had endured the previous night, and 
hurried on to reach our regular camping-ground and 
pitch a proper tent. On the way, I only had time to 
catch fifteen, weighing thirty-seven pounds, the largest 
being of three pounds and a half, and late in the after- 
noon hailed with pleasure the information that at last 
we had reached the spot that was to be to us for some 
time our home. It was a beautiful location ; the stream, 
by a sudden bend, forming a low, long point of land, 
nearly level, which had been, by previous camping par- 
ties, entirely denuded of underbrush and partly of trees. 
In front, midway in the river, was a large flat rock, 
beyond which, extending to the further shore, and just 
fairly within casting distance, lay a deep, black pool. 
A dead tree leaned over this rock from our side of the 
4 
