172 BOONEVILLE TO SARATOGA. 



when caught were cut in pieces ami scattered in deep 

 water about the anchored stone attached by a long rope to 

 a floating stick or buoy. After a day or t\v<>. we halted our 

 large, strong hooks with live minnows and angled for the 

 salmon trout which had found these place-, -rood feeding 

 grounds. They took the bait very gently and deliberately, 

 a sudden pull fixed the steel in their strong jaws, and then 

 such a commotion! Hand over hand we puiled them riirht 

 up to the surface and Hopped them into the boat without 

 giving them an inch of line or an instant to meditate a 

 counter movement. It was the only safe way to deal with 

 them. There was a certain sort of sport in this tishinir, but 

 it was ehielly a matter of brute force and a irood breakfast. 



After baiting the buoys, and thus amply providing for 

 our table want- thereafter, and with a soldier's wisdom pro- 

 tecting the line of a possible retreat, \\e opened the real 

 fishing campaign at "the marsh." A cold stream winds 

 its sluggish current through aswampon (he southeast >jde 

 of First Lake, that years ago was and still is Hooded by the 

 dam at Old Forge. \\'e cast our Hies in the clear, deep 

 pools, occurring here and there in the course of the si ream, 

 and surrounded by ghostly dead trees that still resist de<-ay. 

 and by graceful but troublesome lily pads. The lad had 

 never iished with the fly before, and after some minor 

 disasters readily consented to take his first lessons in open 

 water. In a few minutes I took lifteen trout, most of them 

 small, and, these being all we wanted for dinner, we 

 returned to camp. The remainder of the day was charm- 

 ing, out under the trees; and as we wen- content to take 



