24 THE IDYL OF THE SPLIT-BAMBOO 



placid ponds. The best of the easily reached free 

 fishing is to be enjoyed upon the hill streams of the 

 Adirondacks, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. If 

 you go farther there are still within reasonable dis- 

 tance the famous waters of the Rangeley and Moose- 

 head systems of Maine, the Megantic waters of Que- 

 bec, the wilds of New Brunswick, the marvelous 

 silver net of the North shore of the St. Lawrence and 

 of Northern Ontario, which extends to the newly 

 exploited region of the upper Ottawa and to that 

 stronghold of big trout, the North shore of Lake 

 Superior. All of these regions, both American and 

 Canadian, are comfortably accessible by rail, and no 

 railroad worthy of the name fails to pay strict atten- 

 tion to the comfort of anglers. 



" I have fished in every one of the extensive re- 

 gions named, and the average angler may visit any 

 one of them with a certainty of enjoying fair fun 

 and an excellent chance of extraordinary sport. 

 Were the purse, leisure, and experience, or lack of it, 

 of every reader known, it would be a comparatively 

 easy task to name one particular water which would 

 be almost certain to meet the requirements; but 

 lacking full knowledge of individual desires, any 

 attempt at the role of guide-post would be absurd. 

 But the individual can get helpful, because as a whole 

 reliable, information by securing a sporting guide- 

 book of a rail-road traversing the preferred coun- 

 try. Because I have written some of them and read 



