RAT-HOLE CAMP. COUNCIL. RETURN. 233 



The guides built. ;i rousing fire, we dried our clothing 

 which was saturated with perspiration from our severe toil, 

 smoked and rubbed on the tar-oil; arid the Sherill' and I 

 crawled into ".Rat-Mole Camp," (a snug tit Tor two.) while 

 the tired guides threw down a few boughs on two sides of 

 the tire. ( 1 piled up a lew bushes to keep the wind off from 

 them,) pulled on their coats and hats, and lay down to 

 sleep without roof, bed, pillow or blanket. 



In the morning, before breakfast, I took a boat and went 

 up the river, fishing on my own account, with a lofty 

 ambition to vindicate the fame of (Jrass River which had 

 sull'ered such dire humiliation the day before. At call, 

 I came back with one lingeiTmg. At breakfast we 

 held a council of war. We were ri^ht in the heart of 

 that wonderful fishing country which we had heard praised 

 so highly, and the lish were not. The water, we decided, 



was rapidly going down as the result of drawing oil' the 

 Reservoir, and if we remained a fc\v hours longer we might 

 have great diMiculty in getting out. of this inhospitable re- 

 gion : and, further, we were doubly satisfied thai the trout 

 had gone somewhere possibly upstream, among the 

 alders, in which case we could not reach them, probably 

 down to the Mowed lands, where it would be an impossi- 

 bility to find them. We were forced to the lugubrious 

 conclusion that the drawing oil' of the water had so 

 changed the conditions that the splendid fishing of the 

 before, which the Sheriff and Captain had enjoyed, 

 was ruined. This was not an exceptional case, for good 

 .:ig changes localities at different seasons of the year, 



