282 :i:.\YI.IN;. NOKT1IKHN MTCHI'.\N 



rapids, or checks it in the swiftest current. toalVord a cast 

 over a promising hit of water, with consummate skill. It 

 looks simple enough, but a trial of this easy Ihinu'. ly a 

 new hand, demonstrates that Hun- is M-ienec even in polinir 

 a Hat-boat in swift water, down stream. 



It quite often demonstrates how cold the waters of the 

 Au Sable are. { I shall not say what befell my friend, who 

 was of an Investifi^Uing and experimenting turn of mind 

 and who weighs Well nigh two hundred pounds.) In the 

 Occasional Stretches Of deep and quiet water -the "Still 

 water "the iron shod pole is laid aside (then look out for 

 your rod and Hies if ly'mu; by your side!) and the paddle 

 comes in play. 



The Au Sable "runs down hill' with a ulidinir. >!idinu 

 motion at the rate of four miles an hour. Poling up stream 

 with empty boats is possible but not feasible, with a load, 

 well ni^h impossible; and fishing parties arrange "lobe 

 called for" at a designated point down the river, on an ap- 

 pointed day, and to be drawn out. boats, bau' and ha 

 on a lumber wai^on. to the rail road station. 



After the river leaves (-Jraylinu\ it ^radually increases in 

 width to fifty feet or more, with a variable depth from -i.\ 

 inches in the broad rapids to two or three feet. its average 

 and natural depth heini;', in July, about eighteen inche>. 

 I only speak of it as 1 saw it for about nineteen miles. 

 Below, it becomes a broad, strong fiver. The "sweep- 

 ers," or fallen trees across the stream, have been cut 

 out of the Au Sable, for a Ion- distance, deprivini: its 

 passage of much of its pristine excitement and adven 



