r MY FIRST TROtIT ! RAIN AND ROADS. 27 



trout, Three times came the flash, the thrill and the exult- 

 ation, and three little trout I proudly bore- to my companions 



under the wood-shed; and lightly did I heed the laughter 

 and derisive comments which my tingerlings excited, for, 

 in the Hush of my new experience I was in a state to see 

 visions and dream dreams. In man)" an experience since 

 that hour, by forest stream and pool. 1 have seen the full 

 vision and reali/.ed the dream, then infantile and wingless, 

 but never again did the felicity quite repeat itself of catch- 

 ing my Jlrtif trout, 



We bad designed, thai is, the Captain had designed for 

 us, logo up West Canada Creek to "Stillwater," lifteen 

 or twenty miles further, the entire distance to be travelled 

 on foot with packs on our backs, through a trackless forest, 

 The heavy rain had made the I ravelling exceedingly diffi- 

 cult, and raised and roiled the water sufficiently to destroy 

 all hope of taking fish in the streams for days to come. The 

 council of war around the smudge decided to change the 

 plan of the campaign, and advance, with Wilkinson's 

 baggage and supply train of one wagon, to .lock's Lake 

 (Transparent Lake, on the maps), nine and a quarter miles 

 distant and northerly. 



A town road had been cut out, years before, under the delu- 

 sion that at some time or other this region would be occupied 

 by settlers and the forest tamed. But nature never designed 

 ti ie mountains and rocks and scanty soil for farms. She 1 tolled 

 and barred and locked up these sacred precincts against tin- 

 plow and reaper. and threw away the key. The. forest of 

 the Adirondaeks blesses its worshipers who come with 



