A BED OF BOUGHS. 175 



every one of them. The coldness and purity of the 

 water evidently made them that much earlier. The 

 game laws of the State protect the fish after Septem- 

 ber first, proceeding upon the theory that its spawn- 

 ing season is later than that, as it is in many cases, 

 but not in all, as we found out. 



The fish are small in these streams, seldom weigh- 

 ing over a few ounces. Occasionally a large one is 

 seen of a pound or pound and a half weight. I re- 

 member one such, as black as night, that ran under 

 a black rock. But I remember much more distinctly 

 a still larger one that I caught and lost one eventful 

 day. 



I had him on my hook ten minutes, and actually 

 got my thumb in his mouth, and yet he escaped. 



It was only the over-eagerness of the sportsman, I 

 imagined I could hold him by the teeth. 



The place where I struck him was a deep well- 

 hole and I was perched upon a log that spanned it 

 ten or twelve feet above the water. The situation 

 was all the more interesting because I saw no pos- 

 sible way to land my fish; I could not lead him 

 ashore, and my frail tackle could not be trusted to 

 lift him sheer from that pit to my precarious perch ; 

 what should I do ? call for help ? but no help was 

 near. I had a revolver in my pocket and might 

 have shot him through and through, but that novel 

 proceeding did not occur to me until it was too late. 

 I would have taken a Sam Patch leap into the water 

 and have wrestled with my antagonist in his own 



