124 THE SALMON 



lower or tidal reaches the banks are low, and the 

 country " cleared," from a point about six miles 

 from the mouth to the upper waters runs one un- 

 broken forest, dense and deserted, except for the 

 "lumberers," whose timber slides for shooting logs 

 down into the stream appear at two places. So thick 

 is the forest growth that the river itself is the sole 

 route, and the method of climbing up its rapid and 

 beautiful course is always the same, viz. by canoe, 

 with a man in bow and stern " poling," as it is called, 

 up stream, keeping as near either bank as possible to 

 avoid the stream, and putting the poles in with a 

 rhythm and a musical twang on the pebbles which, in 

 the great silence, is weird to a degree, and can be 

 heard for miles. If out fishing, the fisherman sits in 

 mid-canoe, and is thus poled up to his beat by two 

 half-breed Indians. The beats in the last years of 

 Lord Stanley of Preston's term were as follows ': — 



1 At the twelfth mile from the mouth at a sharp turn 

 stands " New Dereen," built by Lord Lansdowne, a 

 rough wooden shanty which will hold four rods 

 comfortably. From this lodge the fishing during the 

 first fortnight or three weeks is chiefly carried on, the 

 rods dividing some ten or more miles of fishing, 

 all above the lodge itself. As the fish move up so do 

 some of the party — usually two — who are " poled " up 



