LETTER XVI. 179 



the old country), and some splendid twenty-pound 

 lake-trout still ; but these lie very deep in the 

 lakes, and you don't get many of them. Why, 

 when I first came along, if we wanted a few 

 trout, we did not bother with flies, nor yet with 

 shiners, but just rowed our boat out on to the 

 lake and daubed her sides with molasses. " What 

 was that for ?" you say. Wai, you see, no 

 sooner was the molasses on than the flies came 

 in thousands, and the trout in hundreds after 

 the flies, and in such a tarnation hurry that they 

 jumped clar over the flies into the boat. The 

 trouble was not to catch a boatload of trout in 

 them days, but to get ashore before the fish sank 

 you. Ye-es, there were fish in the lakes then, 

 you bet !' 



And so there may have been, but there are 

 very few now, in spite of the assertions of the 

 guide-books to the contrary. The lakes still 

 gleam like opals among the fiery reds of the 

 maple, the gold of the birch, and the bronze of 

 the oak ; still mirror on their surface the tall 

 spiral forms of pine and hemlock ; their beauty 

 may still make your eye brighten and your heart 

 throb ; but no monsters (or but very few) still 

 dwell in them to bend your rod and wake the 

 merry music of your reel. The Adirondacks 

 (forests and lakes alike) are a wonderful instance 



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