TROUT. 81 
day played havoc amongst the trouts. Some long 
willow-branches, cut with a crook at the end, 
served me in lieu of a basket. Passing the sticks 
under the gill-covers, and out at the mouth, I 
strung trout after trout until the sticks were 
filled; then tying the ends together, flung them 
across my shoulder and trudged along; a good 
plan when you have not a basket. I now turned 
my attention, and devoted all my ingenuity, to 
the manufacture of a more angler-like fly; and in 
this case the adage proved true, ‘that a poor 
original was better than a good imitation.’ My 
well-dressed fly was not one-half as much appre- 
ciated as the old one; there was a sham gentility 
about him that evidently led at once to suspicion, 
and it was only here and there I met with a fish 
weak enough to fall a victim to his polished ex- 
terior; I therefore abandoned the dandy, and 
returned again to the rough old red-shirted 
‘trapper’ with which I first commenced. » 
There was a stream in which I had better 
sport than in any of the others, the Mooyee, on the 
western slope of the Rocky Mountains—a small 
stream, very rocky, clear as crystal, icy cold, and 
so densely wooded on each side that fishing in it, 
unless by wading, was impossible 1 remember 
VOL. I. G 
