SOME FISHING RECORDS 129 



but very small in stature. Two rods are usually 

 used, one with a fly on the cast, the other with a 

 spoon, and it is necessary to balance them in the 

 fork of a birch twig, as there is not a high enough 

 freeboard for harling in the ordinary way. The 

 fisherman sits in the centre leaning against a back- 

 board ; the man in the bow uses a short paddle, the 

 one in the stern a pole. They do not pole down the 

 rapids as the Indians do in Canada, but shoot them 

 paddling, a difficult and dangerous feat. They land 

 to gaff the fish. They themselves fish with a short 

 line fastened to a larch pole, with home-made tackle, 

 and a spoon beaten out of an old brass kettle or 

 biscuit tin. When a fish runs to the end of their line 

 they heave the impromptu rod overboard, and pick 

 it up again when it floats. 



The walls of the hut at Levyck on the Tana, 

 usually occupied by sportsmen for the fishing, are 

 marked with the records of the bags caught by 

 various parties from time to time. In 1873, between 

 June 23 and July 26, three rods got one hundred and 

 fifty-six fish, weighing 2,676 lb. On July 6 fifteen fish 

 were caught, weighing 278 lb. On July 7 seventeen 

 fish, weighing 340 lb. The accounts are irregular 

 and imperfect, but the best year recorded during 

 ten following was 1874, when three rods caught two 



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